I'm looking at ordering a neck for a highway one body I have, it's a 2003 model. I came across the older style headstock neck but noticed two string trees, why is that? And how are these necks? I've read a quite a few posts over at fenderforum that they're lifeless..but a couple posts said they were ok..

2 strings trees: to keep the strings more securely in their slots.

The necks are just fine. I've never heard of any quality or performance issues. They don't have the biflex truss rod of some of the higher end models, however.

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My other guitar is a Strat.

Any string tree is to ensure downward pressure on the pair of strings from the nut slot to which it is assigned, to their respective machine heads. This downward pressure is to (hopefully) prevent all sorts of string rattle, false tones, tuning and intonation problems, etc. from the pair being otherwise loosely resting in the nut.

The one string tree system was traditional for MANY years since Leo Fender introduced it in the early '50s. In the mid-'60s, CBS bought Mr. Fender out and by the early '70s, CBS quality control began plummeting. So, instead of ensuring all mating and interacting tolerances were tight construction wise on their guitars, the easiest thing for them to do instead of revamping their quality control was to install a second string tree to (again, hopefully) keep the string/nut rattle down on their instruments.

A hot point of contention among players is the overall quality of CBS Fenders from the '70s on. Some swear by them, most loathe them. So, there are indeed, a handful of good specimens among the predominant bad from those years out there. In your particular situation, CBS chose to commence unloading Fender in '84. The neck you are considering is an '83. This alone would send up a flag for me, personally. Regardless, without a hands-on inspection of this particular neck you are considering, there's really no authoritative way to tell one way or the other. Of note is the fact that many of the neck problems with these '70s to the end of the CBS years were loose truss rods, arch warps, uneven frets and even fret sprout in the necks which rendered the neck useless without, "major surgery" to correct these problems. Further, these maladies of themselves make/made for a 'lifeless' neck, especially with the excessive amounts of acrylic they slathered all over these necks to camouflage many a deficiency.

If it were me, I'd go with the odds and PASS as there are SO many outstanding other necks out there nowadays, be they modern day Fender or otherwise.

Oh, and FWIW, I was an authorized Gold Level CBS Fender tech throughout the early '70s right up to when CBS sold out. Meaning, I've seen MORE than MOST of this period of guitars and their problems in 'prime time' than most players would have up to this day.

YMMV.

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Martian, thanks for the great response and the history as to why they added a second string tree. I'm aware of the function of the string tree, but you may have overlooked that I was talking in particular about the highway one necks before 2006. I think they made them from 2000-2006 before they went to the 70's headstock.

Maybe you overlooked the neck I'm talking about when you mentioned 1983. The neck I'm looking at is dated 2002, and came off a highway one stratocaster, with 2 string guides. When they changed to the 70's headstock, the highway one went back to a single string guide. The only other thing I can think of is the 43mm nut width on the highway one which is a little bigger than the american standard series. 1.65 vs 1.6875..

respectfully,

john

I totally misinterpreted your statement, "I'm looking at ordering a neck for a highway one body I have, it's a 2003 model." I thought you meant a 2003 neck! LOL

In that case, your hypothesis about the nut width is quite plausible coupled by the fact that the neck you are interested in is what would be a 'perfected' '70s copy, hence this alone would warrant two string trees. Either way and now that this is cleared up, I'd take a shot at it without hesitation as I have utmost confidence in present day's Fender QC and I have yet to see a dud in this line you are interested in.

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