Hi, newcomer to the forum. The best feeling Strat I have ever played was this HSS strat I came across in the early 1990's. It resonates like no other guitar I've ever played. It's a true gem! The neck is what makes it special.
It was a Floyd Rose/modern strat, and I wasn't keen on that as I didn't use it much modern gear at the time, but it felt so killer and was at the right price. I'd had an 1980's '57 reissue and played that a lot, never thought I'd go for a modern strat but I did.
I want to get a neck like it for some other guitars I have. The serial # is (L035465) and it was made in Japan. The back profile and the frets are what I can't figure out, and they are what make it so special.

I took it to a guy at a well known high end shop here in San Diego and he said it was a modified "C" shape with almost no radius and thin shoulders. It's a 1 11/16" at the nut.
Also, he said the frets looked almost like bass frets because they were big, but not tall. I told him that I bought it brand new with the tag still on it, that I had never had the frets messed with, filed, dressed, or crowned, and he was surprised because it looked to him like someone had brought the frets down a bit. I bought it new and so whatever was done to these big frets to make them flatter was done at the factory, if anything was done at all, which seemed kinda wierd as I didn't think they would take the time to do that at the factory for a production guitar like thus- bring them down like that.
If you look at the pic you can see they are not your average hal-moon frets, and I am positive they came like that new- I've never had a fret job of any kind.
I bring all this up because I am hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on this guitar's neck. I can't seem to find a new neck- or a neck on any current guitar= that matches the back profile. If I could get one from Fender, even better, but I want it to fit a standard strat body, not be set up for a locking trem.
I know it would not match a standard wide thin back profile from Warmoth because I have a Warmoth Strat with a neck with that profile and the shoulders aren't thin like this one is.
Thanks in advance for your help.

I'm not sure if this will help or not but the top neck is jumbo frets and the bottom neck is medium-jumbo on my am standard. Which one does yours look closer to?

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"Damn Right I Got the Blues"

Thanks man, Strangely enough it looks like neither, they both look too small! I bet Fender put some extra big frets on this Floyd Rose model so it appealed to shredders.

Really can't tell anything from the picture. It's too close up and not anything beside it to compare too. May have to take it too a shop and compare it next to different ones and see if you can find some frets that compare them.

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"Damn Right I Got the Blues"

You need to get some calipers and get measuring the fret width. Were never going to tell what type of wire was used from photo's.
As for neck profile. Without sawing through the thing and posting a picture (not a good suggestion I know). Or getting a block of plasticine and making a impression in that. You're going to struggle to describe of measure that carve.

What I would suggest is that it's more likely that you've grown so accustom to that particular neck, and it's no doubt been worn by your hand. That you'll never find one the same, because it doesn't exist.
As far as I know early 90's Floyd Strats were a generic modern C carve.

As you can see the fret width is .1155 in. This translates to 7/64 in or 2.93 mm.
I have gotten other measurements that are closer to .1150, but all fall within that range.
Any guess as to what kind these frets are?
Remember they came from an early 90's floyd rose strat, these are the original frets and they have never been dressed, filed, crowned, etc., and I bought the strat new off the rack with the tag on it.
Thanks
Jon

Hi bluewaterjon: thank you for that excellent photo. Those certainly are big frets - I have some fretwire I've been using which I regard as super-jumbo, yet mine is a "mere" 2.7 mm wide.

So yours is huge, though not beyond-the-beyond. Commercially available fretwire can be as fat as that: for example, Stew-Mac's Wide/Highest wire is 0.110" / 2.79 mm wide:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... twire.html

And Dunlop's 6110 wire is 0.115" wide:

http://www.lutherie.net/fret.chart.html

You also need to know the height of your wire. My luthier's calipers have a tiny notch at the end that allows you to measure fretwire height in situ. Yours don't, but you can do it easily enough by measuring the thickness of the neck including the wire and the thickness just to the surface of the fingerboard and then subtracting the second measurement from the first. Presto: your wire height.

Then you can match it to one of the commercially available wires and you'll know where you are.

Far as the carve of your neck's back is concerned, of course as Nick says (above) you possibly don't want to saw your neck in half to see the shape. But you could always use a cheaply available profile gauge like mine, here:


Make some careful profiles of the neck at crucial positions such as the first and twelfth frets, couple that to the thickness front-to-back of the neck at those frets, and then match all of that with the measurements for the fretwire... and then you have something to go and talk to one of the custom neck makers about. Warmoth amongst several others. I bet you've got a good local maker or two as well, if you search them out.

Having a neck made to your exact requirements is perfectly do-able and not so outrageously expensive as many might think.

Of course, the Fender Custom Shop won't make you a neck on its own. But if you wanted the whole guitar...

Good luck - C

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Ceri,
Thanks very much for the time and care you took with your helpful post!
I am wondering how this guitar ended up with such large frets, then?
I ordered a set of each type from Warmoth just as a reference, and then I am going to pick from the one that matches it the best, and then when I order a new neck, I am gonna have those installed, and then have a local luthier bring them down a bit, because my feeling is it will be pretty easy to get frets near that width, but they won't be the height.
Call me crazy but them what I am gonna do is get a neck from warmoth that is standard thin, and sand the sucker where I want it- basically at the shoulders so it tapers faster. I am a reasonably skilled fella and if I do it with fine enough sandpaper, then ending up with some super fine grit, and I do it a little but at a time, I don't see the harm. ( insert jokes here)
Finishing the neck will be easy as I am a decent furniture restoration guy.
Lemme know your thoughts guys
Jon

My 2002 MIM Deluxe Strat has similar frets, they're honest to god 3mm wide, they appear to look exactly like your picture. The back is a C shape, definitely not V. Satin fretboard with truss rod opening at nut.

Forgot camera at sister's X-mas but will post pics of it in a couple of days.

Ok cool at least I am not crazy!
Can't wait to see yours.

Hi again Jon: you are very welcome!

It all sounds very interesting. Best of luck with it; do come back and tell us how it works out; and if you feel like showing us more photos as you go along we'd be very glad!

Cheers - C

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C,
I am hoping to get some frets in the mail today so I can
compare and measure them to what's on
my strat. I am super curious because they do seem
freekishly big but maybe it's just that they are xl frets that are
they came filed from the factory ( which doesn't make sense to me)
When I get the frets I will post my observations
Until then
Jon

Getting camera today, hope to post pics of my Deluxe neck tonight for you to compare.

Meanwhile there's a Japan '54 Reissue strat that appears to have some pretty fat frets that I saw today on Craigslist.

(Dunno if there are rules against posting the link & too lazy to check)

Well, here are some pics of my 2002 MIM Deluxe neck



The frets are definitely 3mm



Pic of mine on top with inset of yours. Look pretty similar.



Just for grins, the neck profile of the Deluxe neck with a comparison to a V shaped neck profile

Sorry they're so freaking big, will make em smaller next time <grin>

Hope this helps and good luck with your search!

Almost no radius would make it nearly flat-plane, and your frets don't appear to be so. Several degress of arc yielding a radius of 12-15 would not be out of the question here. What sayeth, Ceri?

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"Another day in paradise!"