OK...this is the deal. I put togethor what I thought would be an AWESOME guitar. 2010 John Mayer strat body, with classic fat fifties P/Ups. Put a beautiful 1997, 57 reissue neck near mint condition on it. This is my dilema. The guitar does not have the dark, full tones of another strat I have that has almost the same specs. WHY!? The 57 is a little narrow for my hand as well. So, Im Thinking of putting on a Eric Clapton neck on it since I went into Guitar center and played one. Felt good. Does anyone know the spec differences between a 57 reissue neck VS Eric Clapton? The tone thing boggles me. I know every cut of wood is independent of its own. But one single cut maple neck to another? Annyway....if you have knowledge, brother throw it my way. Thanks alot! Cj

BTW.....the other strat guitar has a chunky B heffner neck ....licensed by Fender.

The Eric Clapton neck has a 9.5" radius with Vintage style frets and is finished with satin urethane. The '57 neck has a 7.25" radius with Vintage style frets and a laquer finish. The Clapton neck may or may not be easier to bend on because of the radius and may be a little "faster" because of the satin urethane finish. As far as the sound goes, I don't know about that. But anyway that's my two cents. I hope it helps. Here is the Eric Clapton specs. The laquer finish on '57 reissues can be a little sticky. At least until they get good and worn.
http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 0117602806

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"Damn Right I Got the Blues"

what pots and caps did you use?
those are considered vintage pickups, set your pickups at about 8/64 bass side
6/64 treble side, maybe your treble side of your pickups are too high.
check your amp settings..

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So the Eric Clapton has a flatter fretboard vs the 57. How about nut width. Any info on that? The 57 feels a little narrrow for me....and in reference to the question about the pots...theyre regular cts pots.

It has a nut width of 1.650"(42mm). According to Fender.com. specs

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"Damn Right I Got the Blues"

They both have the same nut width. I'm not sure what it is about the '57 neck that makes it feel narrower. The Clapton and the '57 both have V-shaped necks but one may be a little thicker than the other, I'm not sure. I have an AVRI '57 and I like the way the neck feels Narrower. It may be the radius that makes it feel like that. Making bar chords is absolutely effortless on it.

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"Damn Right I Got the Blues"

Raised the low E siide of every p/up and lowered the High E....this was quite a difference in highs, tin, treble tones I was struggling with. It really pulled more lows in. Ive never really messed with them too much. They all three were equally level w. the pick gaurd before. sooooo my brothas'....thankyou for all the info!! Cj

Claptn guitars also have the 25db booster that fattens and overdives. basicly making the guitar a strat at 1 and a les paul at 10. Eric has a 250k pot in his personal guitars that also makes for a warmer tone. he doesn't use the tbx tone pot. the necks make little difference because they are both maple. rosewood would make some difference. do you leave your tone on 10 or do you adjust it when you play. darker tones are from body woods, fretboard wood, and pickup type and sometimes heavy string gauge and lower tunings. neck shape(back and raidius) would add to sustain and playability more than a darker tone.

The AVRI57 and Clapton necks are completely different beasts round the back of the neck as well as the fingerboard. The 57 Hotrod is similar to the clapton, but not identical.

How do you expect to get 'dark and brooding tones' with mid scooped pickups?

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Fat50's aren't mid-scooper, if anything they have a little extra mid.

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How did it sound to you?

Yep I see that mate, I misread the original post.

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The Clapton neck has 22 frets while the '57 reissue 21.

Regarding the active mid-boost circuit, it's an on-board gain preamp which delivers up to 25dB of midrange boost peaking at 500Hz. It was developed by James Demeter and John Carruthers to make single-coil pickups sound like an overdriven humbucker yet still retain more of a single-coil Strat tone and transparency.

The MDX (which is originally known) works well with regular humbuckers (original Richie Sambora Stratocaster) as it does with stacked single-coils.

If you want dark and brooding tones with mid-scooped single-coils, the John Mayer Big Dippers are just fine.

A million sound engineers would disagree with that statement, unless you took all the treble out as well as the mids. But then you just get woof.

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No no and no