I am writing a dissertation and I want to know peoples opinions on the early 1970's Fender Strats with the micro tilt necks. Just let me know your opinions of the neck joint because that is my dissertation subject.

This would be a great help to me.

Just 70's guitar neck joints?
No opinion. Played one once and put it down quite quickly.

Modern microtilt, not a fan. Makes it too easy for people who aren't as capable as they think they are, to ruin the setup of their guitar.

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No no and no

I bought a '73 Strat new (with micro-tilt) and gigged it from 4 to 7 nights a week for about twenty years and during that time I made some adjustments using the micro-tilt mechanism, but never had any issues with it. Maybe I was lucky, I don't know?

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Dissenting opinion: I also don't have an opion on the 70's Strats' neck joints (although many have speculated that the Micro-tilt wasn't the problem - it was a lack of overall quality control), but I like the current implementation of the it. Yes, it can cause some people who are less capable to ruin their set up, but I've found it to be a quick and conenient way to lower the action and have done so with no problems whatsoever.

I own a 74 Strat with the original micro-tilt. I love the guitar dearly. The neck joint on mine is stable, the neck doesn't move around. The micro tilt works just like today's "works". But I agree that a guitar doesn't really need this feature, and that a person can really screw up things when they go to cranking on the micro-tilt without knowing what they're doing! The feature is used to set the neck angle or pitch relative to the body. If your guitar can be set up well as-is, there will never be a reason to adjust this mechanism.....ever. I do have a 1996 American Strat that the micro-tilt screw come loose and was rattling on certain notes......drove me crazy until I found that it was just a loose screw!. I just snugged it up with the allen wrench and no probs since. As for quality issues with the CBS era Fenders......I own several, and All have been of good build quality. There were a few questionable things.....like cast pot metal parts. But the quality control issues were more often just the guitars were being shipped without being set up.....at all! LOL

Granted, there are a few exceptions but I'm talking about the bulk of what I've seen and believe me, I've seen MANY:

With the typical play of those 3 bolt necks in the mating pockets of the body, the tilt neck stand off only makes for the heel of the neck to swim around all the more as it takes away surface to surface contact between the neck and the body which in turn, stretches out the neck pocket in the body all the more. Needless to say, not only is sustain radically reduced but all this slogging around of the neck in the body causes constant detuning of the instrument, intonation nightmares and of course, one of the E strings slopping over the edge of the fingerboard. Lastly, it gives the inept one more way to screw up the guitar's setup and playability.

Aside from all the above, it was a wonderful feature - NOT!!!

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You dig?

Well, the only guitar I have owned with this three bolt micro tilt is my G&L Superthawk.
(Hey, they were both built and designed by Leo Fender, right?)

It has been just fine for all these years, I bought it from the factory in 1984.

And it was a second.

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At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

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Morph-

My friend has a 76 strat with 3 bolt and his neck pocket was cracked years ago. We assume it's because the neck was adjusted via the micro tilt and the gap near the one screw put extra stress on the area of the 2 forward screws.

I have a classic 70s strat with micro tilt and about 10 years old and I keep the neck flush to the pocket to avoid any breakage. Hence, I don't use the micro tilt, and use shims if needed. These 70s strats are very heavy and I pick it up by the neck all the time with no issues.