is there a differance in the neck sizes of these guitars?

basically i was talking to a guy in a shop a while ago about the saddles sometimes move down when im playing, and he said why dont i put some new saddles on (american ones) buw when we looked at them and compared the ones on the Roadworn were narrower than the american ones.

so if i bought a bridge to get a steel block wouldnt it puch my strings over the edge of the fretboard?

does this mean the neck is slimmer than an american neck?

thanks in advance

James

The neck width at the heel is 56mm. Regardless of where the guitar is made.

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No no and no

But am I right in thinking that the Road Worns have the MIM spec 52mm / 2 1/16" string spacing on the saddles, rather than the American 56mm / 2 7/32" spacing?

If so, hope is not lost. Various of the well known aftermarket parts suppliers offer both bent steel and block type saddles in either of those two spacings. You just have to choose the ones that match the trem plate on your guitar.

Cheers - C

EDIT: oops! See posts below...

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Actually the Road Worns use the vintage spaced 2 7/32 string spacing and mount spacing, mostly only lower end MIMs use the narrow spacing. In fact American Standards have shorter spacing compared to the RW

so if i bought an american vintage trem, it would pop right in the place of the roadworn bridge without pushing the strings off the fretboard edge?

Hi Yogi: ha! You catch me dispensing misinformation - I'm getting my bridge screw spacings mixed up with my string spread spacings. D'OH! [Sound of palm slapping forehead] Well caught: that'll teach me to re-read my posts before clicking submit...!

...Erm, though what you say doesn't fit with jimmydenton's experience in the first post, so I'm confused about that.

Anyhow. The important point as far as the OP is concerned is that there are different width saddles available for different bridges. If he wants to replace them he needs to get the matching size. Just for example, here is a page offering both 13/32" and 7/16" wide saddles:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddl ... ddles.html

(I've just spent a few minutes looking at various websites and converting between thousands of an inch, fractions of an inch and metric. Now my head hurts!)

Cheers - C

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No problem Ceri, I've been on here a bit and you almost always have accurate information, so its no biggie .

Yeah It depends on which American Saddles he compared them too. The vintage style saddles on say a newer MIA standard won't work, but the Road Worn and AVRI should be the same since the string spacing and Screw spacing is the same. I don't know for sure since I haven't measured though. However I do know the AVRI bridge will screw right into place with no mods. I will mention this, that on guitars with the wider vintage spacing it isn't unusual for the strings to be close to the edge. Its like that on my John Mayer strat and my Custom Shop 65, as well as the '81 I had.

All Fender strat bodies have the same dimensions for the neck pocket, and all strat necks will mount to all strat bodies. Regardless of your string spacing due to different saddles, you will either have plenty of clearance from the string to the fretboard edge, or the strings will get progressively closer to the fretboard edge as you go towards the body, just like all of the 1950's-1970's Fenders did.