Hey all,

I recently bought a neck from Guitar Fetish’s “Factory Blowout Sale” (they bought out some factories and are selling damaged / unused / unfinished parts from “name brands”). For all of the parts from a manufacturer that is licensed in the US, all of the brand and indentifying marks have been sanded off.

I wondering if any of you can help me identify where this neck may have come from (it looks like a fender, or some knock-off or variation).

The neck definitely has a fender-shaped headstock. It is maple, with a rosewood finger board and came with a satin coat. The neck came unfinished (It came with no holes in the neck-butt, no nut). You can see in the truss rod hole and tuner holes that the front of the headstock was previously painted dark red (the sides are stained with a satin finish and the back has been sanded (but no signs of red paint on the back).

I tried to Google necks like this, but I cannot find any. I have found similar ones, but there is always a slight difference (no truss rod on headstock, a “skunk stripe” on the back of the neck, etc).

In the pictures below, all of the finishing (nut, tuners, stain, etc) was done by me after the neck arrived.

I’m not too concerned about what brand it is … it has suited my purposes fine, I just wanted to build a cheap guitar. I am very curious though.

Thanks for your help guys!

It is definitely not a Fender Japanese, Mexican, or American neck, that is sure. I don't understand how GF can be sure that it is US made either, without markings. "Licensed in the US" doesn't equal "Made in the US". Looks like a Squier neck from a high end model to me.

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Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Thanks for your response shimmilou.

Maybe this is dumb (I've never owned a Fender), but how can you tell that it's definitely not a Fender Japanese, Mexican or American?

Also, I misquoted the Guitar Fetish site; they said: "brands that do not have copyright in the USA are presented here with the brands intact, others have been sanded off." If that make a difference.

That is not even a Fender/Squier neck. The shape is wrong when looking at it from the back.

Hi BenFightsBears, welcome to the Forum.

At the time Guitar Fetish bought up this mystery warehouse we had a thread on this site speculating about where it might be. We didn't come to any hard and fast conclusions, but a reasonable working theory is that it was a contract builder in China or Indonesia or somewhere similar. From the appearance of the stock it was perfectly clear that it wasn't a factory that built for Fender: the shapes and workmanship are far too off-beam and substandard for that. (And yes, I can see the Fender mark on the tuners: we are not going to be mislead by that.)

Only Guitar Fetish can tell you for sure where this stock comes from. You'd have to ask them to see if they'll reveal that information.

But in short, your neck and most of the rest of the warehouse stock we've seen is what we could politely describe as the bottom end of the "replica" market. There are much less flattering ways of describing it.

If the neck works and feels nice then that's all that matters for you. But if brand names are what interest you then you can be pretty sure this neck has never been anywhere near a grown up maker. It is very unlikely you have a diamond in the rough.

Cheers - C

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Thanks everyone! That is what I suspected; it just seemed strange that they would take the time to sand off a no-name logo on these and leave other no-name logos on the others.

And for the tuners: I am by no means trying to pass this off as a legit Fender. I got them for $20, so I figured what the heck.

This was my first attempt at piecing together a guitar, so this neck has served its purpose well. It was a lot less scary sanding and drilling into a $25 instead of a $100+ neck. Maybe next time I’ll spend the extra cash. Also, the neck is pretty straight and it feels pretty good to play on, so I’m pleased.

It definitely won’t take the place of my Les Paul (I don’t think anything ever will), but at least I can say “Hey, I built this one” … before I put it back in the corner. Ha.

Hi again BenFightsBears: I think the point is that they were not no-name logos, they were logos that said things like Fender, Ibanez and Gibson. Except they weren't the real product of those companies, they were low grade fakes, so if Guitar Fetish had sold them with those brands on they'd have been prosecutable for selling counterfeit goods. Without the logos they're just generic parts and perfectly legal.

And as you say, ideal for working on without fear of hurting something expensive.

Have fun - C

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I still wonder if it is still legal to sell. Are these necks licensed by fender to use the head stock design which is patented by fender?