Draconomics
Fearless Papa of The Brethren of the Crust
From the magnificent craftspeople (more like kraft mac & cheese people) of PsuedoReedSmith industries (LLC, with emphasis on the limited part), comes the Oscar (tasty sausage) Mayer signature guitar model...ladies and germs....I give you....The Silver Lie SE
Now, some FAQ's...
Q: Is it a real guitar?! A: Nothing is real in the Matrix.
Q: Hows the tone? A: Yes.
Q: Does the truss rod work? A: Yes...against you.
Q: What is the weight? A: It's lighter than yo momma.
OK seriously...so this is something I've had in mind for a while: combining a typical Fender body with a SS neck. Can it be done and is it worth it? All those questions answered today. First, let's have a look.
So, I found SS SE necks available on The Stratosphere, excellent store for all sorts of parts. The body was from an old, neglected Squier Strat I was gifted as more or less a payment for luthier work I did for a friend. I loved the metallic red color, so thought this would be an excellent test subject. It took several hours to do the mods including the neck pocket, reaming the holes for new tuners, soldering in the new electronics, and then full fret polish and setup job, but it was worth it. Just for the parts people out there, it has new Gotoh SD90 locking tuners, Tusq saddles, and a Seymour Duncan triple rail set.
Now I did this for the heck of it, but why would you want to? Well, a few reasons. First, the SS body appears to not have routing for humbuckers. If you want to do an HSH or SSH configuration on your SS, you will probably have to re-rout the body. A Fender/Squier body is usually prerouted to accept humbuckers. Second, just the color. If you have a strat body with a paint job you like, there is the option to convert it. Third...if this is possible, it should also be possible to do the same mod on a Tele body. I mean, why not?
So, what has to be done to make this work? Is it a straight neck swap? Kinda. So, I knew going in the SS neck might be a tad wider, but that's it. It fits snugly in the neck pocket, so that's fine. What I was more worried about, and indeed it was realized, was the scale length. The SS SE has the same 25.5" scale as a typical strat, but it has 22 frets instead of 21. You can of course put a 22 fret neck on a strat but the way Fender gets away with it is by placing the 22nd fret on bit of fingerboard that overhangs above the pickguard. As it was before modifications, scale was at 25.8". Too much. The SS neck is flat at the butt whereas a strat neck is rounded. Thus, both the pickguard and the neck pocket need to be reshaped so the neck can come forward about 3/16". A dremel will be your friend here. I didn't have to adjust the angle at all, that was just fine. The heel from the body will be more pronounced, sticking back a little farther. If this is a dealbreaker, you'll have to shave it down, plug the existing neck screw holes, and re-drill them lower.
Was it worth it? YES. Big darn YES. The SS SE neck feels amazing. I like it better than a Fender neck, and goodness....so much nicer than a Squier neck. I rather like seeing neglected guitars come back to life as something better, so there's alot of joy in that alone. So, hope you like it!
Now, some FAQ's...
Q: Is it a real guitar?! A: Nothing is real in the Matrix.
Q: Hows the tone? A: Yes.
Q: Does the truss rod work? A: Yes...against you.
Q: What is the weight? A: It's lighter than yo momma.
OK seriously...so this is something I've had in mind for a while: combining a typical Fender body with a SS neck. Can it be done and is it worth it? All those questions answered today. First, let's have a look.
So, I found SS SE necks available on The Stratosphere, excellent store for all sorts of parts. The body was from an old, neglected Squier Strat I was gifted as more or less a payment for luthier work I did for a friend. I loved the metallic red color, so thought this would be an excellent test subject. It took several hours to do the mods including the neck pocket, reaming the holes for new tuners, soldering in the new electronics, and then full fret polish and setup job, but it was worth it. Just for the parts people out there, it has new Gotoh SD90 locking tuners, Tusq saddles, and a Seymour Duncan triple rail set.
Now I did this for the heck of it, but why would you want to? Well, a few reasons. First, the SS body appears to not have routing for humbuckers. If you want to do an HSH or SSH configuration on your SS, you will probably have to re-rout the body. A Fender/Squier body is usually prerouted to accept humbuckers. Second, just the color. If you have a strat body with a paint job you like, there is the option to convert it. Third...if this is possible, it should also be possible to do the same mod on a Tele body. I mean, why not?
So, what has to be done to make this work? Is it a straight neck swap? Kinda. So, I knew going in the SS neck might be a tad wider, but that's it. It fits snugly in the neck pocket, so that's fine. What I was more worried about, and indeed it was realized, was the scale length. The SS SE has the same 25.5" scale as a typical strat, but it has 22 frets instead of 21. You can of course put a 22 fret neck on a strat but the way Fender gets away with it is by placing the 22nd fret on bit of fingerboard that overhangs above the pickguard. As it was before modifications, scale was at 25.8". Too much. The SS neck is flat at the butt whereas a strat neck is rounded. Thus, both the pickguard and the neck pocket need to be reshaped so the neck can come forward about 3/16". A dremel will be your friend here. I didn't have to adjust the angle at all, that was just fine. The heel from the body will be more pronounced, sticking back a little farther. If this is a dealbreaker, you'll have to shave it down, plug the existing neck screw holes, and re-drill them lower.
Was it worth it? YES. Big darn YES. The SS SE neck feels amazing. I like it better than a Fender neck, and goodness....so much nicer than a Squier neck. I rather like seeing neglected guitars come back to life as something better, so there's alot of joy in that alone. So, hope you like it!
