PsuedoReedSmith - Silver Lie SE

Draconomics

Fearless Papa of The Brethren of the Crust
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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!
 
Any before and after pics of the neck pocket?

Did you have to plug and redrill the screw holes in the body for the neck?

Note: I have strats that have 22 fret necks that are not hangover fretboards. The necks are legit 22 fret.
 
Any before and after pics of the neck pocket?

Did you have to plug and redrill the screw holes in the body for the neck?

Note: I have strats that have 22 fret necks that are not hangover fretboards. The necks are legit 22 fret.
Um...I don't have any pics of the neck pocket sadly. Suffice to say, all I really did was sand away the contoured areas so the front of the pocket was flat. Next time Im in there I'll get a shot.

I didn't have to plug the holes luckily, but if I was to shave the heel down, I would definitely have to.

I would assume those strats probably have a deeper pocket made specifically for a 22 fret neck. Pretty much all the aftermarket 22 fret necks I've seen have an overhang.
 
Dang ... I have a killer strat body that I hate the Warmoth neck I have on it. You are sorely tempting me with this idea.
It's worth doing! The modifications to the body weren't very difficult, but do remember once you reshape the neck pocket there's no going back, unless you do some wood putty magic.

I got to say, the neck is fantastic. I LOVE the feel of it, I may actually like it more than the 10" radius stuff I typically use. I love the satin finish, your hand just glides effortlessly.

I'll also tell you, in some ways what you get is kinda like going halfway between a core and the SE model. You can have a six point trem like a core has, body can be alder like cores are, or ash if you like that better. Beyond the smaller radius, kinda wonder how different a core version would be. Maybe not much.
 
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Hi-o. For anyone curious about what this thing sounds like, here ya go. Little intro sketch I've demoed to the current band I'm in. They wanna do a cover of Hiram Bullock's version of You Send Me, so for the intro part I did a few versions for approval using this axe. Figured this would serve as a nice test for it.

For the gear people, using Amplitube 5, running thru a Plexi emulation, matching cab, ample room mics, just a run of the mill tubescreamer in front, and a sprig of delay.

 
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!
Nice! I was wondering at the beginning of your post how you were going to intonate the guitar without moving the neck towards the bridge.

Then you explained that you lengthened the neck pocket.

I had a chance to compare my SE Silver Sky to a 2018 USA Silver Sky yesterday. That 2018 SS sounded really good. Love those pickups.

The owner spent most of the time playing my SE, and kept going on and on about what a great guitar the SE is.

I love the neck. I like it better than the USA version.
 
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