My DIY relic strat

[taypeng]

Gave my partscastor a makeover.. sanded the weird yellow poly lacquer off the china made neck and re-finished in nitro lacquer.

Sprayed the same lacquer on the daphne blue HW1 strat body and it gave it a slightly green tint.

Shes not complete yet. More relicing needs to be done on the plastic parts but I couldnt resist just putting her together to see how see'd look. The parts were lying around unassembled for a month or so.

Im thinking of swapping out the neck for a quality one from allparts or musikraft but i cant decide... maple or rosewood fretboard? What do you guys think? For tonal reasons i think the fender 69 pups go better with a RW fretboard though...

[b-squared]

Looks nice--I love the color.

I'd stay with a maple neck on that one, but I love a rosewood neck as well. I pulled the maple neck off my '56 Relic because it was just too narrow for me.

I got a '62 Reissue neck (rosewood) from Fender and put it on there...big improvement.

BB

[djwilbanks]

I like it, looks good!

I think the maple neck looks good on that colour, as far as tonality goes, I've been able to tell enough difference in rosewood boards vs. maple boards to warrant it. That said, I want a maple neck for my strat but for purely aesthetic reasons.

[jomo]

I like it. I'd go a little heavier where your arm lays. I wouldn't do any more wear in that other area that doesn't get rubbed much. I'd also relic the neck. If it were me, I'd take a dremel with the cotton pad and go to town in the frets that you use the most. Maybe put a little polish on the cotton pad.
Looks good though man, I love a relic Fender.

[taypeng]

Originally Posted by jomo

I like it. I'd go a little heavier where your arm lays. I wouldn't do any more wear in that other area that doesn't get rubbed much. I'd also relic the neck. If it were me, I'd take a dremel with the cotton pad and go to town in the frets that you use the most. Maybe put a little polish on the cotton pad.
Looks good though man, I love a relic Fender.

thanks for the kind comments. the wear on the top of the body was accidental actually hehe.. i was sanding the lacquer and sanded to hard on the edge of the body i guess. the other thing is...
i found it pretty tough to sand between the frets to create the wear areas so im just leaving the neck as it is for now...

[taypeng]

Originally Posted by djwilbanks

I like it, looks good!

I think the maple neck looks good on that colour, as far as tonality goes, I've been able to tell enough difference in rosewood boards vs. maple boards to warrant it. That said, I want a maple neck for my strat but for purely aesthetic reasons.

Thanks! thats the thing, i think it looks better with maple! yet the benefit of a rosewood fretboard is that it might tame some of the highs from the 69 pups.

im just going say this at the risk of getting ridiculed - there was subtle but noticeable difference in tone after i re-finished the neck. it didnt sound as bright as before when it was covered in poly.

[classic]

Good job, dude ...

Maple or RW is a matter of personal choice, but on a 60's body I'd prefer a RW neck ...
I've done a sacrilege in combining a 60's RW neck with a 50's body ... but I don't care ... it's fitting the colour of the body superbly ...

A pic of my DIY ... just for you so that you can see how it would correspond approximately ...

[5F6-A]

nice