Query failed: connection to localhost:9312 failed (errno=111, msg=Connection refused). Tele neck | conversion from 22 to 21 frets - Making & Modding Discussions on The Fretboard
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UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45

Tele neck | conversion from 22 to 21 frets

dcgdcg Frets: 206
edited May 2023 in Making & Modding
Guitars and amps and pedals may come and go, but the butterscotch Warmoth partscaster on the RHS of the first photo has been a constant in my playing life for nearly 30 years; I bought the neck and body in person at Warmoth's sawmill in Puyallup in the mid '90s when I was working briefly in Seattle.  Since then it has been subject to much abuse, but is now playing out its twilight years strung with 12s and a Lollar Charlie Christian neck pickup.  However...I always disliked the 22 fret neck (despite its fab boatneck profile), and resolved to convert this to a more vintage appropriate 21 frets.
https://i.imgur.com/nekh3NN.jpg
Cue the purchase of a (very sharp) Japanese joinery saw...
https://i.imgur.com/SJRWvh9.jpg
I started by cutting along the line of the 22nd fret (which had of course been removed...)
https://i.imgur.com/ohOuRN3.jpg
Then made a vertical cut parallel to the maple cap...
https://i.imgur.com/6Zx0aTK.jpg
Eventually producing a ledge at the end of the fretboard, and two pieces of ex-fretboard...
https://i.imgur.com/1k2W8xe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lXrUPk2.jpg
The larger of the two pieces was then glued in, sanded, re-stained with a water-based dye, and mildly distressed..
https://i.imgur.com/TSszU1E.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YOdmCKe.jpg
The completed conversion.  Far from perfect, but in the spirit of the one guitar I have owned most of my adult playing life...
https://i.imgur.com/ykhYqEc.jpg
ps: there are probably many better and more elegant ways of doing this...
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Comments

  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7202
    edited May 2023
    Decent job, but yeah replacing the wood from the 21st fret onward would be the luthiers way. Nice looking with the CC pickup.
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  • dcgdcg Frets: 206
    You're totally right about how a decent luthier would approach the conversion -and inevitably the result would have been much slicker.  However, with the materials I had to hand the scar tissue in front of the 21st fret was always likely... 
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