Should I swap necks from Am Std and Partscaster?

[manbearpig]

Advice sought:

I have a 2008 American Standard Tele. I also have a partscaster that I recently completed. Here is my issue: I absolutely LOVE the way the partscaster sounds, but the Am Std sounds sort of average to me; I absolutely LOVE the way the Am Std plays, but the partscaster is below average in the playability department.

This really all comes down to the neck. The neck on the Am Std is one-piece maple with the famous "hand-rolled" edges. It is comfy! The partscaster neck is Allparts with a rosewood board. It is OK (though I did have problems with initially fitting it which I created an older thread about), but it just doesn't feel good. The rosewood is sharp, the fret job isn't wonderful, and it just doesn't play as fast or bend as smoothly as the Am Std.

So should I swap necks? I feel like that would take me from having two average guitars to having one amazing guitar and one below average. Not that I think it is a collectors item or anything, but one concern I have is whether doing this would affect the value of my Am Std at all - obviously, I could always put the original neck back on if I wanted to sell. Are there any considerations I haven't thought of?

What do you guys think?

[manbearpig]

I think my thread must have gotten lost in the Sunday evening rush of posts. I can't imagine that no one can lend a more experienced and knowledgeable opinion than my own!

[Stuco]

You could try it and see how you like it. Consider that you may need to plug and dowel/redrill the mounting holes in the neck if they don't line up properly. Eric clapton built "blackie" out of the best parts from a few different strats.

[KevinB]

I don't believe you can predict the outcome with any accuracy. You might end up with two crap guitars or two excellent ones!

There's only one way to find out, and it's pretty easy to do. You should be able to accomplish this without any drilling, and then you can always put them back if you don't like it.

[manbearpig]

Originally Posted by Stuco

You could try it and see how you like it. Consider that you may need to plug and dowel/redrill the mounting holes in the neck if they don't line up properly. Eric clapton built "blackie" out of the best parts from a few different strats.

Originally Posted by KevinB

I don't believe you can predict the outcome with any accuracy. You might end up with two crap guitars or two excellent ones!

There's only one way to find out, and it's pretty easy to do. You should be able to accomplish this without any drilling, and then you can always put them back if you don't like it.

Thanks guys. I was thinking the same thing, except, and here comes a dumb question/concern.

I'm worried that if I disassemble, swap necks, and don't like it, that when I put them back the way they were, they won't be the way they were. Does that make sense? Is that ridiculous? Mojo is fragile, yes?

[gitlvr]

Originally Posted by manbearpig

Thanks guys. I was thinking the same thing, except, and here comes a dumb question/concern.

I'm worried that if I disassemble, swap necks, and don't like it, that when I put them back the way they were, they won't be the way they were. Does that make sense? Is that ridiculous? Mojo is fragile, yes?

No. If you put the neck back correctly, it'll be like it was. If it were that easy to alter the tone, every tech out there'd be in trouble. What you're liable to find, however, is that you might have to drill new holes in one or both of the necks because a neck from one body might not line up with the holes in the body of the other. Don't seem right, but it happens.

[manbearpig]

Ok, I did it. Took off the allparts neck, put the Am Std neck on the partscaster. I am perplexed. I knew the Am Std neck would feel better, and it does. An unintended benefit is that it sustains about twice as long now. But the most important thing, how it sounds, was a surprise. It sounds not good. Not terrible, but a lot of life is gone now. We are talking really significant difference here. With the allparts neck, I had an unbelievably defined woody, throaty, clear tone. With the Am Std, it sounds like, well, the opposite. It sounds sterile and characterless.
Very disappointing and I don't understand why it turned out this way. I will switch back because tone is more important to me than playability. I just wish I could have both!

[gitlvr]

I don't know the technical side of it, but from my experience assembling and working on guitars, IMHO the neck is a huge part of an individual guitar's tone. I'm sure it has something to do with density, stiffness, and other such things, but like I said, I don't get into that side of it, I just use my ears. I'd switch them back, too. MHO.

[mellecaster]

I feel you should take your Partscaster as it was, to a trusted Tech (the operative word being Trusted) and have him do a Set-up, so it plays and feels the way you want...and you'll still have the Tone that you liked it for.

[smokerjoe34]

I change out a lot of necks and the neck fit on each guitar seems to have a bearing on tone ?? I like a nice tight fit !! Although thats not the whole deal....Really it's a very funny deal for sure and I find it's kinda like rolling craps....sometimes u win,sometimes u lose !!

[manbearpig]

Originally Posted by mellecaster

I feel you should take your Partscaster as it was, to a trusted Tech (the operative word being Trusted) and have him do a Set-up, so it plays and feels the way you want...and you'll still have the Tone that you liked it for.

Good advice, but setup isn't the issue in this particular case. Really there are two issues when I say that the allparts neck doesn't feel as good. 1) It doesn't have rolled edges like the American standard neck and 2) because the allparts neck is rosewood board, it doesnt have a finish on the board (the Am Std is maple and so does have a glossy fingerboard finish) - so it doesnt have that slick, fast feel that the Am Std neck does. It isn't bad, and the actual setup is great (i.e. fret level/crown, truss rod, nut, etc.).

Maybe I just need a third guitar with both tone and feel

[Ricky D.]

Originally Posted by manbearpig

Good advice, but setup isn't the issue in this particular case. Really there are two issues when I say that the allparts neck doesn't feel as good. 1) It doesn't have rolled edges like the American standard neck and 2) because the allparts neck is rosewood board, it doesnt have a finish on the board (the Am Std is maple and so does have a glossy fingerboard finish) - so it doesnt have that slick, fast feel that the Am Std neck does. It isn't bad, and the actual setup is great (i.e. fret level/crown, truss rod, nut, etc.).

Maybe I just need a third guitar with both tone and feel

I hope you keep after that partscaster and get it right. There are people out there who could roll the edges of that rosewood board for you.

You could even sell the neck and buy a neck with a maple board, get the edges of that one rolled.