Mighty Mite neck heel width and finish questions

[CIM]

I just received a Mighty Mite neck which I intend to fit to a Musikraft ash body - the body neck pocket measures about 55.25mm at the front to 55.5mm at the back which seems about right - 2 3/16" = 55.56mm so perhaps a bit snug but not far off ideal.

Unfortunately the MM neck measures up at 56.2mm i.e. best part of 1mm too wide.

As the body is about correct to fender's specs and the neck is too wide, I intend to sand down the neck to fix this - I suppose there is some potential concern regarding overhanging frets but as the sanding should only be around 0.3 to 0.5mm per side I may get away without them looking too bad even without reprofiling the ends.

Does seem a shame that they make the neck heel a shade too big - I believe they are made in Korea and I presume it is a mass produced CNC item so hard to see why it should be oversized.

I will have to refinish the neck heel of course if I do this - which brings me to a question - typically, how much if at all should I undersize the neck during sanding to allow for a bit of polyeurethane varnish so as to keep the neck fit snug but not unfittable?

The neck seems to be currently finished with the bare minimum of finish so I suppose that overspraying or wiping on some new varnish will only require the bare minimum to be in keeping with the rest of the satin finish.

Another question - do most people use MM necks 'as is' or do you prefer to apply a finish on top of the way they come? I understand they are finished with a Poly U satin finish - which seems pretty thin to me but looks can be deceiving I suppose. I also can't say the finish is spectacularly uniform especially on the fingerboard - I may have to do some work on that.

That all said, neck heel width issues and minor finish observations aside, it seems to be a decently made and fretted neck, especially for the money...

[Jack Wells]

If I were doing it ........... and I'm not.......... I'd take a little off each side until I could get it to slip in easily. Then with minimal finish on the heel, it should slip in with just a little effort.

In my woodworking projects I often use the cut and try ...... cut and try method of fitting. This is a case where you sand and try ...... sand and try.

[mellecaster]

Not meaning to Hijack your thread...but as I've said before, I think something must get lost in USA to Asian conversions...many high Quality MIJ and CIJ Necks I've had are too wide for the Pockets on std MIM and USA Bodies...and the other dimension that the Asian Folks seem to get wrong is the Fingerboard Radius....many even described in Fender's own Literature....are spected @ 9.5" and are clearly 12" Radius...the Vintage 7.25 stuff is always correct....but 12" seems to almost be the Asian standard....even when they plainly state 9.5"....A good example are the Squier Pro-Tones....Literature states 9.5....and all I have worked on were 12".....Go Figger..........

[CIM]

Originally Posted by jwells393

If I were doing it ........... and I'm not.......... I'd take a little off each side until I could get it to slip in easily. Then with minimal finish on the heel, it should slip in with just a little effort.

In my woodworking projects I often use the cut and try ...... cut and try method of fitting. This is a case where you sand and try ...... sand and try.

Yes, I'm sure that makes sense - I tend to use digital calipers for this sort of thing but more chance of error s'pose...

[CIM]

Originally Posted by mellecaster

Not meaning to Hijack your thread...but as I've said before, I think something must get lost in USA to Asian conversions...many high Quality MIJ and CIJ Necks I've had are too wide for the Pockets on std MIM and USA Bodies...and the other dimension that the Asian Folks seem to get wrong is the Fingerboard Radius....many even described in Fender's own Literature....are spected @ 9.5" and are clearly 12" Radius...the Vintage 7.25 stuff is always correct....but 12" seems to almost be the Asian standard....even when they plainly state 9.5"....A good example are the Squier Pro-Tones....Literature states 9.5....and all I have worked on were 12".....Go Figger..........

Yes, I also have a Korean Fenix neck which is even further out - a good 2mm too wide for the 2 3/8" standard pocket. But then if you are making a complete low cost Tele copy, it probably doesn't seem important to make nut widths, heel widths or anything else for that matter exactly the same as a Fender. Perhaps these guys end up copying copies of copies....

BTW interesting comment on incorrect radius - not the easiest thing in the world to measure - I suppose the easiest way is to cut some radii out of card or thin plastic and try them for best fit. I have never been sure what is ideal anyway - luckily I seem to get on fine with any radius, one less Tele thing to obsess about