G&L Neck Shaping.............

[jwells393]

The following pictures and text are from the G&L website factory tour.

Radius on a Legacy® fingerboard being shaped on one of the machines designed and built by Leo Fender. This machine is a replica of those he used in the 1950's and early 60'


ASAT Classic neck is having the back side of it shaped on a special belt sander. This is another machine designed and built by Leo. Note the craftsman is completely responsible for the outcome of the neck shape, as there are no aids of any kind.


Another view of the ASAT Classic neck being shaped.


Is this the way the necks were shaped in the 50's and 60's?

[DavidE]

The fingerboard radius swing-arm device was built by Fender and used in the 50s. The back of the neck profile was produced with a large cutter on a router sled and then hand sanded using a variety of methods including some of the ones shown at G&L as well as regular old hand sanders and fingers. The G&L necks were also shaped with a cutter, they just don't show that in the pics.

Cheers,
David

[guitar_ed]

G&L recently announced that they will be adding some CNC machines to the US production line, for the first time. Many of the G&L faithful, but not me, were very upset. I love my G&Ls and personally, I think that CNC machines can only help. But that's me.

Guitar Ed

[Doug 54]

Hasn't some of the problem/difficulty with getting replacemnt G&L necks is because each neck is supposedly 'tailored' for that guitar??
That rumor I heard a while back is a little scary---as it means to me there can be inexactness from guitar to guitar in the neck pocket dimensions...(??) not just the 'shape' of the neck profile.
I have heard of folks of having to send in their guitar to them to have a replacement neck done (may be so the old neck will be 'kept' by them..??)

CNC will uniform it all---and hopefully people can get replacements for those awful skinny necks!!!

The banter often is the frustration that the aftermarket neck makers don't have one for G&L.

[Paul G.]

1. The past 5 or 6 years have seen the basic shape of G&L necks change from skinny to more substantial. Although each neck may vary, the basic size seems to have increased--maybe they're working from a bigger blank.

2. I don't like the fact that the only way to replace a neck on a G&L is to send it back to the factory, but they will replace a neck that is defective. Now, how often is a neck defective?

CNC is a good thing, hopefully allowing for better consistency.

[ChurchPlayer]

Necks may not "go bad" that often, but after UPS snapped a neck on an ASAT Super I sold I was in desperate need of a replacement. It's in Cali now waiting to come back.

Sh*t happens, and when a cymbal stand falls over on your favorite guitar taking a nice chunk out of the back of the neck you're going to be looking for a replacement. The problem with G&L's is that the normal sources (All Parts, Warmouth, etc.) don't work, so they're the only source of a new one when the old one goes (warranty work or otherwise). Given they want to stay that way, making a neck that will always fit your G&L seems to be pretty important.

[Chris S.]

Originally Posted by Doug 54

Hasn't some of the problem/difficulty with getting replacemnt G&L necks is because each neck is supposedly 'tailored' for that guitar?? That rumor I heard a while back is a little scary---as it means to me there can be inexactness from guitar to guitar in the neck pocket dimensions...(??) not just the 'shape' of the neck profile. I have heard of folks of having to send in their guitar to them to have a replacement neck done (may be so the old neck will be 'kept' by them..??)

Uh... Doug? I think you're maybe a little confused here. ;-) And/or mixing two or more different issues. There's no "inexactness" in their neck pocket dimensions – they just don't match those of a Fender, so a standard Fender neck (or aftermarket replacement) won't fit a G&L. By way of analogy, I don't think you'd have much luck getting many Ford parts to fit on GM cars, either – or vice-versa... ;-)

But I've personally switched out one G&L neck for another before with no problem – their heel shapes and neck pockets do indeed have the exact same dimensions. :-)

Now, as many people have noted, because the necks are shaped by hand (see the photos above), they can and do vary in their <u>profile</u> – but that doesn't have anything to do with how the neck fits into the body.

Hope it helps, CS

[jwells393]

I just measured a G&L neck and a MIM Telecaster neck. The scale lengths are the same. The width of the G&L at the heel is slightly larger

G&L neck: 1.185 in.
Fender neck: 1.193 in.

The G&L neck is a 22 fret neck with no pickguard overlap so the G&L nut to heel length is about 1/4 in. longer than the Fender.

A Telecaster neck could be adapted to a G&L body with some shims............. very thin shims on the sides of the pocket and a 1/4 in. shim at the heel. A 22 fret neck with overlap would hide the heel shim. With a 21 fret neck you could have a special pickguard made to hide the shim.

[guitar_ed]

There is a rant on Ed Romans page about G&L and Fender necks not being swappable. As usual, this is 90% bull, and 10% correct.

Briefly, Ed tried to swap necks & bodies for a customer without checking to see if it could be done. It can't. Ed correctly realized that the neck heels were different sizes.

Ed then went on to blast G&L for "claiming" to make 25.5" scale guitars, but that because the neck heels were different sizes, then necks weren't really 25.5" scale. Say what? In Ed's world, since the G&L neck does not fit into the Fender body, then it can not be a 25.5" scale.

What does the width of the neck heel have to do with the scale length? Anybody?

Guitar Ed
(Not Ed Roman)

[Chris S.]

Yeah, count on Ed Roman to get it <u>totally</u> wrong. What an idiot (as well as an opinionated jerk...).

Btw, aside from the differences jwells noted above, I've found that the main difference between Fenders and G&Ls is usually the <u>depth</u> of the neck pocket. You could possibly shim a G&L neck way up to get it to fit a Fender body, but you'd have to shave a lot of wood off a Fender neck heel to get it to fit a G&L properly... Hope it helps, CS

[jwells393]

Chris,
I'm finding just the opposite of your statement above with respect to neck heel thickness. I measured the thickness of the two above necks. As stated above, the Fender neck was from a MIM Telecaster. The G&L neck is an older 3-bolt #2 neck.

G&L: 1.015 in.
Fender: O.995 in. (measured two Fender necks with the same result)

That's only a difference of 0.020 ............ not much....less than 1/32 in. Seems like that could be compensated for with the saddle height adjustment.

[Chris S.]

Originally Posted by jwells393

Chris,
I'm finding just the opposite of your statement above with respect to neck heel thickness... G&L: 1.015 in. Fender: O.995 in. That's only a difference of 0.020 ............ not much

No, you're absolutely right, the neck heels aren't that much different – but there are TWO different measurements involved. Try measuring the depth of the <u>neck pockets</u>. I think you'll find the necks on a Fender sit much farther down in relation to the plane of the body – moreso than you might be able to compensate for with bridge adjustments and/or shims. That's my recollection, anyway. Let me know, I'd be curious to see what you come up with... Thx, CS :-)

[DavidE]

I don't mean to be a stick in the mud here but I cannot for the life of me figure this forum out. A guy asked a simple enough question about how necks were shaped at Fender and it was answered (I even helped). Then the topic goes off in left field about the lack of interchangeability between G&L necks & bodies and Fender necks and apparantly every other electric guitar neck on the planet including aftermarket ones. Criticisms are hurled at G&L and Fender and some guy named Ed and the overwhelming feeling you guys are putting out there is that all necks and bodies are supposed to be interchangeable and CNC will fix that. What the heck! Fender neck and neck pocket dimensions (including depth of the pocket) are all over the place from guitar to guitar, model to model, and era to era. I've seen as much as .040" difference in heel widths on '50 Fenders. I'm sure G&L necks are no different given their methods are (have been) essentially those of Leo Fender. So what dimension does an aftermarket supplier shoot for? The minimum or the maximum? CNC will only reproduce exactly what you ask it to...it will not magically acommodate every variation in the world. Philisophically speaking for a moment, why should an aftermarket neck fit a G&L or every Fender body ever made anyway? Does the ink cartridge for your HP printer fit a Cannon printer? Come on guys, give 'em a break.

Cheers,
David

[jwells393]

Chris,
If there's only 0.020 in difference in the thickness of the neck heel, it doesn't matter how a G&L and a Fender differ in neck pocket depth.............. a Fender fretboard will be only be 0.020 in lower than a G&L fretboard when put in a G&L body. It would only be a problem if you couldn't lower the saddles enough. A simple 0.020 in shim in the bottom of a G&L Neck pocket would give you the same fretboard height above the body top surface. It just happens that 0.020 in is the thickness of the veneers that I have.
My only point is that a Telecaster neck could be adapted to work in a G&L........... not the other way around. A G&L neck it too wide to fit in a Fender Pocket.

BTW ............. the G&L neck pocket is actually a little deeper than the Fender.

[Doug 54]

Chris

Of course G&L's pocket is standardized---but the looong rumor mill, and hearing from G&L themselves was they preferred the guitar to be sent in to 'match' the neck to the body.... This would lend that thinking.
I had heard this several x's over the yrs.
That always seemed peculiar to me, the 'matching'.... Prolly' a control issue to keep their necks from floating around the parts market.

And as I mention in my 1st post---many folks are frustrated by the unavailability of their necks by Warmoth, USACG --etc --due to their full longer heel.

And yes the thread kinda went off target!!!

[Seanycaster]

Originally Posted by DavidE

I don't mean to be a stick in the mud here but I cannot for the life of me figure this forum out. A guy asked a simple enough question about how necks were shaped at Fender and it was answered (I even helped). Then the topic goes off in left field

It's just folks here doing what they do best: talking about teles. Best get used to it DavidE