New neck for an S470

[Fosse Fox]

OK, I've just aboutr finished "personalizing" my newly acquired S470DXQM, its had some GFS pups, some new knobs n switchplate, BUT......I will never ever like rosewood fretboards, so I want an all maple neck/fretboard/headstock. Warmoth thankfully cant do one, and the only people who say "yes" are E.droman, who do a neck they build for a Petrucci replica. Two things:

1. E.droman seem to be good.....am I right?
2. Anybody suggest anywhere else I can get an all maple neck?

Cheers

Sean

Hmm, I seem to have peeved the censor?

[ryanb]

1. The censor is right. "HE" sucks and wouldn't be deserving of your money if he was the last builder on the planet.
2. Warmouth, Allparts, dozens of other dealers (spend 10 seconds doing a google search), evilbay, custom luthiers, build it yourself, keep the neck and change the existing fretboard, etc ...

3. Giving yourself a 5 star thread rating for attention is pretty lame.

[lyconxero]

Unless you just don't like the neck profile of the guitar, I think it would probably be cheaper to have a luthier replace the fretboard.

[jukes]

whats this about ed roman guy?i remember rading that he is a crook or something a couple years ago.what about him,i gotta know



























;0

[Fosse Fox]

Originally Posted by ryanb

1. The censor is right. "HE" sucks and wouldn't be deserving of your money if he was the last builder on the planet.
2. Warmouth, Allparts, dozens of other dealers (spend 10 seconds doing a google search), evilbay, custom luthiers, build it yourself, keep the neck and change the existing fretboard, etc ...

3. Giving yourself a 5 star thread rating for attention is pretty lame.

If you read my post you will see that Warmoth DO NOT do a neck for any Ibanez guitars, neither do any of the bargain store you mention. I have spent a lot longer than 10 mins searching far more esoteric sources than Google.

The idea of a specialised forum like this is that like minded people can exchange "first hand" information, that is knowledge gleaned thru experience. Its nice that you would be happy to pop to your local lumbar yard as I believe you chaps in the New World call wood yards and whittle a chunk of pine into a neck with a butter knife and consider it good enough to put on whatever guitar you have. I, however if I am going to change anything on my guitar will always go to the pains of making sure than what goes on is better than what comes off....its called the pursuit of perfection?
I have spoken to quite a few luthiers, and on the whole they want to charge me money to make a new neck, a step that I am unwilling to take without 100% knowledge that the finished artice will be of a quality that is acceptable to me.
Changing the fretboard seems to me to be the best option, but I am also loathe to decommission my guitar while this carried out, so I may just hold out for a suitable neck from E.bay for modding as per this route.
My return advice to you would be to read peoples posts before you reply and dont assume such an attitude that youre the only one in the woprld who knows what Google or E.bay or luthiery is. It's called engaging your brain before putting your mouth into gear.

Oh and I gave my thread 5 star rating because I couldnt give it 6)


ta ra

[LonePhantom]

Well, la de da......

I'm afraid you are either going to have to keep an eye on e*Bay for a neck and it would probably be hard to find an S series neck with a maple fretboard on there.

That or accept that you WILL have to deal with not having the guitar playable for a short time and finding a respected luthier in your area who can make a maple fretboard for your neck.

If you want to go down the route of having someone build you a complete neck matching the Ibanez one completely, a decent well respected luthier will probably not make the Ibanez headstock due to copyright, and by your posts I am guessing that you will not be happy with that either, so once again you are going to have to accept that you may have to decommission your guitar for a short time whilst the fret board is made and attached to your existing neck.

[Algiman]

Originally Posted by Fosse Fox

I have spoken to quite a few luthiers, and on the whole they want to charge me money to make a new neck ....

Strange, you would have thought they would treat you as special and do it for free!

A new fret board is probably the only way to go. It will take time (not much) and providing the luthier will book you in when he is ready so he can start work as soon as he has the guitar, rather than have it sit in the shop for a fortnight, you shouldn't be without your guitar for long.

You could een rent a guitar to cover the time it is away.

[Fosse Fox]

Originally Posted by LonePhantom

If you want to go down the route of having someone build you a complete neck matching the Ibanez one completely, a decent well respected luthier will probably not make the Ibanez headstock due to copyright, and by your posts I am guessing that you will not be happy with that either, so once again you are going to have to accept that you may have to decommission your guitar for a short time whilst the fret board is made and attached to your existing neck.

It was actually a well respected luthier I was looking for. If you had dealt in the guitar market a lot you would find that there are plenty of people out there who have built a kit guitar and then call themselves luthiers. There are plenty of people out there on Fleabay that sell necks that they post as RRP 200GBP etc, and usually sell them for 50-60GBP, and hence may possibly be off questionable skill. So far despite having searched quite extensively I have only found the people at Ed Romans who display the confidence to deal with this, and costwise for a completed neck in Wizard II fashion with an improved profile in the nut region for additional strength and also the ability to mount the nut either front or back, they seek the princely sum of 295USD.
Also if you knew your stuff you would know there is no copyright issue with headstock shape on a neck, there is no law anywhere that says you cannot produce a neck style, or headstock shape that copies another as long as you make no claims for it.

oh....and less of the "lah de da")

Rugby World Cup?
Ashes?

ta ra

[Fosse Fox]

Originally Posted by Algiman

Strange, you would have thought they would treat you as special and do it for free!

hehe, you knew what I meant

Originally Posted by Algiman

A new fret board is probably the only way to go. It will take time (not much) and providing the luthier will book you in when he is ready so he can start work as soon as he has the guitar, rather than have it sit in the shop for a fortnight, you shouldn't be without your guitar for long.

Know ye of such an artisan Algi? Feline are in your neck of the woods aint they? The replacement fretboard is my favoured oprion in order to keep the guitar as original as possible and I'd also prefer to keep the quids on the island.

[technomancer]

Since you're in the UK have you tried http://www.simscustom.com/ ?

[jono]

I'd personally stay away from Mr Roman. I've never dealt personally with him, but I've never heard good things about him that were believable.

I've known plumbers who will also display the confidence to undertake a job, tell you they can do exactly what you're doing for about what you hoped to pay, and then turn your bathroom into a demilitarized zone. But having said that I have no idea whether Ed can fit a new bathroom suite?

There's also a lot of fuss over headstock designs and a number of respected luthiers won't build you the headstock you're after, as much as to protect their own headstock identity as to avoid the potential of infringing others.

I'd say scope for neck on the 'bay, get someone like Machinehead (who in my experience do great setup work) or Feline to swap the boards.

Or some S540LTDs in the States came with maple boards as standard, so that wouldbe an option. you can probably make the excess back by parting out the rest of the guitar after you've used the bits you're after.

good luck with your venture, and remember, if you read it on the internet, it MUST be true

[stratoskier]

Yo,
I have converted two normal heel (strat-style) necks to fit on Ibanez AANJ 22-fret bodies. This does require a bit of sanding/shaving of the neck to get the full benefits of the AANJ. You also have to drill new holes for the neck screws. This is not a difficult task for any decent luthier or general woodworker. The second one I did took about an hour. So I'd suggest that you just buy a regular heel neck from a place with a good rep (Warmoth, Carvin...) and have your local tech do the conversion for you. Unless they've changed the dimensions on the newer S-series necks/neck pockets, it should work fine.

AFAIK, the only regular production S-series necks with maple fretboards were the limited run of S540s in the mid-90s. They're very rare as aftermarket items.

Cheers,
Bert

[Fosse Fox]

Originally Posted by jono

There's also a lot of fuss over headstock designs and a number of respected luthiers won't build you the headstock you're after, as much as to protect their own headstock identity as to avoid the potential of infringing others.

I'd say scope for neck on the 'bay, get someone like Machinehead (who in my experience do great setup work) or Feline to swap the boards.

Or some S540LTDs in the States came with maple boards as standard, so that wouldbe an option. you can probably make the excess back by parting out the rest of the guitar after you've used the bits you're after.

good luck with your venture, and remember, if you read it on the internet, it MUST be true

the voice of reason....I knew it had to be here somewhere)
Machinehead eh? I shall give them a tad of contact and sound them out for a price. Theres a guy down this way in Somerset who regularly sells stuf on Fleabay, and I know he selects decent wood as I know where gets his stocks from, but after asking him for any sort of portfolio I never get a comeback. Feline I'm sure could do it, its just that their website smells of "EXPENSIVE!!!". sadly this country is a bit of a rip off for a lot of stuff, especially guitar parts and services. I've been in bike building for ages and the US has skills aplenty in most traditional crafts, but sadly this country lacks skilled artisans who can work wood and metal with any finesse.
I'll give Machinehead a look....

cheers man

Sean

[Fosse Fox]

Originally Posted by technomancer

Since you're in the UK have you tried http://www.simscustom.com/ ?

Errr, yes........do you know what they do? They spray and fit LEDs)

Sean

[technomancer]

Originally Posted by Fosse Fox

Errr, yes........do you know what they do? They spray and fit LEDs)

Sean

Err yes I do know what they do... they do what you list and in addition do custom fretboards and full custom guitars.