custom aanj neck - how to go about getting one

[bunghole]

Sometimes the Ibanez necks just feel way too thin for me (particularly when playing death metal type stuff). Is there a builder that will make me an AANJ custom neck to my specifications (i.e. thicker neck, different back contour, radius)

about how much would that cost?

[newbieguitarmaker]

Check Et Guitars up above, also Jaden Rose up above, also Chris Woods. They will probably talk to you about the custom job and they can tell you how much it will cost.

[andrewgosline]

from my survey,
legacy claims 225 USD, ET seems around 300 AUD, chris woods is like 300USD. I don't know how much thicker you're going to get from these builders. My feeling is that they usually go for the thin ibanez style, in general. I bought a wizard II neck specifically cause I found the original wizard and wizard prestige too thin, as you do. Might be something to consider. For the cost of a used wizard II neck, a fretman could re-radius it for a similar price to a new custom neck.

good hunting

[bunghole]

I don't know what kind of thickness I would go for. Probably 21 mm at the first fret

[LonePhantom]

ETs necks are in the Wizard II range, so if you want a slightly thicker neck that would be who to go for. Legacy I wouldn't go for as many who have paid for stuff have not received it, and Chris Woods I wouldn't bother with either because it takes an eternity to receive anything.

[stratoskier]

My recommendation is to get a standard square heel neck (undrilled) and reshape it to an AANJ. This allows you to buy a neck from any of the many reputable suppliers (Warmoth, USACG, ...) and take advantage of the many different neck styles they sell. I've done this quite a few times now on 22-fret necks with good results. If you don't feel comfortable doing the work, then any decent woodworker could do it for you.

Disclaimer: I haven't done this on a 24-fret neck, and I'm not familiar enough with the neck joint configuration on those to be certain there are no issues to interfere with this operation. Can someone verify that the mating areas on a 24-fret body+neck are the same on AANJ vs. square, so, like on my 22-fretters, the mod only involves removing wood?

[andrewgosline]

Stratoskier has a good idea. However, I believe that the mating areas for AANJ24 and square heel 24 (like old jem) are not the same. The neck pocket on AANJ 24 occurs between frets 17-24, while the neck pocket on the old style square heel jem occurs between frets 16-22. So there are 2 frets worth of fretboard hanging off the end of the neck. I just read somewhere that someone used an old square heel 24f ibanez neck and converted it to AANJ by adding wood underneath the fretboard extension. This seems like a feasible method for getting any neck shape you want to be AANJ. The only limitation that I see is the use of a bottom adjusting truss rod. When adding the wood, you could be blocking or making access to the truss rod nut (heel adjusting) difficult. If you used a tiltback headstock, though, there would be no problem. Something to think about. Pricing out the warmoth option would be something like

173 for the neck, 25 for the fretboard extension, 40 for locknut preparation, 35 for one of the 'custom' neck carves.

Seems a lot of $$ considering after you get the neck you'd still have to buy some 3/4" maple, square up the heel joint, glue on the wood to the fretboard extension, then reshape the old fender heel, then attach the neck. It sure would be fun though.

[stratoskier]

That's good information -- thanks, Andrew.

So to summarize -- on a 22-fret neck, the mod is doable (takes me about an hour). On a 24-fret neck, it's probably not advisable.

[andrewgosline]

oh oh, i almost forgot. Perhaps try soulmate guitars. I'd contact them about your concerns.

http://soulmateguitars.com/

[Mike239]

Originally Posted by newbieguitarmaker

Check Et Guitars up above, also Jaden Rose up above, also Chris Woods. They will probably talk to you about the custom job and they can tell you how much it will cost.

+1

Any of those guys would be good.

The whole point of custom builders, is they build you something to your requirements, so if you want a thicker neck then they can do it for you thats what their there for.

[bunghole]

here's the response I got from ET

"Thanks for writing. We can custom make the thickness and profile. The price
would be a little more because we would need to do some re-programming of
our CNC cutting routine, but the surcharge would be no more than USD50 over
our basic prices. I'm gathering you are after a very chunky strat style profile. If
you have more questions, please feel free to ask."

sounds pretty good