Quote:
Originally Posted by jb4674
You can't put a 24 fret neck on a saber period. If the scale of the body didn't accomodate 24 frets then it's not possible because you would have to reposition the tremolo in order for the guitar to be able to intonate.
Jimmy  |
Thats close but not exactly true.... but it is indeed a lot of work If I ever get my camera back I'll be able to post pictures of a Saber I just did with a 24 fret neck. I have not painted it yet but otherwise it's done. I took 48 pictures of the project in various stages with that antique stuff called film... I let someone borrow my digital camera for a day or two & have not seen it since... I think that was around 4th of July
The one thing I see as being a problem is changing the scale length. Personally I wouldnt mess with that.
There is a way to do this uing Ibanez parts using an early square heel RG neck... so you'll have a real Wizard profile instead of a close approximation to it.
With the RG neck:
The scale length is the same. There is no issue there.
What will be a problem however you decide to do it is the neck pickup, either a single coil or humbucker will have to be relocated. as frets 23 & 24 will be where your neck pickup currently resides.
I used an early square heel 89' RG neck with the overhang. The actual heel on these necks are the same (except for the depth) as the S's & even traditional Stratocasters . In addition to moving the neck pickup this method also requires routng the top of the saber body in the same way as the early RGs were done.... which also means a complete refin is needed unless youre amazingly lucky or good
. It's hard to tell on an RG without seeing one with the neck off but the overhanging portion of the fretboard is recessed into the RG body. I chose to do it this way for several reasons.
Personally I prefer the layout of this method over the way Shred Alamode's was done. It keeps the overall balance of the guitar the same as a 22 fret S as well as where my right hand lays over the bridge etc. Moving the bridge etc the 20mm or so required to do it the other way is just not comfortable to me... Of course thats just my preference though. People also often mention issues with the tone of the neck pickup being moved back as opposed to moving everything else foward but in my experience it changes either way & that it is the pickups relation to where it is over the scale length that is more responsible for it's tone than where it is on the body. To experiment with this theory you can hook up a pickup wth some clip leads & hold it over the guitar (not installing it) & if you position it over the typical pup locations you will here the tone changes you would expect without the pickup even being installed in the guitar.
It is a lot easier to move a neck pickup than moving everything else.
Edit: Also using the square
heel neck on the AANJ body you will also need to drill new holes.. but that is one of the easier tasks in a project like this.
