Fender replacement neck vs. Warmoth replacement neck
It's really easy to replace a Strat neck these days, but which is the better choice? Fender or Warmoth?
Actually, there are 3 places where you can get Strat necks (as well as other Fender necks) easily. Fender themselves (if you see a Fender logo on it, it's from Fender), Warmoth and AllParts. True, there are other places to get Strat necks, but when you want a neck that "just works" with the least amount of hassle, you go Fender, go Warmoth or go AllParts.
In the way the pricing works, Warmoth has the lowest price - but - that's only if you buy one of their in-stock necks. If you custom build a neck from their web site, the price goes up quite a bit.
Fender has the mid-tier price depending on which neck you get. If you get a Mexico-made neck, it's mid-tier cost. If you get the USA-made neck, the price is obviously significantly higher.
AllParts Strat necks have varying prices, but they do offer a very ritzy option if you want it - the quartersawn neck. It's expensive, but believe me, "quartersawn" isn't just a marketing term. It's a real thing where you get the straightest possible wood grain and it genuinely costs more to source compared to flatsawn/plainsawn.
As far as who offers the best replacement Strat neck, here's how I sort that out:
"Looks like a Fender"
Get the Fender neck. Other than buying a parted-out Strat neck from eBay (which is completely legal to do), if you want that Fender logo the legal way, you have to buy a neck from Fender.
"Gives me the most neck options"
Get a custom Warmoth neck. Necks from Warmoth can be configured in many different ways, including a custom conversion option where you can order yourself a 24.75" Gibson scale instead of the standard 25.5" Fender scale.
"Gives me the most builder-friendly options"
Get a neck from AllParts. For example, if you want an unfinished neck where you apply the sealant yourself, AllParts sells that. Or if you want a quartersawn board or even a baritone Strat neck, AllParts sells those too along with many others. When you want the kind of Strat neck that "gets you more into the wood", to so speak, AllParts suits best here.
My thoughts on not-so legal Fender waterslide decal logos
Easy to find, but I do not recommend using them.
You are better off using a custom headstock logo instead.
Why?
Because otherwise you're going to feel some serious regret.
Let's say you go ahead and buy a not-so legal Fender decal and apply it to your new non-Fender replacement Strat neck. Done and done.
Every time you look at that guitar, you know it's not a true Fender. It doesn't matter how many people you fool into thinking it is a Fender. You know it's not.
Now let's say you put your own custom decal on the headstock. That's a completely guilt-free free thing you can do. No regret involved whatsoever.
In the end, if you really, really want that Fender logo for the cheapest possible price, just buy a parted-out neck from eBay like I said above. It's not as expensive as you think. No, it's not as cheap as a logo, but at least your mind will be at ease from knowing that yes, you've got a true Fender neck with true Fender serial number on it.
Guitar of the week #99 - Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2
When you want a Super Fender Telecaster, you actually want a Charvel.
There are some guitar players out there that want a Fender Telecaster that has a contour cut in the rear like a Stratocaster, comes equipped with a pair of "hot" humbuckers and has a Floyd-Rose tremolo system.
That guitar is the Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2. (And in case you're wondering what the Style 1 is, that's a Super Strat).
Charvel is able to get away with a Strat-style headstock and Telecaster styling because they are a Fender brand. In effect, Charvel pretty much has free reign to copy the Fender Strat and Tele as much as they want to since it's all under the same Fender umbrella, so to speak.
What you get with the Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2 is a Telecaster/Stratocaster inspired guitar with a pair of premium Seymour Duncan pickups (a JB TB-4 and a '59), push-pull coil-split electronics with no-load tone circuit, Floyd-Rose FRT-O2000 trem system, and a neck that's a 25.5" with 12-to-16" compound radius.
What makes this guitar worth getting? It's basically a Fender Elite Telecaster with a Floyd that costs a whopping $1,200 less than the Fender.
Is the guitar worth getting?
If you were to modify a Fender Telecaster yourself with everything that comes in the Charvel Pro-Mod, you'd end up spending over a grand for something you can buy already completed for less cash. Remember, part of what makes the Charvel real nice is that neck with the compound radius on it.
The closest Fender-branded equivalent is the special edition custom Fender Telecaster FMT HH. That axe is $100 less than the Charvel, but there's no Floyd on that guitar, so that's the tradeoff. It also doesn't have the compound radius, but it does have a super-flat 15.75" with jumbo fret wire, which is fairly close in spec to the Charvel.
In the end, it all depends how bad you want a Tele with a Floyd on it. Charvel basically makes the best Floyd-equipped Tele there is without going into 4-figure price territory. And since Charvel is a Fender brand, it is the most "Fender-ish" Super Tele you can get right now.
Short scale guitar note "warping" and what you can do about it
Guitars like the Squier Bullet Mustang HH (a very nice low-cost guitar) are cool, but there is a known problem with a short scale electric you should be aware of.
Before telling you what it is, a few quick notes:
The scale measurement on a guitar is the measurement from the bridge to the nut. On a 6-string electric, a scale length of 24 inches or fewer is short scale. This includes guitars like the Squier mentioned above, the Fender Mustang, Fender Duo-Sonic, Squier Jaguar and a few others.
Note "warping"
When you play a chord and you move the side-to-side (as in you physically twist your waist while holding the instrument), the notes "warp", meaning they pitch slightly flat. When you stop moving, the pitch returns to normal.
It's normal to freak out a little when first hearing this because you may think something is wrong with the guitar. There isn't. On a short scale there is less string tension compared to a longer scale, so when you shift the guitar, note warping happens more easily.
Solution #1: Always stretch your strings properly to put the most string tension on the neck.
Solution #2: Try thicker strings.
Solution #3: Try not to flail around so much when playing.
Does note warping make the short scale electric suck?
No. In fact, when owners of short scale electrics realize it is the nature of the instrument to have notes go slightly flat from side-to-side movements, they breathe a sigh of relief because now they know what causes it.
Some short scale electric owners hear the note warping and think it's bad wood, bad strings, bad construction or bad-something-else. No, it's none of those things and your guitar is fine. It's just less string tension from the shorter scale that causes the neck wood to bend more easily from side-to-side movement.
I'm a G-SHOCK guy
It took me a long time to figure something out...
...and that something is that I've been a G-SHOCK guy all along and didn't know it.
With guitars, I found out that my true calling was Fender and Squier offset models. The Jazzmaster, specifically. If someone had told me back in my teens that one day I would simply stop playing Strats completely and switch over to this weird-ass shaped, buzzy, trebly-extreme guitar with a gaggle of controls, I would have called you insane. But that's exactly what happened. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Similarly, if someone had told me that the perfect wristwatch for me is a Casio G-SHOCK, I would have called you insane on that one too. But now I own a G-SHOCK. Just as the Jazzmaster is the guitar that totally says "me", a G-SHOCK says the same and that's what I wear on my wrist daily. But it took me a few years to realize this.
If you go back through my older posts here, there are more than a few things I've written about Casio watches as well as other brands. It started in 2011, and it wasn't until January 2017 that I finally bought a a used Casio G-SHOCK DW-9052. I wasn't even planning on buying one, but I was scanning around eBay, found one in great shape, placed 1 bid on it not thinking I'd actually win, and won it for just 29 bucks.
In the short time I've owned a G-SHOCK, I now understand why these things are so great. It has been said in YouTube videos, forums and other places that "those who know get a G-SHOCK". They just handle life better than any other watch you could get.
An example of "handling life"
Recently I had to drag a lawnmower out of the shed and get the thing running to do some mowing with it (yes, Floridians do start mowing in late February and early March). I got it running and mowed the grass. While doing that I glanced at my watch a few times because there were some errands I needed to run later that day at a certain time.
Not once did I worry about whether the watch could handle grass and dirt thrown at it. And oh yeah, it got dirty. But it was nothing to worry about. After I was done mowing, I went inside and just washed it off in the kitchen sink.
Had this been a smartphone, the dirt thrown around would have scratched up the screen like crazy, and you don't exactly hold a phone under running water to clean it. Even if I kept the phone in the pocket, I wouldn't have been able to pull it out anyway because I was wearing work gloves. But let's say I could have magically pulled the phone out. My work gloves would have scratched up the screen along with the dirt flying around.
It is the tough-built nature of the G-SHOCK that makes it worth owning. Knock it around, get it dirty, get it wet, whatever... it can handle just about anything.
One more G-SHOCK to get...
On my wish list is the second G-SHOCK I want to get, the G9100 Gulfman. And I have a very specific reason for wanting it.
I love the DW-9052, but there is only one thing it doesn't have that I wish it did. Multiple alarms. I do use those almost every day. Right now I use two watches to get that task done. I wear the DW-9052 and keep a cheap AE1200 at my desk for a second alarm.
Aside from the DW-9052, there are only two G-SHOCK models with multiple alarms and a countdown timer with auto-repeat (which I also require) that fit my wrist. The G9000 Mudman and the G9100.
What keeps me from getting a G9000 Mudman is the fact the buttons on that model require a very firm press to work. This is by design. The reason it's called a Mudman is because it has extra protection over all the buttons to keep mud and dirt out of the case.
The G9100 Gulfman's buttons can be pressed much more easily. Function-wise it's much different than the Mudman as it has things like moon phase and tide prediction. It also has a titanium case back, hence the reason it says "RUST RESIST" right on the strap, as the titanium resists rust and corrosion better than a stainless steel case back would.
I don't necessarily need the moon phase and tide prediction, but I do need G-SHOCK toughness in a watch that has multiple alarms and timer with auto-repeat.
When I do get that G9100 in one way or another, if it fits right (and I think it will), I believe it will pretty much the best watch I could possibly own. There is nothing better out there for what I need a wristwatch for. And believe me, I've looked. The G9100 ticks all the right boxes, so hopefully I will be getting one at some point.
Guitar of the week #98 - Guild T-Bird ST P90
This bird sings.
There may be some of you who already know of the Guild S-200 T-Bird. The ST P90 version is based off the S-200 but is more simplified. There are fewer switches and no vibrato. While I do like the S-200, I find the simplicity of the ST P90 to be the better player's guitar.
If you're wondering whether or not this guitar has neck dive, I already know it doesn't because of the top horn. You'll notice how it goes over the 12th fret; that is the sign the guitar body was designed right and will not dive.
The pickups in this guitar are a pair of Franz P90s, described by Guild as "perfect for the player looking for that crisp, vintage, single-coil sound, offering plenty of mid-range output that can be driven to a soaring classic rock tone".
What does that mean? It means an above-average P90 pickup with good output that is voiced properly for what it is.
Is this guitar a reissue? Yes and no. The S-200 is absolutely a reissue of the same Guild guitar built between 1964 and 1968. The ST P90 has the shape but is not the reissue like the S-200 is. However, as I noted above, I believe the ST P90 is the better player's guitar.