I'm looking at rebuilding my old strat copy body up with a cheap neck and using it as a downtune metal type guitar. I think it'd be good to maybe have a flatter profile neck like a Jackson/Charvel, but would I be able to fit one in a standard strat neck pocket and would everything be compatible if it was still a 22 fretter? The neck pocket is actually a bit bigger than a standard fender one, not sure on the screw spacing and such - I haven't really been into DIY guitar stuff for ages so I've forgot any standard dimensions etc..

Oh and what metal pickup for a single bridge humbucker strat? It's not an amazing bit of wood so it'd probably be good to have a pickup that doesn't impart loads of the guitars wood sound into the final toane if that makes sense.

Prolly the "cheapest" i would go for a neck would be something like Mighty Mite, and ideally i would buy said neck from a place that had pictures of the actual neck for sale so that i could examine the grain structure of it and make sure i would be getting something at least decent. I was really happy with the eBay Mighty Mite that i bought this way. Was able to pick the specific one out of five or so the dood had up for sale, and it is actually pretty nice, after a little fret smooving on the edges, and some normal nut setup stuffs.

As for jackson/charvel necks on strats, in my limited tests, my Charvette neck has bolted up to pretty much every guitar i own that has a fender-ish neck pocket. It is 22fret though. A 24 fret that gets there with an overhang might work, but i dunno.

The big unknown is screw spacing though, because there is almost no standardization at all between brands aside from shit like the charvels that fender currently makes. I don't pay much attention to that stuff though, as i have filled and redrilled a few necks to get things to work on random bodies. With a drill, some glue, and some care, it isn't too hard.

Metal pickups are pretty personal taste-y IMO. Remember only that basically and very generally with passive pickups, the higher output the thing is, the less bright or interesting it will sound for cleanish sounds.

Personally, i never really like much more than PAF-hot, or maybe just over that range. Depends on how much chug your amp has built into it, and how much fizzfuzz you really want. I generally like to stay well under 10k dc resistance or so anyhow. Which is only really a rough idea of what a pickup will do, as there are some pickups that are listed up at like 14k that i have liked the sound of for metal, like the duncan distortion or custom. But in general i wouldn't generally go high output in a guitar that i intended to use very clean very much.

Turns out there are actually not many Charvel or Jackson necks about. Shame as I really liked the neck on my old Model 1C. Kinda wish I'd kept that, apart from the colour it was an awesome guitar!

Thinking I might just go for one of these as it's only a cheap guitar anyway http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New-SEC ... 7594082%26

The problem with those, is that you never know just how much work they will need in order to get set up properly, or in some cases, if they can be set up at all. I have bought a total of three random bargainbin chinese ones, and on one, the heel was angled sideways(so that the fretboard sat higher on one side than the other) and on the other the truss rod didn't work. The third, had unusable back bow that could not be removed with the truss rod it had.

My three are certainly worst case scenarios, but you are certainly more likely to run into frets that don't sit correctly(and so have to be carefully hammered flat to remove buzzes and dead strings) and potential wonkiness with the truss rods, just as you might find with a typical cheapo chinese guitar like an SX or similar.

For me, personally, i think there is a low quality range for necks beneath which i would avoid purchasing unless the price was very good, like $30 USD.

Also worf noting, the stuff they call maple, i think must be some other, related species, rather than what you would find at a wood store or on a proper Fender. Only one of the three chinese ones i have actually seems to be what i know as maple.

Basically, if you buy something like that, make sure that the place has a good return policy(beware that in order to see if the neck will set up properly, you will have to drill it, which will most likely make it unreturnable at most/all places).

Around here in the US there are more options, Allparts can be okay(but many of them will need some work, thugh usually less than the random chinese no-name stuff), Mighty Mite can be good, USACG are supposed to be properly nice, and there is always the bargain section at Warmoth...

I don't know what kind of options there are in the UK that might be similar though.

I had a mighty mite I got from Juggernaught at HC, it was on a strat, that neck was really nice I remember that.

Hmm yes very good points Mr D. I'm not really sure how much its worth spending on this guitar though as its just an old body I had on a "jim harley" strat copy (my first ever electric geetar) - think it may even be plywood. I just fancy something basic and reliable I can leave down tuned really. I guess I'll ask around on some UK boards and see if anyone has used those cheap ones. I remember a while ago someone on ebay was doing necks for a similar price and they seemed alright quality

As for the pickup, I won't really be doing much clean stuff as I rarely do anyway, if I do then it's on my p90 guitar anyway. I have an SD custom custom I'll just stick in for a bit but I always found it a bit too warm and mushy, especially for metal.

I have always been a big fan of the JB in straty type guitars (bolt on maple neck, body of alder). They work together in a way that I enjoy. Basically it is the uber eighties hair toan, which I'm down with. That would be my go-to for a single humbucker rock axe.

hmm yeah that seems like the kinda thing I might enjoy. I seem to recall this body sounds a bit dull acoustically so the JB will probably work ok for it. Gonna see what the Custom Custom is like with a 500k pot first though, since I already have the CC lying around somewhere.

How do I go about shimming a neck pocket if I need to? I have a feeling this one is slightly wider than a standard 56mm pocket. What do you need to do it with, just any thin strips of wood that will wedge in?

I wasn't super into the JB in anything but a mahogany guitar. It was way obnoxious in my basswood charvette. In a too thin and too harsh sort of way, not in an 80s metal sort of way, as i heard it.

In a non-mahogany guitar that i wanted to add some edge/bright to, i might be inclined to go Dimarzio Super Distortion, which is a real classic hair metaller pickup(really, like THE classic hair metaller pickup), and pretty sweet for that sort of vibe. I have also heard other folks before, suggesting that one for guitars that you want to change the natural sound of (i.e. bad wood) some.

Neck shimming is an art. Oftentimes the amount needed is less than wood pieces will provide; i often wind up using thin plastic cut out of spent NYC metrocards.

Normally, if the thing only has side to side space i won't bother. I mainly only shim if the back angle is what needs adjusting. If the pocket is to wide, you will need to put the neck on with strings on it so that you can get it straight. Once it is on straight you can take a look at where you have gaps and whether they are consistent or tapering, and from there you can see if it is something that you want to bother trying to fix via shimming.