Making sure I buy the right scale neck. Advice?

[b12670]

Since I got so much good info and tips the last time I posted about rehabbing an old yard sale find. (80's Cort V) I wanted to try the Harmony Central info well one more time.

See, when I picked up that other V at the yard sale, I also got an old Cort V body as part of the deal.

 

I've never built a kit guitar or done too much beyond the basics as far as wiring and hardware go.

But the price was right so I've got this body that I want to try and build out.

I see plenty of advice online about how to measure a neck's scale.

But I can't seem to find any info on how to determine what scale neck you need if you only have the body itself to reference.

 

I matched up an old bolt on Ibanez rx neck I had laying around with it and it seemed to line up.

Fit snug in the pocket and had the slight fret board overlap on the back of the neck that extended past the heel that seemed to be what the original neck would have also done.

(ie. not ending at the edge of the neck pocket)

So is that the scale? I honestly can't tell.

I know the obvious answer would be 'string it up and if it tunes true, then bingo.'

Thing is: I just have the body. No hardware. No bridge. Just the slab of wood as of right now. I just want to make sure buy the right scale neck for it the first time. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Picture link here

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0zK5oCfIIUobWVnUENrd1hEc3M

[onelife]

If you can set the Ibanez neck in the pocket of the body you can take some measurments to check for scale length.

 

Measure the distance between the nut on the neck to where the bridge would sit on the body.

 

Measure the distance between the nut and the 12th fret - it should be half the distance from the nut to the bridge.

 

Another way to look at it is that the distance from the bridge to the 12th fret will be the same as the distance between the bridge and the 12th fret if the neck you have is the proper scale length.

 

The scale length, by definition, is the distance between the nut and the bridge on a properly setup guitar.

[b12670]

Thanks. That makes perfect sense. Should have mentioned I eBay'd the Ibanez neck so now I don't even have that to reference. I have a cheap Dean V with a bolt on that seems to line up pretty close with the Cort V's profile when I put them back to back. Could I use that one as a fairly accurate measuring template?

[Freeman Keller]

OK, lets make a few assumptions. The flying Vees that I am familiar with have all been set necks, yours is a screw on. When I squint at this picture of a Cort Vee, it looks like the body joint is at the 19th fret (that is what I remember from the Epi Vee that I worked on)

 

 

Gibson vees are 24.75 scale, 22 frets and also meet the body at the 19th fret. Lets assume that yours does also. Running the fret calculator for 24.75 scale puts the 19th fret 16.491 inches from the nut. Subtracting that from the scale length puts the nominal bridge location 8.259 inches from the 19th fret (ie the body joint). As you know we normally locate the bridge so the farthest forward saddle location is at the scale length or a hair back - in other words you always add positive compensation so that would be your starting point.

 

Put your bridge back on and adjust the saddles as far forward as you can, then measure to the points of the body next to where the neck would be. If that distance is 8-1/4 inch (or a hair more) then your scale is standard Gibson 24.75 (remember that Gibson changed scale lengths by small amounts over the years). If its not 8-1/4 then report back with the actual measurement.

 

Your next problem is going to be finding a screw on neck that will fit your pocket, has the 19th fret at the body joint and has 24.75 scale, as well as having the radius that you want (I think most Vees were 12 inch). Critical measurements will be the width and depth of the tenon to make sure it will fit into your pocket - with luck your new neck will not be drilled. You are going to have to spend a lot of time looking at each neck manufacturer's web site for all of the critical dimensions - however you can rule out all Fender style necks.

 

Add to that the difficulty that your neck is screw on yet most of the other Vee's are set, almost always at an angle of 4 degrees to work with a ToM bridge (it looks like you have some other sort of bridge).

 

 

[Freeman Keller]

This might help - Guitar Fetish sells a flying vee body with a bolt on neck. Here is the neck that they recommend

 

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Unfinish...-_p_19486.html

 

They don't give any dimensions other than the scale length at 24.75 and frankly I've never been very impressed with GF's quality but for fifty bucks you might just want to give it a try.

 

oops, just saw that they are on sale but out of stock. Oh well.......

[b12670]

Knew I came to the right place with this question. Yes. I've been scoping some less expensive bolt on necks on ebay from China. Most topping out at about 65.00US with shipping. I know these aren't going to be top quality necks. But come on, it's a Cort body I'm working with here and spending a bundle on a better than average neck seems silly to me.

Anyway pretty much across the board for the Gibson style necks they are offering only 24.75 scale with a slight overhang to the back of the fret board so it extends slightly off the heel.

Another thing I'm banking on is that these old Cort's didn't vary too much in terms of neck scale seeing as that they were cheaply mass produced and especially with the bolt on models, they probably wanted to just have one or two stock necks that went with an entire line of guitars.

Worst case scenario: I'm out sixty bucks and change and will have a pristine replacement neck to unload on Reverb or Ebay.

Best case scenario: I get a match and I can build my yard sale Franken-V. Thanks heaps for the detailed responses as always.

[b12670]

 

Add to that the difficulty that your neck is screw on yet most of the other Vee's are set, almost always at an angle of 4 degrees to work with a ToM bridge (it looks like you have some other sort of bridge).

 

Yes . Good eye. The original bridge on these was a Strat style six point. But as you can see there was a botched attempt by someone to update to either a Floyd or some other two point system. Was going to plug those holes and go back to the traditional six point if I can get past the neck hurdle.

 

[Freeman Keller]

The thing that I don't understand is how they (GF) can claim their neck fits both a vee and a Lester. A Les Paul meets the body at the 16th fret, a vee at the 19th. They are both the same scale length. That means the heel and tenon must be in radically different locations - there is over 1-1/2 inches between the 16th and 19th frets so explain how that works.

 

Keep us posted

[Freeman Keller]

Part of the problem with that is you really need to know what bridge you are putting on it (or was on it before) since that is the starting point for all your measurements. This might help - plug in your scale length (24.75) and number of frets (22) - it will give you the location of all frets (including that important 19th). It will also give you the critical mounting measurements for most common bridge. Note that these are often to a pivot or mounting screw rather than the actual bridge but its actually easier when working in the shop. Your challenge is to reverse engineer the whole thing

 

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

[b12670]

Ah, light at the end of the tunnel then ( non oncoming train variety) I know for a fact that the original bridge on this model was a six point trem with narrow saddles ( mexi Strat / import scale) because I have the other Cort v with the original bridge in place. Not to mention the obvious six point screw holes in it.

So I could drop that exact bridge in it first, then use that StewMac calculation (thanks for that) and I'll be in business!

And no, the intact Cort V I have varies slightly to this body in that the neck pocket is higher up on the body and the fretboard on that one terminates at the heel with no overlap. Otherwise I could just get my measurements from that one. But no dice. The models are not identical. The bridge screw holes ,however, are!