New Winter Project: Building an SEC neck

I have a weird thing about signature guitars: some of my favorite designs are by my least favorite guitarists. I absolutely love George Lynch’s Kamikazes and owned an LTD version.

But I don’t own a single song featuring George Lynch. I don’t listen to him.

Not a fan.

And the LTD got repainted:

7-11. Just because.

I’ve always liked the Washburn N series of guitars. They’re the signature series for Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme and, lately, Rihanna (that’s what I read, anyway).

I like the guitars.

But I could do without Nuno Bettencourt.

Nothing personal, just not a fan.

My affinity for the guitars is rather silly considering I’m 6’4″ and it looks like a toy on me.

See, Nuno’s really short. And the guitar is smaller than an average guitar.

Which already look small on me.

The N4s are pretty expensive, though reasonably so, considering some of the woods and finishes they use:

Quilted maple. Yummy!

Koa. It only grows in Hawaii. Beautiful.

Python. Real python. Not paint.

Padauk. No stain or finish necessary. That’s just how it looks naturally.

Padauk is so nice I need to show it twice.

That one is really nice. But  I already have an all-Padauk guitar, thanks to Warmoth.

The biggest reason I never bought an N4 is because  the neck is pretty small for me. I’ve gotten used to my Warmoths with ridiculously big necks.

And it’s not like I don’t already have 16 guitars.

So the last thing I need to buy is another guitar.

I mean, I have enough extra parts laying around to make at least 2 more guitars.

I’d just need a body and a neck…

There seem to be a fair number of N4 bodies on eBay. The way they’re made, they have to be paired with an N4 neck. The guitar uses something called a Stephens Extended Cutaway:

That means the neck must match exactly.

Unlike the N series, Warmoths use a Fender neck ‘pocket’; any neck made to Fender specifications will fit in their neck pockets.

It makes things pretty easily interchangeable.

A regular Fender-spec neck looks like this (in the early part of construction):

The back end is 2 3/16″ wide and tapers to whatever nut width you want. Most often it’s 1 5/8″ or 1 11/16.” I prefer mine to be 1 3/4″ or even 1 7/8.” 

But the N4 isn’t like a Fender neck.

Oh, no…

It uses a much more unique method of attaching the neck to the body. So you can’t use a Fender neck. 

You can’t even use a random N4 neck.

You have to have an exactmatch.

It’s so bad that you need to match the body and neck within the time frame both were made (i.e. year or production run) because the shape and other details change year to year. So you’d have to be very lucky (or buy a lot of each) to find two that fit correctly.

Or just make your own neck.

But that’s reallyhard to do.

You’ve got to make sure you line up the neck with the center line of the bridge and pickups, while  alsomaking sure to exactly match the 4″  off-center radius of the extended cutaway so that the neck fits both properly and correctly.

Otherwise you got firewood.

Basically, I’d have to make something that looks like this:

Snaggletooth.

That’s a nightmare. I can hardly imagine doing that. I’d have to be insane or stupid.

[raises hand, blushes]

Oddly enough, raising your hand is the old-fashioned way to make a bid at an auction. Of course, now in the 21st century, we have eBay.

I’ve seen N4 bodies on eBay and hoped to get one in Ash:

I like ash, since you can just put a clear finish on it and the grain looks nice.

They dried up for a while, so I put a sillylow bid on an alder one.

Alder doesn’t look as nice as ash, and most of the time it gets painted solid colors.

Guess what? I won it.

The ash ones are back now, too. Darn it.

But no matter. I got the alder one for a price that was too low to ignore. I really was only trying to move the price up for the seller.

My reward for this altruism is a new guitar in the making:

I’ll have to make the covers for those cavities, but that’s easy and almost fun.

My winter project, then, is to craft an SEC-compatible neck for this guitar body from a Warmoth Angled Headstock Neck Blank.

By making the neck myself, I can build it larger than normal. Instead of a 42 or 43mm nut width, I’ll use 45mm. I find it much more comfortable to play. The neck will also be thicker. That makes for better sustain.

I’m also going to do a Floyd Rose nut install, which I haven’t done in 20 years (though I am sure this one will be better than the last!). It’s the chrome thing at the end of the fretboard with the three hex screws:

Oh, and that headstock is definitely getting redesigned. I’m sorry, but that one looks tacky and cheap to me.

Like a mid-60s Italian copy guitar.

Ugh.

I’ll probably go with just a normal reverse Strat headstock:

May need to replicate the logo, though it will likely become something different.

In fact, I’m sure it will.

And why not?

This body has a wood flaw, so I’m thinking solid color finish.

Besides, I want to move the volume control anyway. That’s the hole in the above photo.

Actually the hole is where the control goes. But you know what I mean.

Here’s what I’m thinking so far for finishes:

1. Serious fluorescent orange, with good coverage and sealer (though matte):

ZZZZANG!!!

2.  Paint it white, then just a cover coat in fluorescent orange. It’ll wear through pretty quickly, getting a vintage/relic thing.

3. Imitation of the Samick TV Twenty ‘Orangesicle’ finish:

4. Maple or Ash or White Oak veneer with a burst to cover the edges. But fluorescent orange burst. Something like the bass in the photo below. The guitar simply isn’t subtle, so why try to make it that way?

One of the trademarks of the Nuno guitars are the numeric stickers. They were originally (I think) used to help him (and/or his tech) be able to identify them quickly on dark stages.

Nuno’s not the sharpest pencil in the desk. He once took offense to Steve Vai (positively) calling his playingquirky .  Thank God for dictionary apps.

Different models have different numbers, and you can buy the appropriate stickers from online sellers:

The funny thing is that these stickers are available all over the place in America, at damn near every Wal Mart or truck stop you stumble into. But I can’t find a single one in Hong Kong.

I don’t want my guitar to have N4 anyway. But if anyone reading this Stateside can get me some other ones that are the same size (3″) and font, please let me know. I just need something other than N4.

*It will be a lot of work, but I already have almost all the parts I need: tuners, bridge, R5 nut, output jack and plate, toggle switch, pickups, pickup rings, strap.*

My mother is sending me the guitar body, and I need to put in an order with Warmoth for the neck blank. I need a fretboard too, so I have to look around for that.

But hopefully soon I’ll be updating this latest (mis)adventure in guitar building.

Wish me luck, I’ll need it!