Fender Strat Replacement Necks? Where?

Why don't you look in the used market. I just purchased a Yamaha Pacifica
821R for my son off of E-Bay. It cost me $150 +$25 for shipping. It retailed for $850 new. It has Dimarzio pickups with a Floyd Rose liscenced tremelo and locking tuners. These are stock items. There isn't much more you can do to it to improve it. There are lots of excellent guitars out there in the used market.
Try www.harmony-central.com for feedback from actual users.

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I have a 1965 Gibson 335 TD, worth around £3000. I also have a 1962 Gretsch
Tennessean, worth around £1500. I also have a Telecaster copy which I picked up in a junk shop for £6 and this is still one of the nicest guitars I've ever played. The point being try everything and don't hurry.

What guitar do you like playing! Does it feel comfortable?

Pick up every guitar in the shop and play it! which one plays nicely?

Pickup every guitar in the shop! Which one sounds nice!

BTW: I have a re-issue Jazzmaster with Mustang Bridge saddles a bunch of insulating tape all over the bridge as a buzz stop (well it saved me 40 quid) and I'm runninng 8's (after messing with the truss rod)

I'm modifying it with an extra circuit and a humbucker (that fits like a single coil) beteween the two soap bars. So I can have my dream guitar.

What matters is do you like playing the guitar and what do you want to do with it!???

Also does it look cool.... I'm a sucker for these things... reason why my JM hangs like an SG... if you can't play it round your ankles... what's the point!! (Kinda joke, but it does make you work harder)

Take care,

You find the guitar you want to play not the other way round.... I am now going to play Irish folk on my acoustic.... always keep an open mind is the other thing... the most important thing!!!

If all you are planning on doing is bolting on additional hardware "as you go along", just find *something* that you like that has a good neck, a body style that you like, the 'overall features' you are looking for (pickup type and arrangement, single/double cutaway, weight, where it hangs when you put a strap on it, how good the neck works for your music style, meaty frets vs thin frets vs scalloped [who in their right mind would want a scalloped neck
I haven't a clue but I've seen 'em out there] and so on). Then you can adapt to your heart's content as you go along, but the initial investment would be lower than if you shelled out $1000 for a brand new Fender only to strip it and bolt on more parts later on.

I think it does. You could also look on eBay for an 80's Fender USA made
HM Strat. One of the most underrated guitars of all time. I have 3 of them, and they're a great guitar to start without having to 'upgrade' them at all. The trem is a little on the 'less than perfect' side, but it's a direct swapout for a Floyd and they have decent pickups, fantastic ffrets and very resonant bodies. I actually prefer them bone stock, and I play everything from Freddy King to Johnny Winter to Ted
Nugent to Joe Satriani. It sounds like a 'real' Strat, but also has the ability to be a total shredmeister depending on your technique. It's an extremely versatile guitar and you can find them on eBay with cases for around $300 (new list was something like $800 in 1988). Personally, I think they're head & shoulders above any Ibanez or Jackson priced under a grand.

Good luck, - Jeff G http://dirty-ernie.com

wow does anyone agree seymour duncans are the best pick ups ever? they just do everything so amazingly competently, and many things brilliantly, for example i have an invader pick up on an epi lp, it just has no unwanted noise whatsoever, and yet is still very high output, but retains a large proportion of tone. Does anyone know of any that are better?

Duncan has almost 400 models -- some (like the
Broadcaster model for
Teles) are good, some (like the "Rails" series imo) are bad, most are mediocre and and a tad overpriced imo.

Several, as a matter of fact. It's very common for someone who's replaced the second-rate pickups in an Asian import guitar with aftermarket stuff to get very enthused over the change, whether it's to
Duncan's or to some other brand -- but that's a long way from enough experience to decide what are "the best pickups ever," which is a highly subjective judgement in any case.