Shelley & Telly specs for Bendandsnap/Dan

[Howard Emerson]

Hello Dan,
I'm old enough to remember having a Fender catalog that listed neck width options as A,B, or C, and I have yet to run into an actual vintage Fender that had one of the wider options. If I recall correctly Rick Ruskin mentioned something about a 'rumor has it' sort of thing that David Lindley scarfed all of them, but......

In any event Warmoth is my go-to company for anything I need in terms of large necks to fit my large mitts.

Both of my 'builds' have 25.5" scale with 1.75" nut width, 6100SS fret wire, boatneck profile, and a 12"-16"compound radius. Here's the what the boat-neck profile and others look like. It is 1" thick at the first fret:




I did build one guitar that was Slab Strat, so no contours, double bound and I put an extra wide 1 & 7/8" Warmoth neck on it, but I sold it to a student, whose hands dwarf mine. He loves it. Here's a shot of it in front of my '61 Tremolux 15" combo amp.



I don't have Warmoth predrill for mounting because it's a waste of time, especially when using another manufacturers body.

I clamp the neck on the body with the bridge basically mounted, put on both E strings, and line it up the way I see it. THEN.....I use the body holes as a template to pass a tight drill bit through to mark the exact centers of the 4 holes. It's tedious, but worth it.

Anyway.....Shelley, the Strat build, was a concept I had for using a pair of DeArmond Dynasonic pickups, where only the pole pieces (and adjustment screw holes) would show.

I'm sure the legendary Fender Marauder (4 pickups that were under the pick guard) was partially to blame.

I did it with a blank Strat pick guard, in one take, so to speak. It took 15 minutes to do, but several months to decide how to do it....in one take. The empty pickup bobbin with carpet tape and good indexing lines was the secret:



The finished pick guard:


I used Tru-Oil for the neck finish on Shelley. The body I got from a Guitar Fetish. No finish needed.

The Tele build I bought all the parts for, but had a friend assemble for me. John Monteleone shot the finish on the neck and body, and Mike Christian did the assembly of Warmoth body & neck, and Pete Biltoft Vintage Vibe CC single coil pickups. I later had an Ilitch Hum Cancelling system installed by Bobby Popper of Tone-Master Pickups.




I hope these details give you some sense of how personal all the little things are, and that the better you know YOUR hands, body, personal aesthetics, etc, the easier it will be to do it right (for you) ONCE!!

Best regards,
Howard Emerson