Now that I have decided to stick with a Fender Custom Shop '69 Reissue Black Nitro Body, all I need to complete the outfit is no other than the Fender Custom Shop David Gilmour Black Strat '57 vintage nitro neck! Let me tell you, this is one snazzy neck! It features the '83 Fullerton Reissue '57 neck that had a low shoulder C shape profile instead of the V profile originally found on a '57 Strat. The taper goes as follows ,(.790" to .870" Taper). David Gilmour decided to take the neck off of his '57 Reissue Strat and put it on the Black Strat, which is still found on it to this day (alongside copies of the neck!) Fender Custom Shop has done a fabulous job on creating the dimensions of Gilmour's Black Strat neck. Here's a few points of interest to show you this isn't another Warmoth or Mighty Mite neck...
But first, some profile shots!
Although this might look exactly like the neck on the Black Strat, you might guess wrong. It should be noted that the FCS DG neck is a one piece maple neck, when in fact the original Black Strat has a TWO piece maple neck (the second being a maple cap on the fretboard). Although this may seem insignificant, it is important to know that it was done (most likely as a refret gone resurface job). The following image is from Phil Taylor's book on the Black Strat.
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| The Black Strat & Original '57 Reissue Neck |
Aside from that, it seems as this neck was build with a synthetic nut, which quite surprised me! I don't know anymore than the fact that this might be the wrong nut for his guitar, but I won't find out the real answer until it get's to the shop for final adjustment.
*Update: It was verified by Fender Custom Shop in Corona, CA that the ORIGINAL Black Strat had a synthetic nut installed for proper tremolo action. For this matter, I am having the white String Saver TUSQ XL Nut installed rather than having the Standard Synthetic nut offered by FCS.
*Update: It was verified by Fender Custom Shop in Corona, CA that the ORIGINAL Black Strat had a synthetic nut installed for proper tremolo action. For this matter, I am having the white String Saver TUSQ XL Nut installed rather than having the Standard Synthetic nut offered by FCS.
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| Fender Custom Shop Synthetic Nut |
Fender Custom Shop decided to keep the 12th fret dot's with the narrow spacing, found on original vintage necks as well as the original Black Strat. Note on the following photo, a real Fender neck has the nitro lacquered OVER the frets, NOT prior to installing the frets! This neck, because it is a '57 reissue, uses the 6230 Fret wire (.078" x .043").
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| 12th Fret narrow-spaced Dot Inlay & Nitro Covered 6230 Vintage Fret Wiring |
One piece on the neck that I cannot ever get my eyes off of is the spaghetti-style Fender Stratocaster Logo. This one is based on the late 50's style logo (duhh, it's a '57 reissue neck!). This also includes the decal "Original Contour Body" located on it's right side on the peghead. Just like the original, these waterslide decals are placed AFTER the nitro. Newer style necks have them underneath the clear coat. Remember those Tuner bushings! (more on those on a later post.)
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| '57 Spaghetti font Fender Waterslide Decal |
Let's not forget the Custom Shop Decal located behind the peghead of the neck! This is NOT placed over the lacquer, instead it is UNDER the nitro lacquer! (On a side note, i've noticed quite a few Fender CS DG necks have just the Custom Shop decal, whether it's the NOS or Relic, but not with "When You're Ready" words below. Can mine be a one-off neck, or is it just me?!?)
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| Fender Custom Shop Decal |
Fender Custom Shop even lacquered over the Truss Nut! Remember, this is a reissue, so no hole in the center of the Truss Nut like the originals (the same is seen on the Black Strat.)
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| Reissue Truss Nut |
The last important piece of detail that will give a fake neck away is the writing on the underside of the neck (where is rests in the body neck pocket!). As you can see, it is stamped D-Gilmour, alongside it's production date and all those who were either QC or preparation.
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| Fender Custom Shop David Gilmour Black Strat stamps & signatures |
There you have it! One of the finest necks currently out on production, but are difficult to find by itself (it's sacrilegious to take a Black Strat apart!). This one particular neck was found on eBay, so chances are you can find one as well. Reminder though! This is a nitro lacquered neck, so when shipping from different states, keep in mind the weather changes and the humidity the neck will be exposed to. With sudden changes of weather to your neck, you may run the risk of a coating effect called "checking". In my case, I decided to install a hygrometer in the case to check humidity and to avoid an effect on such a beautiful neck! So far, we have the two main components of a guitar, so next on my checklist would have to be the tremolo! On the next post, I'll go in depth on the Tremolo used on the Black Strat and other interesting parts I got to get the original look!
David Sarmiento
