Seeing as Fender pioneered the bolt-on neck electric guitar, it makes sense that they would pioneer the conversion neck as well.  Some of Fender’s earliest guitars were designed as student models which featured shorter scale length necks designed for players with smaller hands.  Presumably younger players who would learn on their student model Fender and later graduate to a full scale top o’ the line Fender guitar.  The most common of those shorter scale lengths was 24″, but a shorter 22.5″ scale length neck could be ordered.  Fender did not make different bodies for these necks.  There was no need to, you simply unbolted one neck, and then bolted the other one on.

Most of the people who have asked me about conversion necks have inquired about longer scale necks for already shortscale (24″ or less scale length) Fenders.  Most often is someone enamored with the flashy looks of the Fender Jaguar.  The Jaguar, at the time of its release, was considered the top of the line Fender, but for some reason they decided to put a 24″ scale length neck on it.  I can’t fault anyone for wanting a Jaguar.  They are the hot rod of the electric guitar.  A Burgundy Mist Metallic Jag is one of my dream guitars.  But the shorter scale length can be hard on folks who, like me, have big hands.

So here, I present to you a few of my studies in making conversion necks for shortscale Fenders.  I’m using a Jaguar for demonstration purposes, but these same specs would apply to most (if not all) shortscale Fenders.

First, just for reference purposes, here is a normal Fender Jaguar.

I’ve made one conversion neck already, and at the time my goal was to make a longer neck that I could still cut fret slots in using a fret slotting template I already had.  Why I didn’t just go with Fender’s normal 25.5″ scale length, I’m not sure.  The number I came up with was 25.227″.  I knew I could make it with the tools I had, and it worked out fine.  It was an odd duck with 23 frets.  Last I heard it was in Sweden.

You’ll notice there that I have pointed out the distance from the last fret to the end of the fretboard.  That number may not be important to some people, but to me it is.  On many classic 21 fret Fender necks the distance from the last fret to the end of the fretboard is 0.5″.  The end of the neck is radiused, and if that distance and radius aren’t exactly the same as the vintage Fenders, it just doesn’t look “right” to me.  Many modern Fenders have an extended fretboard to accommodate a 22nd fret, and while I don’t have a problem with that idea, the way the fretboard ends just barely after that 22nd fret looks really bad to my eye.  It looks like an afterthought.  That’s not something that I want to do on my necks, but to each his own.

Anyway, the most typical scenario I come across is someone who wants a standard 25.5″ scale conversion neck for their shortscale Fender.  With the higher price of necks, it’s often just an easier/cheaper option to use a normal Fender neck, but have a modified body made.  I’ve seen where people just fit the Jaguar chrome pieces and pickups on to a Jazzmaster body, since they are similar enough that the look is nearly the same.  On Mustangs you can just move the whole bridge/vibrato assembly back appropriately and that’s pretty much it.

But I aim to put all the questions about this subject to rest, so here are the few option I’ve come up with to the aim of actually making a true 25.5″ scale conversion neck.

The first one is very similar to my previous 23 fret wonder.  The idea being that we don’t want a fingerboard overhang, and we’ll just put as many frets as we can fit, and whatever space is left on the fretboard is just what it is.

But 23 frets is a weird number of frets to have on a guitar.  No doubt many people wouldn’t care either way, but pray tell good sir, why can’t we fit another fret on there?  Here’s why.

Yeah.  Doesn’t work very well does it?  Looks like we’re going to have to go the overhang route.

I drew up two options here, and they’re not all that different.

Hey!  Those aren’t so bad.  See, the overhang isn’t a bad thing as long as it’s done right.  The second option is a little stubby looking, but not too bad.  I think a third option, maybe somewhere around 3/8″ would look good and not out of place.

Last, I’d like to show off another idea I toyed with.  I really like this idea, and I’ve got the templates and such to make a neck like this, and I hope to prototype one soon.  I wanted a 24 fret neck with no overhang and scale length was actually a secondary concern.  It ended being close to 27″ which is a versatile scale length that could be used either in baritone or drop tunings, but can also be used in standard for wonderful tones, as evidenced by my friend Jim Soloway’s awesome guitars.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Jaguar and Mustang are trademarks of FMIC.