In search of advice about customizing guitar!$#
 

First off please only respond if you know what your talking about or have done this before. (sorry but I cant risk messing this up)

I own a Samick Royale 1, which is a very well made guitar (bodywise) but the hardware/pickups/bridge all leave room for big improvement. Now I can replace the pickups and hardware (tuners, screws, knobs, etc) without a problem but i run into trouble when trying to replace the neck/bridge/pickguard. Since the body is a Samick I am wondering what necks will fit (im looking for mahogany since the body is that) as well as what pickguards and bridges (no tremolo needed).

Bascially I would like the guitar to be like a ES335/Telecaster like, but still its own. The biggest problem here is really the neck/bridge, in which is dont know what will work on a Samick RL1.

Attachment 3286

Well I found my neck is 2 3/16's inches wide, as are all fenders. Im hoping this may mean I could use a tele neck without much work?

That looks like a set-neck, which means that replacing the neck would be an extremely expensive option at best. You could end up easily paying a few hundred to have that work done, and thats only if the luthier used hide glue to set the joint. If they used any other type of glue, it could well be impossible.

edit: Yea I just checked its bolt on. The RL1 is the only one with the bolt on luckily. (I was hoping you'd see this thread lol)

So what should the next step be in finding a neck?

Warmoth and a whole host of custom builders will make you a fender diemnsions neck with almost any specification you want. I would suggest contacting them, or for more a personal touch (And slightly higher quality) I would contact ET Guitars or Jaden Rose.

(Note the last two have some waiting lists right now)

Any specs you want on the neck woodwise?

Well I would perfer mahogany, but maple would do. How much would it cost for an average fitting? ( I though they may have one that already fits since many companies make bolt on neck sizes identical to fenders.

All those makers will make fender pocket neckat standard prices, no additional charge. they'll also make them from any woods you wants with any construction. If you're going mahogany, I would recommend getting a 5 piece neck made with the fillets made of a brighter wood like maple. It counteracts deadspots and will stop the mahogany making things all woolly and muddy. also makes the neck stronger.

If you really want to go overboard btw, you can buy some threaded inserts and use them to attach the neck. Its a bit of work, but it makes the join much stronger and thusly increases sustain etc.

Stainless Steel guitar neck fixing kits

The kit in the link is exactly what I need anyways so that will work out. And if thats the case with mahogany I may just switch to maple since the sound difference is only slight.

Where should I take the guitar now to check and see for sure if the body can for sure take a non customized fender neck?

am i just getting crazy deja vu or didn't we have this exact discussion a few weeks ago?

quite frankly if you want to replace every part of the guitar besides the body you might as well just get a new guitar. in the long run it'll be WAY less hassle and likely a lot cheaper.

THAT KIT IS 45 POUNDS?!?!?! for a plate of metal and 4 screws and washers? FORTY FIVE POUNDS???!?!?!?!!!!! WHAT. THE. ****? you're looking at the better part of $100 to get that stateside. for a chunk of metal smaller than a credit card.

really though, if you want an ES-335 suck it up and save up for an actual ES-335. some homemade custom job isn't going to compare and will never satisfy (plus the longer you tinker with it the longer it'll take you to save up for a 335). if you want to make it into some sort of project frankenstein guitar then great, do it up. just stop comparing it to a 335 or a telecaster. if you want one of those get one those, a project guitar will never live up and continuously comparing your project guitar to those higher end models will always make the slight differences and deficiencies even more glaring.

even putting a telecaster neck on the guitar isn't going to change the tone that much (if at all) as you'd still be slapping in a 22 fret neck. a 24 fret neck would be longer and would in turn increase the scale length (which in turn brightens your tone). otherwise if you stick with a 22 you'd need to change the actual location of the bridge in order to give it a hint of the fender style brightness. that means routing new holes for the bridge and filling the ones that are already there.

no matter how much work you put into it you're not going to make a $300 guitar sound like a $3000 guitar. sorry if i sound harsh with this post but it's what it is. the RL-1 doesn't seem like a bad guitar, but no matter how much you polish it, it's always going to be an entry level guitar.

Uh, mahogany and maple sound INCREDIBLY different man...The reason I reccomended maple fillets is because maple is a VERY bright wood and mahogany is very bassy, so it will counteract the bass and low mids in the rest of the mahogany neck and balance things out.

As or the kit, thats just an example. Fact is, its a ripoff to buy from that dude as Mr Dave said. All you need to do is grab some matching stud inserts and bolts, then make a plate out of steel or something. Much cheaper.