New Neck for the Telecaster

For a while now I had been thinking about having a guitar with either a 7.25" radius fretboard and/or a different shape neck profile (in particular I was interested in the V-Shape). It seems like most guitars (Fenders at least) these days (unless you start talking custom-shop or artist signature series) are using the 9.5" radius on a 'modern-C' shape neck.

For those of you who are not that familiar with Neck Profiles or Radius a quick explanation:
The fretboard you play on is actually not FLAT (as you may find with a nylon string acoustic) but has a slight curvature to it. The way to envision this is to picture a circle with the specified radius and then 'slicing' off a section to be your fretboard. Alan Ratcliffe has a nice image on his site that shows how this would work:

A  fretboard that is a fixed width, but has a radius of 16" (green line) is a lot flatter than a fretboard which has the same width, with a 7.25" radius (blue line)"

So Basically a 7.25" radius will be a 'rounder' fretboard. Looking back in history the old Stratocasters etc used to have this radius and were later changed to the now common 9.5" radius citing concerns of 'fretting out' when doing larger bends. If you look at typical 'shredder' guitars you'll see that their radius is usually 12" or even 16" making it much more 'plank' like.

So radius describes the front of the neck or the fretboard, while the Neck-Profile describes the back of the neck e.g. how it fits in your hand. There are several different neck-profiles available with variations between or even 'compound' profiles which start out as one and then slowly change into another as you get higher up the neck.
Some examples:

Different Neck Profiles

More Neck Profiles and how they relate to each other

A very interesting thread on this with a ton of pictures of different neck shapes can be found here on TDPRI.

Reason I wanted a 7.25" / V-Shape was that I was actually most curious about the V-Shape since all my guitars have had the C-Shape in shape, way or form. The V-Shape seemed like it would fit better in the hand than a C-shape. Also Some Signature models like the Eric Clapton come with a V-Neck so obviously there has to be something to this.  The 7.25" seemed like it would give a nice vintage feel and follow the curvature of your fingers nicely. Now, Instead of buying a new guitar with that neck - which can be hard to find - I figured I might as well modify my Telecaster and put a new neck on it since that guitar is sort of my 'experimental' guitar anyway.

The problem now became where to get one. It would seem it would have to be an aftermarket neck and there's obviously various aftermarket brands like Warmoth, Mighty Mite, All Parts, USACG etc. First I looked into Warmoth since I've dealt with them in the past and they're local, but it turns out the combination I wanted they simply do not offer. Next I found people commenting on both Mighty Mite & All Parts, but after a lot of reading I figured All parts was the way to go since all their V-Necks already have the 7.25" radius.

Allparts has several options for 'V' Shaped Tele Necks:

• TRO-V - Unfinished Neck with Rosewood Fretboard
• TMO-V - Unfinished Neck with Maple Fretboard
• TMNF-V - Neck with Maple Fretboard, FINISHED in a vintage tinted Nitrocellulose

Obviously knowing my obsession with Maple Necks, the TRO-V was never even considered, but I had a tough choice to make about either going 'unfinished' (& finishing it myself/having someone do it) or going with the Nitro Finish.

I decided to reach out for some help on this decision by visiting TDPRI & the Harmony Central Forums.
Reading up on a lot of build threads I had started to notice that everyone who ever had one of these necks done usually opted for the unfinished one and had a guy named 'Atrox' Finish them for them in Tru-Oil.
Atrox turns out to be Brian Mason, of Mason Custom Guitars - a really nice guy who makes what can only be described as pieces of art when he has the time for it. Though he was officially taking a break from guitar building I asked him a billion questions which he all answered for me. I was looking for a more 'woodsy' feel - almost like my Jem 10th Anniversary which has a bare neck, and I wasn't a big fan of 'yellow' necks, but prefer a more light natural wood color. Under his advise I picked the TMO-V neck:

The specs for it state:

• 21 vintage frets (.079" x .043")
• Solid maple neck, VEE shaping, sanded, unfinished and ready to spray
• 7.25" radius
• Nut width 1-5/8"
• Heel width 2-3/16"
• Tuning Peg Hole Diameter .340"
• Truss Rod adjustment at heel
• Neck thickness .91" at first fret, .98" at twelfth fret

Being the nice guy he is Brian offered to take care of everything for me - Ordering the neck, Graphite Nut (figured the black would be sleek looking) & Vintage Tuners and doing the Tru-Oil treatment for a VERY decent price. Obviously there would be a bit of a wait involved from ordering, shipping, Oil Treatment (which takes several layers which all require drying time in between) etc. However that was fine with me because I was finally getting the neck I wanted. From start to finish I think it took about 6-7 weeks, but it was well worth the wait!

Fast forward to the Install - The neck looks GORGEOUS - As I probably have mentioned before, I'm a hardcore Maple fan, and LIGHT maple is even better, which this neck is. It also has a beautiful grain to it. You can definitely feel the V-Shape neck as soon as you hold it which is hard to describe. You feel more wood in the depth of your hand, giving it a very solid feel, yet around the fretboard edges it actually feels thinner (probably because it tapers more into the v-point right away from there vs coming out more 'straight' and then curving into a C-Shape like on a standard neck ) and It is VERY comfortable to play with.

At this point I just need to adjust my bridge saddles a bit since they are still setup for the 9.5" radius. So far though the guitar feels very nice in the hand and the neck plays absolutely beautiful and smooth. And even doing bends I haven't even 'fretted out' which is usually the main concern with 7.25" radius fretboards. If anything to me it feels almost more natural/organic to have this curvature. Of course this now makes me curious about the 'U' shaped or 'Baseball Bat' style necks that have even more wood to them.. hmmm Next Project anyone? ;)

All I can I can in closing is that Brian Mason (a.k.a Atrox on the Harmony Central Forums & TDPRI.com) did an absolutely fabulous job on this neck. He also (used to do/) does full custom builds and having seen some of the pictures they look absolutely amazing and MUCH better quality than anything you'd find hanging off the walls in your local Guitar Center. So if he's available to do any work for your guitar I'd highly recommend his services!