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JTV-69 Mods - Neck and Pickguard Replacement...


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I did some modifications to my JTV-69 last weekend, replacing the neck with a beautiful birds eye maple one from CEG Hardtails.   I had Stephen replace the nut with a Graphtech Tusq and apply a satin lacquer finish to give it a slight yellow tint.  The tuners are Hipshot staggered Grip-Lock Open Ultra-Lights (like the ones that come with the USA version of this guitar).   The mother-of-toiletseat pickguard was purchased from Full Compass.

 

The new neck has taken this from being an "pretty good" guitar to a "GREAT" guitar IMO  :)

 

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Nice...The 69 is a whole different instrument with a neck that's actually usable. I'll hafta check out CEG hardtails. Not familiar with that one.

It's a Might-Mite neck.  Stephen (CEG Hardtails) hand-picks them right from the distributor, then he does a complete fret dress... reseating, crown dress, leveling and micro-polishing to bring the frets to a mirror-like finish.   All I can say is the one I got from him is miles above the stock neck on my JTV.

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It's a Might-Mite neck.  Stephen (CEG Hardtails) hand-picks them right from the distributor, then he does a complete fret dress... reseating, crown dress, leveling and micro-polishing to bring the frets to a mirror-like finish.   All I can say is the one I got from him is miles above the stock neck on my JTV.

Ahh, I see. Just for my own morbid curiosity, are stainless frets an option? Different size fret wire, etc?

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Consider me in this "club".    Wish you were here for me before I ordered a US Custom 69.  Still have yet to receive.

 

On the other hand, I have been steered toward the Might-Mite by more than one source.  Thinking that once I receive the US JTV I may change the neck on my Korean 69s.  Might be cool to have both rosewood and maple neck options on a JTV.

 

Just curious of what fair costs would be involved to do what was done in this post original post. I don't care about the pick guard. 

 

Have done some minor research on necks but suggestions would be appreciated.  

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Consider me in this "club". Wish you were here for me before I ordered a US Custom 69. Still have yet to receive.

 

On the other hand, I have been steered toward the Might-Mite by more than one source. Thinking that once I receive the US JTV I may change the neck on my Korean 69s. Might be cool to have both rosewood and maple neck options on a JTV.

 

Just curious of what fair costs would be involved to do what was done in this post original post. I don't care about the pick guard.

 

Have done some minor research on necks but suggestions would be appreciated.

There's nothing wrong with the Mighty Mite necks. A bunch of guys on here have gone that route, with good results. If you order straight front Stew Mac, they're around $125 or so, last time I looked...give or take a little depending on where you go with a maple or rosewood board. Not sure if they do ebony. The company "CEG Hardtails" that the OP mentioned seems to have access to some of the more "premium" stuff from Mighty Mite, prettier cuts of wood, and they dress and polish the frets, so it bumps the price a bit from what I've seen on their site. Never played one, though.

 

If you really want options, look at Warmoth. You'll spend a little more, but everything is up to you. Numerous woods are available from the mundane to the exotic, nut width, radius, profile, fret wire (I suggest going stainless, you'll never need a grind and polish again), finish, fret markers, route size for the tuners...it's all your choice. At any given time there are at least 100 or more in stock already done, or they'll start one from scratch, though that'll cost a little more. The more "plain Jane" ones start around $175, on up to $600+ for the fancier stuff. You can get something really nice for $250-$300...no need to go crazy. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just own several, and really like them. They make very nice stuff.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There's nothing wrong with the Mighty Mite necks. A bunch of guys on here have gone that route, with good results. If you order straight front Stew Mac, they're around $125 or so, last time I looked...give or take a little depending on where you go with a maple or rosewood board. Not sure if they do ebony. The company "CEG Hardtails" that the OP mentioned seems to have access to some of the more "premium" stuff from Mighty Mite, prettier cuts of wood, and they dress and polish the frets, so it bumps the price a bit from what I've seen on their site. Never played one, though.

If you really want options, look at Warmoth. You'll spend a little more, but everything is up to you. Numerous woods are available from the mundane to the exotic, nut width, radius, profile, fret wire (I suggest going stainless, you'll never need a grind and polish again), finish, fret markers, route size for the tuners...it's all your choice. At any given time there are at least 100 or more in stock already done, or they'll start one from scratch, though that'll cost a little more. The more "plain Jane" ones start around $175, on up to $600+ for the fancier stuff. You can get something really nice for $250-$300...no need to go crazy. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just own several, and really like them. They make very nice stuff.

 

Would a Warmoth Strat neck slot straight into a JTV 69 without any modification...?

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The bolts are offset on the JTVs, so that will need to be dealt with. That aside, they're a perfect fit.

Great....thanks! I have a Warmoth Strat & their necks are superb & the JTV necks are....well, not so superb to put it mildly. ...

 

Cheers

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I've not had any issues with my 69S's neck. I did replace the SC PU's with noiseless DiMarzio's, and this year did the pearloid face plate. Will try to attach a pic... My 59 is not modded, and love it as well....

 

Dave

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Ok my advise to the new neck club if considering warmoth neck replacement

But before any fans of warmoth vents their anger at me, this is was my own experience.

Okay if you currently like the sustain, the freets, and the easy of runs (due to the flat radius) on your original 69 jtv . Make sure you order warmoth tallest fret because their jumbo does not match the height of the variax. In another words, when building your neck keep what you like the same and ONLY chancge what you don't. If you are unhappy with the E string sliping of , then only change that. Because if you go bananas with the literature ,You will loose sustain and the models and electry will sound very thumpy/click as your fingers will have a much closer contact on the finger board as their jumbo frets are way smaller. Do not get the compound radius if you like your runs.

I did that mistake and now the original is back and i will sell the warmoth....yep is hard to sell this necks. In case you dont like what you ordered be prepared to loose hundreds

However if the music you play is metal, punk or junk with heaps of distrotion. Then dusregard my post.

Cheers

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You will loose sustain and the models and electry will sound very thumpy/click as your fingers will have a much closer contact on the finger board as their jumbo frets are way smaller.

 

However if the music you play is metal, punk or junk with heaps of distrotion.

 

 

Preference is a funny thing, and you like what you like...but the entire neck isn't a throw-away just because you didn't like the size of the frets. You'd be replacing them eventually anyway.

 

And for those who are considering one, Warmoth offers 4 or 5 different sizes of fretwire, for which the precise dimensions are all supplied. Getting what you want isn't hard...

 

As for the radius being unsuitable for anything but "junk" with heaps of distortion...frankly, it's absurd. I can manage heavy "junk", greasy blues, or country equally well.

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Preference is a funny thing, and you like what you like...but the entire neck isn't a throw-away just because you didn't like the size of the frets. You'd be replacing them eventually anyway.

And for those who are considering one, Warmoth offers 4 or 5 different sizes of fretwire, for which the precise dimensions are all supplied. Getting what you want isn't hard...

Sorry to me it is what is.

A) their jumbo is not the same size as strat , and way lower than JTV. Fact!

B) refreting the neck is expensive . The neck + refretting = buying another intrument if the buyer is unhappy. Fact!!

 

Now here is where I did a mistake and warmoth had NO fault hence am sharing my experience here:

A) I ordered their famous compound radius. The literature around this concept didn't work for me , sorry

B) I chose roasted maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. As I'm a proud user of firmware 1.71, the acoustic gained more omph for struming and finger comping but lost sustain as the roasting (as advised on their web) makes the wood much lighter. That combinaning with low jumb fret stoped the guitar fron singing and easy of slides and made the piezo more clickey. With modeling was more obvius as more friction and fingerboard thump noise was added.

 

In a nutshell, i wish there was more open unbiased discussion on warmoth necks before I bought it. So i could order accordingly and consider what applies to me. All I could find was fun boys prasing them top to toe. My own stupid mistake

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Lol I won? no mate I'm about to  loose  hundred of dollars. 

I had it on ebay last year for 3 months $180 off the price paid ( I only used it for a month)  and nothing, nada. Only one person asking I if could reduce even more. Anyway I will have too if I want to sell it.

 

Anyway as I said before, I'm not here to infuriate any Warmoth fun boys nor support Line 6 .   

 

To me honestly, whatever suits  you best cruisinon2 ...As in the end the most important thing is to be able to get the message through with our instrument. The audience, producers, entertainment managers, do not care what type of  gear we use . Be it a warmoth or a squire neck if it feels comfortable in your hands and you can make it sound good than that is a keeper!!  

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You guys make this neck swapping thing sound so simple! The Warmoth necks that are in stock come pre-drilled to mount to a typical strat body. What needs to be done to properly mount it to a Variax body and if down the road I'd like to use the same neck on a strat body, is that possible?

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You guys make this neck swapping thing sound so simple! The Warmoth necks that are in stock come pre-drilled to mount to a typical strat body. What needs to be done to properly mount it to a Variax body and if down the road I'd like to use the same neck on a strat body, is that possible?

Yes, very possible.

 

3 out of 4 holes should line up, one is offset. The extra hole that needs to be drilled is further in, and far enough away from the last pre-drilled one that you can probably just leave it as is. You won't see it anyway, so if you want to throw it on a Strat one day, there's nothing extra to do. So really all you have to do is drill one hole.

 

For the sake of stability, I doweled the extra hole anyway, as I have no plans to use it on anything else.

 

Doweling is not particularly difficult to do. You can find step by step videos on YouTube...those threads get stripped on old Strats necks all the time. Very common repair.

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  • 5 months later...

New member of the "Club". Just got my Red JTV-69 (Mainly for the color), and the neck is garbage. I have 2 Varaix 300's, and on one of them (my profile pic) I put a 500 neck on it (e-bay).

Love that neck. I want to keep that variax as a backup, but thought of trying the neck on the JTV.

Then I saw all these forums and posts about Mighty Mite.

Has anyone tried the 500 neck on a JTV? Only cause I know I love the feel.

But I like the strat neck look on the '69.

 

Al

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3 out of 4 holes should line up, one is offset. The extra hole that needs to be drilled is further in, and far enough away from the last pre-drilled one that you can probably just leave it as is.

 

Are you sure about 3 of 4 lining up with standard Strat hole positions?  I don't recall that being the case on mine.

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Are you sure about 3 of 4 lining up with standard Strat hole positions? I don't recall that being the case on mine.

I had a Warmoth neck on an older Strat at the time...wanted to be sure that it would fit before I went ahead and ordered another one, so I bolted it on. 3 of 'em lined up just fine, as I recall. It was several years ago now, so perhaps I'm imagining things...maybe it was only two, but it was definitely bolted on, enough to handle the guitar normally without destroying anything.

 

The new one I ordered, I specified "no holes", so those were all tapped and drilled specifically for the JTV, so I couldn't be 100% sure at this point without throwing that old neck back on there to see...I'm too lazy for that, lol.

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  • 1 month later...

I just got off the phone with a warmoth sales rep and he told me they don't have necks for Variax guitars !? Is he possibly so green that he thinks drilling a new hole means they don't fit? I'm thinking of changing the neck because I am just not adjusting well to the "high E string slip-off" the fretboard and I am partial to the maple, tele style neck/fretboard. Any comments out there - I'm not fragile.

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I just got off the phone with a warmoth sales rep and he told me they don't have necks for Variax guitars !? Is he possibly so green that he thinks drilling a new hole means they don't fit? I'm thinking of changing the neck because I am just not adjusting well to the "high E string slip-off" the fretboard and I am partial to the maple, tele style neck/fretboard. Any comments out there - I'm not fragile.

Well technically he's not "wrong", trouble is he's not "right" either...it's semantics. They don't make necks SPECIFICALLY for Variax guitars. They make officialy licensed Fender Strat replacement necks (among other things). It just so happens that the heel and pocket dimensions are identical. So either he's simply unfamiliar with the JTV's, or he was going out of his way to not be helpful. It's a coin toss...either possibility is equally likely as far as I'm concerned.

 

But no matter...don't listen to him, for he knows not that of which he speaks. It will fit just fine once the holes are dealt with, which is an easy fix for someone who knows what they're doing. Just take it to someone you trust.

 

It is odd though, as I had spoken to someone there several years ago before I replaced mine. He was familiar with the JTV's, said he had dealt with a number of customers who'd already done the swap, etc, etc. Don't remember his name, unfortunately.

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Well technically he's not "wrong", trouble is he's not "right" either...it's semantics. They don't make necks SPECIFICALLY for Variax guitars. They make officialy licensed Fender Strat replacement necks (among other things). It just so happens that the heel and pocket dimensions are identical. So either he's simply unfamiliar with the JTV's, or he was going out of his way to not be helpful. It's a coin toss...either possibility is equally likely as far as I'm concerned.

 

But no matter...don't listen to him, for he knows not that of which he speaks. It will fit just fine once the holes are dealt with, which is an easy fix for someone who knows what they're doing. Just take it to someone you trust.

 

It is odd though, as I had spoken to someone there several years ago before I replaced mine. He was familiar with the JTV's, said he had dealt with a number of customers who'd already done the swap, etc, etc. Don't remember his name, unfortunately.

 

I'm not trying to start any grief here - just saying I made it clear I wasn't asking if they make JTV necks, just whether they have necks that work on JTV's so I guessing we are discussing a lack of interest by the company if they can't hire someone willing to make even the slightest effort. My experience in the last couple decades is that quality of products and salesmanship has dropped considerably in the business world. I will have to keep my thoughts open on making this mod and  investigate further. Thanks for the response.

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I didn't bother calling Warmouth, I just ordered what I wanted online. I got it installed today. It feels great. The bubinga fret board is smooth as silk. I'll get to plug in later tonight and take an extended test drive. Just waiting on a Variax decal to put on the headstock and complete the project.

 

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I'm not trying to start any grief here - just saying I made it clear I wasn't asking if they make JTV necks, just whether they have necks that work on JTV's so I guessing we are discussing a lack of interest by the company if they can't hire someone willing to make even the slightest effort. My experience in the last couple decades is that quality of products and salesmanship has dropped considerably in the business world. I will have to keep my thoughts open on making this mod and investigate further. Thanks for the response.

Oh, I'm not defending them...enough JTV owners have replaced them by now, it shouldn't be a surprise to them. It's generally a good idea to know who's buying your product(s), and for what purpose.

 

As for effort, it died long ago...along with journalism, common sense, and critical thinking.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 years later...
On 4/10/2016 at 1:54 PM, Tyton said:

My JTV69 - post-15199-0-02969400-1460318011_thumb.jpgpost-15199-0-83317400-1460318021_thumb.jpgpost-15199-0-89685100-1460318030_thumb.jpgWarmoth neck with abalone dots, Sperzel Tuner with pearloid buttons, new pickguard and lipstick PU's

 

Can you give me info on the neck you bought?  Which specific type on Warmoth?

 

And the pickguard.

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  • 10 months later...

I know this is an old thread but I just happen to have a really nice Warmoth replacement neck that is prepped to fit on a JTV-69 for sale.

I had this neck mounted on a JTV-69 I had but I ended up selling that guitar. I decided it would be better & easier to return the JTV to stock & sell the neck separately.  I modified the neck mounting holes to fit the JTV-69 hole pattern and it worked out really well.

 

Anyway, if you're looking for a good replacement neck for your JTV, please check out this one. Hit me up if you have questions!

 

Warmoth Stratocaster Neck / JTV-69 Variax Neck - in Excellent Condition - TGP listing...

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  • 2 years later...

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