I have mixed experiences with this neck. This is my third guitar neck from Fender but the worst of them. The other two were usable immediately after minimal adjustment, this one unfortunately not.
Appearance: extremely ugly orange colour. When I opened the box, the orange came through even the white semi-transparent foam due to the overly thick lacquer. Only those with strong nerves are advised to leave it like that. Being a skilled modeller, I carefully sanded off some of the lacque, taking care not to sand off the edges completely. The result is a cool amber colour with the veined pattern of the maple showing through beautifully.
Finishing: the edges of the frets were not fully worked, I had to sand two of them a little to keep them from being sharp. The wood was nicely finished, there were no defects in it, except at the nut, where the neck widens a bit prematurely, so the nut had to be asymmetrically wider. The string spacing (35 mm) was accurately maintained, this is flawless. The nut slots were only notched to give an indication so the string height making the guitar unplayable in the first position. This was also indicated in the product description, so no complaint. The holes for the neck mounting screws are very accurate, I was able to mount the neck on an original Fender Stratocaster body with ease, it fit perfectly in the neck pocket.
The tuning holes in the neck are a bit narrow, which ensures that any Kluson-style tuning machines can be mounted on the neck, after the large holes have been enlarged accordingly. I only needed to widen them a little to fit the Fender Classic tuning machines, the holes for the mounting screws were in just the right place. This was very well done at the factory.
Playing feel: the thick layer of lacquer made my fingers stick to the neck after two hours of playing, making it impossible to use. The sound was fantastic though, the Fender alder body with Fender CS69 pickups and the maple neck resonated together due to the tight fit, the instrument sounded exactly what I wanted to hear. Because the temporarily installed tuning machines left marks on the back of the neck, I could not return the neck, so I had to correct the above flaws to make the neck playable.
I sanded off a little of the lacquer, scraped the varnish off the sides of the frets, sanded the ends of the frets and buffed up the frets and fingerboard. Finally, I removed the nut and sanded off about 1.5 mm from the bottom. After that I mounted the neck back on the body, tuned up and tried it. All this took about 10 hours and although I enjoyed the work, I expected better quality from Fender.
Final result: after the adjustments, the neck is really great and I'm very happy with it.
Because of the above issues, I recommend this neck only to musicians who are able to make the above adjustments or are willing to pay the cost of an adjustment by a professional luthier. Without professional adjustment it will not work.
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