Hi, I need to replace the neck on my old charvel. The original neck is a 24 fret neck and all i seem to be able to find is 22 fret necks. Does this matter? Will the guitar only take a 24 fret neck or does'nt it make any difference as long as it is a Jackson/Charvel neck?? Would appreciate any advice. Thanks.
If the new neck fits the pocket (important), then there are a couple other things that need to be correct:
1. scale length. This is the distance between the nut and the bridge. This length determines fret placement -- that is where the first, second .. etc frets are placed on the neck. This is the critical number and quite a bit more important than how many frets there are -- but the number of frets can affect where the neck mounts on the guitar and accidentally change the scale length, and that's a very bad unless everything was planned that way (not your case). It is best to get a neck of the same scale and the same number of frets to have the best chance of working properly. It is possible to change the number of frets with neck change. Usually frets are added by a neck that has an overhang over the body when installed. The extra frets (e.g., 23, 24) are on that overhang. If one check the position of the nut or twelfth (or any!) fret from one neck to the other, all these common frets would be located exactly the same distance from the bridge. If they are not -- wrong neck. In your case, I am guessing to work properly, your original 24 fret neck would have an overhang with the extra two frets and the replacement would be a 22-fretter with no or a shorter overhang.
2. Fingerboard height above guitar. An adjustable height bridge will allow some lattitude here, but the replacement neck's fingerboard should be roughly the same height above the guitar body where the neck meets the body.
3. Angle of neck where it meets the body. This is set by using shims in the neck pocket. As long as the fingerboard height is right, only a little bit of shimming may be need to angle the neck properly. If for some reason the angle is way off, might want to find out why before committing to the neck.
Good luck.
-=tension & release=-
Thanks for the reply! Its a new neck so hopefully i will be ok and wont need much attention. Thanks for the advice!
Best wishes,
Paul.
