Your perfect PRE CBS guitar made to measure
Your perfect PRE CBS Neck
The neck IS the guitar.
The quality and characteristics of the piece of hard rock maple and on necks with a glued on fingerboard , to some extent, the piece of rosewood for the fingerboard are the most important factors that will determine the sustain, acoustic volume, stability of the neck, the tone and richness of the sound you get from the guitar.
There are no two necks anywhere that sound "identical" because there are no 2 pieces of wood that are identical - that is a fact of life - we have made 3 necks from the same block of maple - from the same tree - used fingerboards cut from the same block of rosewood and all three necks sounded (and weighed) different even though they were the same size and profile. The weight of these necks varied as much as 100 grams even though they were identical in size and profile - but wood density varies throughout a tree not just from tree to tree - this effects sound and response.
We select the wood for the neck fastidiously - if it is not supremely resonant and stable - it does not get used.
WOOD PREPARATION
The hard rock maple blocks I start with are 38mm thick
(1.50 inches) - I thickness them progressively , a few mm at a time off each face of the block, over a period of 2-3 years to the final thickness required depending on the neck type (1950-59 one piece maple are left at about 26mm - the later necks at 24mm). I can observe if they move or bend at each thicknessing.
We can identify how a neck will sound in terms of resonance and sustain before cutting the shape from the block of maple - the same principle applies to the rosewood - and to the body for that matter.
NECK PROFILE - one thing you cannot choose if you buy an original PRE CBS guitar is the shape and width of the neck. They did vary considerably but imagine trying to find a vintage strat of the year you want, in the colour you want with the exact neck shape you want and which weighs what you want !
HEADSTOCK SHAPE - We have made templates matching 4 slightly different headstock shapes that appear at random from as early as 1956. The main difference is the angle of the headstock near the 6th string tuner. This was probably due to variances in the original factory templates that were in use at the same time.The rest of the headstock varies in size slightly from guitar to guitar - probably a result of final sanding by hand.
We like to think of it is as if you worked at the original factory back in the 1950´s and 60´s and were friendly enough with the neck shapers and could tell them to make the neck just as you wanted, contour the body
to your taste and to some extent choose the actual bits of wood and weight and characteristics of the guitar.
The physical look of every detail of the woodwork inside and out on both bodies and necks are 100% consistent
with genuine original guitars - even if you choose a neck
profile specific to your hands you could still find a genuine neck that would be virtually identical - the original necks varied considerably.
We shape our necks individually for the customer in order to give them a perfectly vintage looking neck but personalised to the shape and size of each guitarist´s hand and to make the neck as comfortable and responsive as possible for their technique and style. You can choose any radius - although to be vintage accurate it would start out at 7.25 inches then be reradiused to what you want so the guitar looks like an original guitar that has been professionally reradiused during a refret.
You can therefore choose any fret size, nut and neck width , thickness and profile shape within vintage specifications - or to any profile shape you prefer. We discuss all this with you.
There is a photo that shows how we make the clay dots out of the correct original material that was used from 1959 to 1964 - white vulcanised fibre board.
Only a guitar made to measure can offer this.
NECK POCKET FIT - Please see photos and text below.
Many original guitars had sloppy and imprecise neck to neck pocket fits - but not all - my necks fit very precisely
into the neck pocket of my bodies and the customer can choose how precise or "vintage sloppy" it looks - but you do not have to have an imprecise fit just to be vintage correct.
WEIGHT GUIDE
The finished weight of identical size and profiled necks
varies. This of course influences the final weight of the complete assembled guitar.
NECKS - 0.46 to 0.62 kilos including frets.
Maple slab boards and maple cap boards available just as they were on the originals as specail factory orders.
You can view the old website here ...
https://web.archive.org/web/20230601064521/https://precbsguitars.com/
Pre CBS guitars and Basses - reproductions of vintage originals from the
1950´s and 1960´s in every detail and dimension inside and out.
We use the same materials, basic technology, tooling and machines as were
used in the 1950´s and 1960´s to make all our bodies and necks.
Our stock of alder , maple and rosewood is now well over
over 30 years old.
The bodies are routed on a vintage overhead pinrouter that leaves the same characteristic cuts and traces in the cavities. The necks and bodies are made entirely by us.
It is not difficult to make guitars look correct outside (although not many manufacturers or luthiers do manage to get the details right) but if you want the guitar to look like an original the cavities inside the body also have to be accurate in terms of size and texture of cut, the truss rod and truss rod nut have to be the correct specification and size according to the year, the holes for cables have to be in the correct positions and of the correct diameter, the position of the truss rod nut hole, position of neck mounting screw holes and neck plate, the tooling and quality control marks have to be correct for the era, the way the body is painted inside the cavities - the list is long.
Every detail inside and out is there - the same materials, type of woods, paint, neck dot marker material, contours, radii, the shapes, dimensions and geometry of all the cavities, tooling marks, router chatter, router tearout, jig holes, nail holes, position and diameters of cable tunnels, dowels, which holes should be threaded, truss rod dimensions and material, position of truss rod nut hole on slab boards and veneer boards, fingerboard thickness, signatures, dates, correct position for the tuner holes, QC marks, pickups, screws with the correct sizes and threads etc - even the anchor dimensions of the various truss rods that were fitted are the same - everything as it should be and where it should be.
Due to the manufacturing processes and type of machinery used from 1954 to 1965, original guitars were
not 100% consistent but there are some telltale characteristics that are always apparent.
Most of the hardware we use is made for us or by us - including the jack cup, tuner bushes, strap buttons, truss rod and truss rod nut - with the correct type of nickel, chrome or zinc plating depending on the part.
The S Type volume and tone knobs and switch tip are molded from original knobs so they are 100% accurate with the correct size and font for the numbers and letters.
We have made the string guides by copying exactly original 1959, 1961 and 1964 string guides that we keep as references.
The bridge assembly is accurate - high quality cold rolled steel tremelo block, Pat Pend. saddles with imperial american threads and screws, neck plate with correct font
for the serial number - you can choose any number appropriate to the year of the guitar you choose.
Correct white vulcanised fibre material for the "clay dots" - these dots used to be known as "paper dots" but the term "clay dots" is more widely used nowadays.
The "CLAY DOT MYTH"
Pre CBS dots in rosewood fingerboards - they have become known as "clay" dots over the last 25 years - they were not made of clay or any type of paste. The claim that the dots were made of a "mythical" paste called Ivorine is just that - a myth that has been embellished by people who swallowed that theory without testing it.
Bill Carson stated the white dots in rosewood ´boards from 1959 to 1964 were installed the same way as the black dots prior to 1959 and that the material was fibreboard.
( "The Stratocaster Chronicles" Page 112)
Bill Carson left professional music in 1957 to work full-time at Fender, first in guitar construction and then as guitar foreman, supervisor and plant manager.
At a luthier´s seminar, Yasuhiko Iwanade (President of Gibson, Japan and ex Fender employee) said that Leo Fender told him that the clay dots were white vulcanized fiberboard.
Some PRECBS guitars with original "white" dots appear to have dots made from lino so it appears Fender used at least 2 different types of material but both were discs precut or punched and then pressed into the holes and not a paste scraped into the hole.
Fender had been gluing in black discs for 9 years so there would have been no logical reason to completely change their process to one that is slower, messier and more expensive - and then change back again when they changed to pearloid dots in 1965.
Many original guitars lost their "clay" dots during their first refret because the dots were very thin .. probably only 1/16 thick BEFORE getting sanded - I have had them fall out when I sanded ´boards 25 years ago and I then made a paste to replace them . and the owner didn´t know ! That has been going on since the late 1960´s when the guitars first needed refretting or the guitar player wanted a flatter fingerboard radius - it is very common to lose the 12th fret dots - so a guitar that had it´s dots replaced by a paste 30-40 years ago might well lead someone to think the dots were the original factory fitted dots if they saw the guitar today without knowing the history of the guitar.
We removed an original dot from a 1962 guitar and had it analysed in a laboratory.
The laboratory result - "This material has a high content of zinc-hydrochloride and of cellulose."
Zinc- hydrochloride is used to produce vulcanized fiber and the base for vulcanised fibre is cellulose.