Fender Stratocaster Guitar Neck, Satin Roasted, 22 Jumbo Frets, Flat Oval Shape, Maple and Rosewood Fingerboard

Do not hesitate to buy this neck.It is pricey for a ‘Made in Mexico’ neck but the quality control is right up there with their American necks.The frets were flawless and the rosewood is beautiful.All needed to do was use OOOOO steel wool on the frets and rosewood with a fingerboard oil finish.Picking up the maple version next.

I was looking for a Charvel-like neck to upgrade from a vintage style Strat neck (small radius kept fretting out). This is pretty close to spot-on.It's a mix of the creature comforts of a Strat with the more modern, speedy characteristics of a Charvel or Jackson - a little flatter (but not as thin as an Ibanez), jumbo frets, flatter fretboard radius, and a satin finish. It feels wonderful under the hand.The fret edges are smooth, and the fretboard slightly rolled. It's comfortable and worn in, though the fret ends aren't fully rounded and polished as much as I'd like in a perfect world. My neck had zero issues with frets sprouting or gaps on the edges.The headstock perfectly fit a set of Hipshot Grip-Lock 6 tuners - most tuners made for 10mm or 25/64" holes should do.On installing, it mostly worked well, but did take a little work. I had to redrill the holes for the neck screws, but this is probably only the case as I was installing on a non-Fender import. There's still some lacquer on the frets, which is taking a little bit to scrape off, but not a big deal. And the nut was far too high - while better than being too low, definitely prepare for having to recut and measure most of the nut slots yourself.At $350, it's a solid choice, and I'm happy I went with it - a comparably priced Warmoth would have been pretty similar in quality and unfinished. At $450, it's tough to swallow for a MiM neck when you can get an entire Mexican Strat on sale for barely more than that. It does get you the official licensing and headstock, and this particular neck is a lovely design if you like a more modern and shreddy take on a Strat neck, but definitely shop around first.

Not impressed - sending it back!Shape:The neck has a great profile. It's very similar in size to what you'd find on an early 60s Stratocaster shallow oval somewhere between .79 and .8 at the nut. They claim it is around .87-.89 at the 12th fret.Rosewood fretboard:I just talked to to FENDER two days ago and they told me they had just added this back on their website and it was absent for several months. But on Amazon for a while.The Rosewood fret board is a bit of a disgrace for FENDER's QC.It's not sanded well and it's full of pits that are greater than 2 mm wide and 15 mm long. I'm curious if AMAZON got a special deal on them. FYI, this price is the same as it is on the FENDER website and the only reason I chose AMAZON is because they could deliver it faster, And I don't have to wait for an RMA if I'm going to return it.I realize that this is an MIM product, but I have several guitars of that origin with necks that are so much better than this.It's possible that this might be better if it weren't Rosewood and it was just sanded maple, but since Rosewood is unfinished and just oiled occasionally to keep the wood healthy, it least needs to start out fairly smooth and even. I'm confident that even a light buffing with 0000 extra fine steel wool would not alleviate the issue. The pits are just too deep.Additionally, the particular neck that I received has a major knot in it at the second and and third frets, which in and of itself can look interesting, but given the pits and the rest of the wood, I wouldn't trust it to have a very long life and could be possibly unstable.Fret wire:The frets (wire) themselves are OK, Fairly smooth and no sharp edges. They could definitely stand with a little bit of dressing, but they're playable as is.I would prefer that these would be medium jumbos instead of the full jumbos as they're kind of fat as fret wire goes. It really depends on your playing style, but since this neck is sort of geared towards a more vintage type of guitar, you would expect to see a little bit, narrow fret wire. It wouldn't Matter as much if the fretboard itself were smooth without pits. Rosewood does have a nice texture, but this is beyond texture.Neck Finish:The satin finish on the back is a nice touch as opposed to the super gloss, which I don't prefer.Headstock:Additionally, the routing or drilling for the holes on the headstock is sloppy. There are multiple little splinters and the holes are not drilled cleanly. They look like they have little splinters gutted out of them. Over time this often translates into flop, wear, and failure with your tuners.To put this in perspective, you can find high-end necks that are made in the US for just barely double this price. Even the custom shop necks, sell occasionally online and in specialty parts shops for $700 to $900 when you can find them. So- at this price point $450, I would expect better QC.The build of the neck on my made in China- Lion by Washburn "strat" ($150 starter guitar) is smooth, has no pits and has better finish of the rosewood. (yes it's an older one that is rosewood)Some of the more standard Fender replacement necks that are closer to $249 or $299 have much better quality and "feel".Note that there are other rosewood replacement necks available.I chose this neck because it's as close as you can get on a fender replacement to the common flat oval in the 1962 Stratocasters.I have smaller hands and medium-firm touch so the absence of a deep volute (spine or bump) where the headstock meets the neck is a real plus.I plan to call FENDER and let them know about the issue as well. It may not be AMAZON's fault, but since these are not inspected by Amazon, they're just boxed up and one can't tell that there are issues until it's opened up.I am curious if amazon purchased a lot of B-stock items from Fender and forgot to list them as such with an appropriate price reduction.6/30/24 update. Icalled Fender and spoke with their CS and tech staff. They were awesome and thanked me for alerting them to the issue. They also told me that these necks from Amazon, were purchased quite a while ago, as they had been out of stock for quite a while on the Fender site in the rosewood fret board.Fender also said the fretboard should be smooth and that the tuning machine holes should never be splintered.

I have read mixed reviews about this neck and honestly, have no idea why - because this neck is absolutely killer! 1,000% flawless QC..frets are smooth, rosewood was not overly dry & the grain in the wood is beautiful. Fit well on Fender Mexican body, since it had no string tree I had a LSR Roller Nut installed to keep the clean look. Highly recommend this neck!!!

Received my fender Stratocaster Nick today excellent condition very happy with the product

Frets sucked on my stock MIM 2016 classic neck. These frets are wonderful on this thing. Well finished.

I purchased this neck used, and a NON-BRANDED neck was delivered. If you buy a used neck, you'll likely receive a counterfeit (if you're lucky) in place of the Fender.

This neck way exceeded my expectations! Fret work is perfect. I mean perfect 👌!! Rosewood is nice and dark with beautiful woodgrain on the headstock. Building a black strat from the DSOTM Era and Wish you were here Era when David used a Rosewood neck. It'll be perfect. Worth every dollar!!