Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

[RobRR]

My DR3R is about 7 years old now, and has a nice, cast neck/serial number plate with black painted inside and polished/chrome outer portion. But on my newer RR3R which is about 5 years old, its just a plain flat piece with the serial engraved on it. Why the difference? Any perticular or interesting reason that I dont know about?

[Carbuff]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

Probably just to cut costs. Ive found that the screws for the cast plates are different too. They are fatter and you cant use the stamped plate screws on a neck that had a cast plate or they will strip right out. Fender screws wont work either. Ive been looking for a set of these fatter screws for a project of mine with no luck. Well anyway it was probably just to cut costs, stamped steel is cheaper than cast plates, I guess.

[RobRR]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

Thats what I figured about the cost thing. Kinda sucks though, I wouldnt mind paying an extra $20 or so to have a nice plate on there... even though the stamped ones serve their purpose just as well, I think the cast ones give the guitar a little more charachter.

And Ill remember that about the screws, thats good to know. Thanks!

[DonP]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

Thanks for the tip on the screws.

When I got my "hybrid" Kelly (Kelly Performer body with a 1991 Professional Fusion Neck) and took the neck off for cleaning, I found it odd that the screws wood dig into the body before getting to the neck. Now I know why - the 91 Fusion neck plate and screws were larger than the Performer neck plate and screws.

This will save me on my next project - I was going to put a DK-1 neck on my next Kelly, but maybe not any more (until I can find the correct neck plate and screws).

[Carbuff]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

You could probably just drill the holes on the performer body a bit. Its not that much of a difference. Just remember that you will need those screws to use that neck unless you want to dowel and redrill the neck. I will probably face the opposite problem when I mate my dk-2 neck on my 90s dinky reverse body. Its not really a problem, I will just have to allign the neck properly before tightening the screws.

[Sunbane]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

You could probably find someone arguing that the stamped plate gives you "better tone". [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[DonP]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

[ QUOTE ]
You could probably just drill the holes on the performer body a bit. Its not that much of a difference. Just remember that you will need those screws to use that neck unless you want to dowel and redrill the neck. I will probably face the opposite problem when I mate my dk-2 neck on my 90s dinky reverse body. Its not really a problem, I will just have to allign the neck properly before tightening the screws.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, the performer body has been sold on ebay (still waiting a month for payment [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] )

The neck is on a early Charvel Fusion Deluxe body right now - no issues there.

But when I get my new KE3 (tomorrow I'm told), I was planning on putting on the DK-1 neck and selling the KE3 neck. But I guess the screws will be too small for the DK-1 neck and will strip out. I'll just try to find the correct screws and neck plate to go with the DK-1 neck, and if I have to, drill the KE3 holes a tad larger.

[RobRR]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

Ill have to check with a few suppliers, but I might be able to find a batch of screws with the same dimensions as the larger ones. Ill pull one out and get the measurments.

[Carbuff]

Re: Neck/seral plate differences over the years?

I know that I saw on ebay once a guy selling the larger screws saying that they would replace the ones in a striped out neck so you didnt have to dowell the holes and redrill. I havent seen it lately.