Jake E Lee Whitey

[ginsambo]

So I have this Swamp Ash Hardtail Body and a NOS Charvel Brass Hardtail Bridge...but...emmm...the bridge don't fit. String holes/ferrules don't line up. Seems Charvel Hardtail Bridge is closer, Gibson spaced.

Done a bit of research and it seems there was in fact a monster gap in the neck pocket of Jake's Charvelized original. So considering it has a Charvel/Mighty Mite/Dimarzio older style Brass Hardtail Bridge and the fact that a '70's Fender hardtail bridge spacing is much wider and given the '80's period when Charvel were doing a 2 1/4" neck pocket as standard.....can I assume it was in fact a Charvel body he had on it whilst he kept the original CBS Charvel logo'd neck with the cut down headstock?

So I guess I have to fill the Ferrule and string through holes with for realigned drilling at a closer spacing. What with I donno. The fill isn't critical is it, as all the tension is taken by the ferrules bridge base and bridge saddles and they do say that wood glue is stronger than the wood itself.

Anyone know anything about the guitar that Jake had as I am a bit bemused.

[Rich#6]

I thought it was all fender and he had the back of the neck shaved down.

[sully]

The guitar is a ’74 big headstock strat that was originally a 3 color burst. The stratheads had 2 3/16 pockets, while the pointies got 2 ¼. The guitar was painted white, the headstock was shaved down and relogoed. Enlarge/redrill/ream your ferrule holes on the top of the body to have larger holes; that should compensate for the distance. Years ago, I had a Warmoth body that had wider spacing, and wanted to use a narrower spaced bridge. They opened the holes up a bit, and that did the trick.

Here it was before the refin -

[ginsambo]

Duh, never though of doing that. I'm going from 2 1/8" spacing to 2" string spacing. the outer holes completely miss. We are only talking 1/16" or 3/32" max over for the E Strings, so not the end of the world I guess, I'II just open them up then.

So was Whitey that Strat body with a Charvel Bridge fitted? So did Charvel do the same as what I'm gonna have to do then? This is getting more authentic by the minute.

I'd swear I've seen some Ozzy pictures of it, when it was white, with the original vintage fender bridge on it though, as well as the Charvel Bridge?

THing that gets me is how he did bends with that 7" radius or whatever it is on those '70's necks?

[ulijdavid]

I have done a couple of these. If the guitar isn't painted, go to home depot and get some wood dowels and plug all of the holes. Then just re-drill everything. Once you seal, prime, and paint, you will never see it. The mods under the bridge will be covered. And, as you stated, the plugged holes for the backside ferrules are so close glue lines and wood mismatch will never show up.

If anyone wants to make a "replica" neck, here is what I have done in the past. Order a CBS headstock rosewood fretboard neck from Allparts. The neck will have the bullet truss rod and skunk stripe. Modify the headstock shape to the smaller Charvel style. This is one of the easiest ways to get the authentic look of Jake's without building a neck from scratch.

You can also do the same thing by buying a 70's style neck off of ebay.

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[ginsambo]

Wow, you don't mess about either.

Yeah this whole project finally came together because I scored a bullet truss rod Fender neck for cheap. I don't know what it is, old Squire apparently. But it has the tight '70's radius, the CBS headstock, bullet truss rod and most important for me, close Fret dots. I looked at the Allparts ones and they are perfect, except for the wider 50's style 12th fret dots. I am starting to think it might be a Mexican Reissue neck or even a US reissue or something? The logo and rear serial # has been sanded off and whatever it is, it is not from the more recent line of cheapy Fenders.

I might go with Sully's advice, or I might yet fill it. I wonder how it was done on Jake's, as obviously the two bridges, the Charvel and the Fender Vintage Hardtail have different string spacing. I don't think a slight sideways string angle will do any harm for the E strings and B and A, it's just aesthetics. For me I think the decision rests on whether Jake actually had a Charvelised body, or a new body with the old neck. So many people seem to point out the massive space between the neck joint and neck, as if the pocket was way too large for the Fender neck....but that doesn't mean a Charvel Body, which probably were 2 3/16" at the time as said - it might just be in keeping with the shitty CBS era quality control at the time. Would like to know either way as these details bug me. I still have this nagging feeling that at some stage the body was swapped for a Charvel that was custom speced, although I know that no one will agree with me.

The SDS-1 pup routs - are they basically just reverse angled with same angle as a conventional Strat bridge pup? And are they reverse rotated using the high E pole piece of where the middle and neck pups are conventionally as a centre for rotation?

I'm off to research some Badlands videos.