B. Hefner Strat Neck

I decided to order a Hefner strat neck because I wanted jumbo frets in a maple fretboard and Fender doesn't sell replacement necks.
I have 20 years of messing with guitars in one fashion or another, from repair to complete instruments. I didn't want to do a complete neck build because I have too many other projects, so I ordered a 22 jumbo fret 139 special, and true to his advert he did it to order in a month.
The maple is a light maple, he said it was hard maple but I think it is fairly fresh cut, but dried well. I read another review about the wood and the person described being able to put a thumbnail mark in it, I don't know if that guy sanded or scraped it with a wood scraper, but I hand worked mine and I can tell you ...I don't want wood any harder than that.
Many acoustic necks use mahogany, which is soft. I found no stability problems and I thinned it up to new Fender thickness which is about .80 as measured from the top of the fretboard to the back of the neck. I finished mine with a coat of sanding sealer on the fret board, then nitro. No sealer on the back of the neck because I was trying for a special fit, once I got the shape I finished it. The 'skunk strip' cut a little faster than the maple with a scraper blade, and construction was tight.
I'll nit pick at the end.

It will probably take a few weeks for the finish to fully cure, so while doing setup I put a cheap set of strings on it. I hand cut a bone nut to keep the strings well away from the edges of the board. I also specified a (1 11/16" wide at the nut) neck.
I went ahead and assembled it 2 days after spraying and while it wasn't cured, it was still hard enough for playing. Nitro can take weeks to cure depending on the humidity and amount of retarders that are in it.

I have got to say this.
Listen up, if you have a problem working with hand tools, or don't have patience with this type of work, do not waste your money, go and get a mid-level (mexican) Fender.
You can spend more time playing.
You will spend less time working on wood and instead, working on music.
The other requirement is that you need tools, even if they are hand tools. You need a couple of good straight files, needle files and a drill press, sanding pads, multiple grades of sandpaper, etc. A vise is mandatory. If you add up the tools you need to produce a neck or body that is 'factory quality' the money will exceed the price of a decent factory produced instrument. So if you think you will save money by building it yourself, that assumption is false.
Also, I usually read over some reference books I have as I go. This keeps me from making a stupid mistake. Look online at Stu-Mac, they have plenty of instructional material, or if you have a friend who's done it, have them shown you some things.
Finish was great because I did it.

Another thing to consider is to find out what exactly you are trying to make. It takes quite a while to find the 'perfect' neck and the differences are measured in thousands of a inch. Play every guitar at the music store and you may find one that 'fits' your hand. I have different guitars and all of them differ slightly, they each have advantages. All of the Fender signature guitars are made because that particular artist knew what worked for him, it's an ergo thing.
The Hefner neck was built very well, the 13-22 fret part of the board has the minus taper (slight drop off to the 22nd) and once I adjusted the fretboard trussrod it went dead flat.

I didn't have to bother them, I just waited and they delivered exactly what I specified in my email to them.
I had a great time 'customizing' this to what Fender or anyone else doesn't make. I used to use Warmoth, but they have become extremely expensive, and if you have ever dealt with them, they are not 'consumer friendly'.
I got the same neck built better thru Hefner.

Now here the nit picks.
1) The side postion markers are a little bit farther from the fretboard than Fenders side dots. I don't look at these so it isn't a problem. Since he builds to order you could specify this in your order.
2) The tuner holes required some light sanding, they were a little tight but that could have had something to do with my spraying 10 coats of nitro on it.
That's it, oh yeah the wood seemed 'light' in color, but I know when this cures it will take on a nice amber look.
I have to rate him a 10 because I know how hard it is to get the important things right, and he does it for a great price.
I have no affiliation with Hefner.
There are some other companies that sell dip and ship necks, poly sprayed with no choice of frets. Then there are custom houses like Warmoth who overcharge and sell defective items. Hefner's product is a better deal and a quality build.

i would say that it has the quality and feel of a Korean made Squier of the last few years. The "Hard Maple" seems brittle and soft. I can make a dent in it with my thumbnail.
I ordered this neck to go on a E-Series Kramer Baretta and itstead of getting a neck that will last as long as I have the guitar, I pretty much have one that I want to replace. As soon I can.
Don't get me wrong, it plays well. The frets are fairly level ( I did not pay for a "fret leveling") and the intonation is as good as anything I've played.
I thought this would be a step up from the Mighty Mite type stuff I normally use. It's not, and I waited quite a while for it.

I'm writing this to warn people about ordering from B. Hefner. At the time I'm writing this, B Hefner is keeping a series of auctions up on eBay. "Custom Neck ordered to your Specs" for strats and teles. There are also auctions up for bodies, but I didn't order one of those, so I can't comment.

I know custom orders take a long time, and I'm fine with that. However, the lead times listed on these auctions would be, at best, a very optimistic guess. After the lead time had expired I kept inquiring about my order, only to be told "It's packaged up and ready to go" or "it ships out tomorrow morning." Things like that. 2-3 weeks later, I finally get it. If it's going to take "X" amount of time, then tell me it's going to take "X" amount of time. I can handle waiting much better than I can being lied to.

It has not been made to my specs. It's about half right. Although I believe I could have returned it to have another one made, I was not willing to wait that long again for something that could be just as wrong.

When I write to say that there are some things wrong, I get told that I got what I ordered. I say "whatever" and I leave it alone. They already have my money. They win. I will not give this company one more second of my time, except to write this review, to hopefully encourage others to not buy from this company.

With the things that were wrong with with the neck, I could've just ordered something random, from some random company off eBay that I had the specs I wanted. I would've been taking a chance, but at least I would've had it in a week.

But from Warmoth or Eden or Mighty Mite or whoever you can find. You will get soemthing better. B Hefner is selling necks at a reduced price. But from now, I will be quicker to realize that a bargain isn't a bargain if it's crap.

custom strat neck.flame maple, rosewood board, 12 inch radius, 6105 frets.I'll give it a good score for beauty of wood but thats as far as it goes.

Its a decent sounding neck .sounds as it should.

It was a raw neck so I give my painting a 10.But not so much for bernie. The neck had a back bow so high it couldnt be used without serious work. I called bernie unfortunatly after I finished the neck to tell him about the problem and he acted like he didnt beleive me.He wanted me to send him the whole guitar and he would fix the neck himself and set up the guitar.but given the 4 month wait for the neck I didnt trust he would be any faster on this. He also was very insulting about my tech saying he didnt know what he was talking about. The tech is a pro at Tulsa guitar and electronics and he definitly knows what he's talking about.it wound up costing me over $200 to get it playable but its worth it to not have to paint another neck or deal with bernie again.I had to have it heat set and leveled.

After the repairs it seems to be ok but i'm holding my breath.I hope the heat set my tech did holds for long term but if it doesnt I wont be surprised.

are you kidding? he offered to set it up but I was sure it wasnt going to be free. and I wanted it back within a year.

I've been useing it a few months and it plays ok now.but not without some work It is very beautiful though,I have to say he uses nice woods and it took very little prep sanding before paint.But given the bow and the attitude not to mention the wait I wont be a return customer and I dont recomend him to anyone.

This is a follow up to a post a couple years ago... The neck was the only part of the purchase that seem ok, however it has gone bad as well.

10" radius
11/16th nut
Rosewood slab board
maple neck
jumbo frets

The guitar does sound great... its just not playable

well the neck seemed well made at first. The finish was excellent. Fret work was ok but not level, even though I paid for that. Soon however I started to have problems. frets popping, the headstock around the nut area seems to be incorrect and the string tension is off not allowing the string to sit in the nut correctly even with a string tree. To correct this the nut would have to be very high and would cause intonation issues on the first couple of frets

Now after 3 years the neck is shot.... Its completely unstable and will bow in an afternoon. I suspect the wood was not cured correctly and the neck is worthless except for slide work

The guy is an ass! I orded this neck with a tele thinline body, it took months to get and it took hundreds of dollars of reworking to get the hardware to line up and it never really did. The neck pocket was a mess, and still is. Many mods had to be done to get it to intonate. Now the neck is shot after only a couple of years. I have a slide guitar that I dont really want. He didnt help me when I got it, I doubt he will help me now. In fact I dont want his help... just learn from all of us here and spend your money else where

This guy builds crap! end of story... too many reviews show the same thing!

One piece, maple strat replacement neck. 1 and 5/8" nutwidth. 6100 stainless steel frets. 12" fingerboard radius. 22 frets (more on this below). "U" shape back profile.

The neck looks great, however, the neck profile turned out to be too big for my liking. I was hoping it was going to be like the '54 custom shop reissues. Turns out there is no standard on backshapes. A "U" shape from one guy is not the same shape for another shop. You live and you learn. The neck installed, but required a shim.

Now here's the deal: The 22nd fret was put in the wrong spot. It was flat. Now I don't often play up that high, but sometimes I do. The note on the E string at the 22nd fret was just plain flat. It drove me nuts. Also, the neck edges were sharp. They felt pretty bad.

The neck is made well except for the last fret being flat and the neck edges being sharp. The others frets were in the right spot and looked and played pretty well.

Customer support was awful. It went down like this. Hi Bernie, want to order a neck. Here are the specs. Great. He seemed like a nice guy. Said it would take 8 weeks to get. It took 6 months. I called, and called and called and if I could get through, there was always some excuse as to why the neck hadn't gone out yet. When the neck finally did arrive and I had it installed, I discovered that the last fret was in the wrong spot. I had 2 luthiers look at it and they both agreed from listening and from measurements that indeed the fret was in the wrong spot. Finally, after some debate I called Bernie and told him I wasn't happy with the neck. He said he was sorry and that all he wanted to do was make me happy. So, he said I could keep the neck and that he would just build me another. I told him to build me a 21 fret neck instead. Still waiting to receive it. It's been a couple of months and I don't expect to get anything from him without having to wait another 6 months. Overall, it's been a frustrating experience. Basically the only way I could get him to send me the neck was to call him and say that I was cancelling my order. All other phone calls had been ignored up to that point.

Save your money and just buy the guitar you want build right from the start. If you do go the project route, get a neck from Warmoth. Personally, I've sent too much money trying to build a couple of cool strats. I would have been better just buying them from Fender to begin with.

It was supposed to be a 22 fret Strat neck, Flame maple, left handed.

who knows, I'm still waiting after 7 months, and I've paid $500 Australian dollars for nothing so far.

I wish I could give this company a lower score, this has been the worst company I've ever dealt with in the music business, world wide!!

I am writing this because I want other people to be aware of what they are getting into when they deal with this company. I have imported effects processors, pedals, guitar bodies and necks from other American companies, and never have I experienced the level of ineptitude, total lack of professionalism and complete and utter disregard displayed by B. Hefner.


My initial ordering process was great. I spoke to Bernie about getting a neck built, and he seemed very pleasant. He took my order, assuring me that if I ordered a flame maple neck that it would be a very good neck as they only use a high grade flame. We discussed paint finishes, fret markers and the radius. I paid by credit card, and he explained that would be around 12 weeks. I received an email the next morning with the receipt and order no.

About a month later I emailed in regards to some different finishing details that I wanted. I waited for a reply. Nothing came back to say he had received the email, or confirm changes, and me being too trusting thinks oh well he must have just forgotten to reply, as I know he received the email ( as I used his initial email to reply to it). Anyway 12 weeks later, my outlook calendar comes up with an alarm for the neck. Great. I start checking the mail box every day, getting excited at the prospect of my new flame neck sitting on my American strat.

Four weeks later, I figure there might be a problem (I know the website explains that necks take appprox 12-16 weeks, but I figured that if there had been any issues or delays surely the company would contact me by phone or email). So I email again, this time I add a receive receipt, and read receipt. So I know the email is received, and read, but no one bothers to respond in any way.

Being fair, I waited a couple of weeks, but still nothing, so at week 20, I wait up until 3am (which I have to do if I am calling the US from Melbourne, Australia). Bernie answers, and sounds pleasant until I say who I am and that I am checking on the status of my order, at which point he begins to sound both bored and completely uninterested in talking to me, he puts me on hold for a couple of minutes, after which he comes back and says it will be finished and sent the following Tuesday, and practically hangs up on me. I'm not impressed, but at least the news that it will finally be sent is pleasing, I mean all I want is a nice neck on my guitar.

Anyway, you guessed it, nothing arrived, so last night I have to wait up again, and get onto the phone at 3 am again. This time someone else answers the phone, I think it was Shaun, or something like that, anyway I ask him about the neck, and again I get put on hold as he goes to check the order status. He comes back a short time later, "That neck is due to go out on Tuesday", IS THIS GROUNDHOG DAY??

Now after 24 weeks and some of the worst service I have ever encountered I begin to lose my temper, I ask to speak to Bernie, but APPARENTLY he isn't there today.
I ask why the neck hasn't been sent before, and he explains that the maple was not available, and that they had to try and look every where, and that it had only just become available. I'm almost speechless.

Now I'm actually scared, if this company acts this amateurishly, how amateurish is their product going to be? I just want my money back but the representative explains that I would need to speak to Bernie in regards to that. He says he will get Bernie to call me, I ask for him to do this at 4pm that afternoon, which is 10am the next day for me. But once again Bernie does not make contact, by now I'm not really suprised by this.

Then on Tuesday an email arrives from Bernie,
"Your neck is ready for shipment, please verify your shipping address as we were informed that you moved. We are also sending you a set of Sperzel locking tuners as a thank you for your patience (a $65.00 value). We will be shipping via global express as soon as we receive address verification. Once again than

This review is for a 2004, made in Los Angeles, Calif., Custom/made to order, maple neck, 22 frets (Dunlop 6100 wire), ebony fretboard, 1 x 11/16" width, "U" profile (baseball profile) similar to 59' Les Paul thickness, 12.5" Les Paul radius, 3 bolt attachment, small pre CBS headstock, honey gloss finish.

This neck was attached to an original 1977 natural finish, honey gloss Fender Stratocaster that I bought from the R&B band "The Barkays", in 1978. Original neck had very small frets which at time was in competition with the Gibson "fretless wonder" guitar.

Bernie's neck gave me a mellow not overly bright true Classic rock, (Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker etc..) sound, but with that single pickup tone that Strat's are famous for, and with the Fender Custom shop SRV/Texas Special pickups I have in it, it becomes a blues playing monster. It sustains forever, and the tone is wonderful.

I am a consumate perfectionist and can say without a shadow of a doubt after comparing his neck to Warmoth, Chandler, and WD necks, as well as new Fender necks, his is by far and away the finest quality neck I've ever played for a Strat. The SRV neck from Fender pales in comparison to this neck.

I chose to have both of my own personal Luthiere's install the nut, dress and round the frets, and install tuners. Personal choice, but Bernie can do that too for an added fee if you arrange for that. Otherwise, he will ship neck without the nut or dressed frets as that is such a personal choice among players anyway.

This neck can handle anything. I'm going to install .011's on it, tune to E flat and make it an even better blues playing guitar. I've been thoroughly amazed at how well it sounds the more I play it.

I installed Schaller mini tuners and Phantom Guitar saddles/bridge pieces with locking allen heads for the strings. Bernie's predrilled holes for the tuners matched perfectely. Nothing needed to be done at all before installation.

Nitro cellulose finish is deep, durable, and as it should be, flawless.

Bernie won't ship this neck until he says it is perfect. May delivery date was for a start to finish build job of 2 months, delivered on 24 May 2004. I got it about 3 weeks later, but he immediately let me know he wanted to give the neck another shot of sealer, let it set up accordingly and be perfect or he wouldn't ship. 3 weeks past estimated delivery date is nothing for a neck of this quality. Plus, he let me know what was going on from telephone calls and email.

It is worth any wait you have to give.

I've played for 28 years, fly for a living as an airline captain but smart enough to know to play guitar for fun and local gigs. There is no other manufacturer that makes custom order necks with such a wide range of possiblilties than Bernie Hefner. Yes, I would replace guitar with his neck immediately.

I'm a Gibson Les Paul 59', vintage Explorer, 60's SG kind of guy. I love old Gibson's, but after I installed Bernie's neck on my original vintage Strat, I find I play it as much if not more than my custom shop Gibsons.

I also only play through a Soldano Lucky 13 100 watt tube head with a THD 2 x 12" custom cabinet with English made 80 wt. Celestions, and a THD 8 ohm Hot Plate.

This review is completely mine as a consumer. I don't work for, receive money, or equipment from any dealer/manufacturer period. I'm a player just like you whom found an incredible manufacturer of fine replacement Strat necks, BUILT like I want it done, and I felt compelled to share my good fortune with you here.

No smoke and mirrors, you want a great neck, get out your wallet, buy it new from him at the source, wait 2-3 months for it, be patient, and you'll be glad you did.

I'd be more than happy to discuss his work further, email me.

One piece Strat neck. 22 6105 frets, 12" rad., oil finish, cut for Floyd nut.

Cut for Floyd nut? The flat cut for the nut was only about 1/2 as wide as the nut itself and was way too high. No holes. It wouldn't even fit tight against the fretboard because the corner at the bottom was not sharp. Also recieved without the truss rod adjusting screw at the end. The frets were so uneven or the neck was wavy or something, there was no way to set it straight with the truss rod.

Well against my better judgement I ordered this neck from B. Hefner instead of Warmoth. I think because I wanted a 12" radius (extra charge at Warmoth) and an oil finish(not done by Warmoth). A week after I ordered it I called Bernie and told him I couldn't remember if I specified 22 frets or not. He said he would check on the computer and change it if it needed changed. 8 weeks later I got a 21 fret neck! I called him right away and reminded him I specificly called about this a week after ordering, I got an "I don't remember that conversation" and an attitude from him. But he said he would send another one out after I returned the one I got. I didn't even get a refund for the shipping! At that point I came to my senses and as soon as I got off the phone with him I called Warmoth and ordered another neck and body. I knew I was stuck with Hefner's neck but I didn't care, I wanted my guitar to be right. I was not going to use whatever he sent out. There is no comparison between the two. The Warmoth neck is beautiful, straight, the floyd nut was cut AND DRILLED correctly. And I got it in 3 weeks! Thanks to Hefner I have a $225 piece of kindling!!!

I already had a Hefner strat body I picked up on E-bay. When I ordered the neck from Warmoth I also ordered a body too for the project. I wasn't using anything of his after this. I have no complaints with the body or neck from Warmoth.