Kavanagh Customs Strat Neck

Purchased from their website October 2008 so a 2008 made-in-the-UK, 22-fret flamed maple, 12" radius, CBS-headstock, tall and narrow frets, nitrocellulose. Really a beautiful piece of work!

It's a Stratocaster neck! There isn't much to talk about in this section. My guitar does have a much more vivid "bite" and clarity to it now compared to the Squire neck that proceeded it.

Came set up for gague 10 strings, well packaged, quickly, and absolutely flawless. The neck plugged straight into the body and was away. The truss rod needed a slight tweak to compensate for my lighter string choice but unlike the reviewer below I have had no problems with it at all. It's a novel system that I havn't come across before where the truss rod is adjusted using a little clip-in adapter. It took a little bit of getting used to but isn't really any different to adjust than any other truss.

This went onto my gigging guitar and has yet to cause any problems at all. The back of the neck is quite slim so it's very quick-playing and super-smooth with low action and those frets.

I've been playing this guitar live without a backup for a couple of months without any qualms, I don't foresee this neck causing any problems at all.

Really genuine, nice guys to deal with. They're compasionate about what they do and do it extremely well! I asked a lot of questions and, I'm afraid, probably bored them silly before making my purchase but they were always quick to respond, helpful, and polite. It's probably based on this experience with their customer service and their advise that I made my purchase with them.

This isn't the first time I've built project guitars like this, and have been very happy with the service offered from Kavanagh and the excellent neck I purcahsed from them. They will be the first people I get in touch with when I next get a bout of GAS!

New Mahogany Strat neck, it cost me about ??175 in mid 2008, with a dark rosewood finger board and tall narrow frets. It is nice and thin and quite fast, a vintage c shape I guess. The finish is good.

But the truss rod doesn't work, it only adjusts properly one way , so when I wanted a little more relief due to a little bit of fret choke in the middle of the neck, forget it. The truss rod gets so loose that it pretty much falls out............I can hear it rattle round in there, no stability and too low an action for the fret height etc. Bad..........

The wood sounds fine but it is badly build as far as the truss rod and the frets are concerned.

Unreliable

Very slow Ebay purchase, although polite when they finally did get in touch.

Nice wood, bad bad Truss rod design and a few of the frets at the high end of the neck were not perfectly leveled and needed a little dressing. Unimpressive.
I have been playing 20+ years and have been a professional musician on and off, on at the moment. I own/have owned a lot of guitars of very good and not so good quality, and I am definitely an electric guitar enthusiast. I thought I'd have a go at putting together my own partsocaster, and this neck is not going on it.

Taken directly from their website:

Headstock: Classic Stratocaster??
Construction: Two-piece, slab board
Neck Material: Highly Figured Maple
Fretboard: Slab Indian Rosewood
Skunk Stripe: none
Frets: 21 Jim Dunlop 6105 Nickel
Fretboard Radius: 12"
Nut: 1.65" Bone
Back Contour: Classic 'C'
Scale Length: 25.5"
Finish: Nitrocellulose
Truss Rod: Heel-adjusted Tennon Truss
Machineheads: 10mm

So basically a vintage reissue of the famous slab-board Fender necks of times gone by. There's not really many features you can expect from a replacement neck by my only dissapointment was that they don't drill the bolt holes on the heel for you, although it's easier than you would think and they have a really excellent article on their website to help you along.

I used this neck to replace an old MIJ neck with worn frets - it was cheaper than getting a refret. The difference in tone, sustain and playability was very evident from the first strum once the new neck was on.

Really beautiful nitrocellulose finish, the fretwork was spot-on, the 'tennon' truss rod system took a little but of getting used to and a little bit of vaseline but did the job well. The overall quality of the workmanship is astounding. The only minor niggle I had was a slight vein of green running through the rosewood on the fingerboard. I emailed them about this and was quickly assured that it just needed lemon oiling. Sure enough, an hour later and a quick trip down to the local music store and it was gone. Perhaps they should have done this before they sent the neck out but the reason given was that they leave all their rosewood boards raw to allow the customer to apply as much or as little oil as they like. Seems fair enough to me!

I've used Kavanagh Customs products before and have always found them to be utterly reliable and favour the gutiars I've built with their parts over 95% of the rest of my guitar collection. I've had this neck around three weeks and have every faith in it lasting a very very long time to come...

As I've dealt with them many times before I already knew what to expect from their customer service: lightning quick, friendly and humorous replies to all my emails, intelligent and insightful answers to all my questions and really nice people to boot. If customer support alone could sell guitars there would be no company bigger or better. It's a refreshing change from all the faceless grey corporations that surround us all day long.

Apart from a couple of very very minor niggles that were very easily resolved (not being able to request they drill the heel bolt holes for me and the raw rosewood board), I don't have a bad word to say about this neck - it's one of the very best I've ever had through my hands and at the price, an absolute bargain.

Finish;Nitro cellulose, gloss.
Wood Blood Maple.
12" Radius
21 Jim Dunlop 6105 Frets.
Small Headstock.
Skunk Stripe; Walnut.
Back Contour; Classic "C"
Dual Action Truss Rod, [adjusted at headstock].
Position Markers;Black Mother of Pearl
Nut; 1.65", Bone.

This neck replaced a copy Strat neck, on a guitar I was building.
The playing surface is superb, smooth, and makes playing a wonderfull experiance.
It has noticably more sustain, and a brighter, more cutting sound.

Obviously set up ect.. are how I put this together myself.
However the finish is superb,the neck came with the trussrod set up for size 10 strings, which I had to tweak as I use 9's.The bone nut was beautifully cut and installed. The dimensions are taken from a 50'S Strat neck.[Apart from the radius and frets].

I've only had this on for a week, so as for durabilty, I can't say.
I'll report back in six months!
I feel pretty certain however, that it will stand the test of time.

This is my first "build", the neck was the last thing to go on.
Due to some incorrect hardware I had some problems initially getting a satisfactory fit.
John, at Kavangh Customs, was more than helpfull, he always replied to my emails,[there were many!],and helped me get the problems sorted.
His enthusiasm and generosity, made dealing with him a real pleasure.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years, during which time I've owned many great, and not so great, instruments.
This neck equals the very best the other makers can offer.
If I lost this guitar, I would try to replace it, with one made from Kavanagh parts.
You may be suspicious about this review, is it too glowing?
I can genuinely asssure you,that I am a normal customer, with no interest, financial or otherwise in Kavanagh Customs.
This is the first and maybe the only, review I have submitted to Harmony Central.
I just felt I had to, as I was so impressed with John's service and his products.