NECK & NECK

Here’s one for the Mod Squad. How about a round‑up/ review of parts available from UK sources? I’m particularly interested in replacement necks. I’m lucky enough to have a guitar made by Jerry Bix (sadly, no longer making). It’s brilliant! At the time, Jerry and I had a conversation about making replacement necks for Strats and Teles. Net result, for many years I have had the replacement Jerry made as a trial on my partscaster, but I’ve recently been looking for another replacement. Warmoth was an initial thought until I saw the cost of import. So I trawled around for a UKmade neck and found various sources, including Guitar Anatomy, UK Guitar Necks, etc, but it’s not clear where any of these are actually made. There’s a massive price difference (when compared with Warmoth), but I’ve no idea whether the quality is up to it and I can’t find any reviews of these products. How about it?

Jon Blake

Nice idea, Jon, we’ll certainly pass it on to Dave Burrluck for future Mod Squad columns. As a side note, it’s worth mentioning that the pandemic, with its interruption to global supply chains, made sourcing hardware and other components in the UK look increasingly attractive to many British makers. For example, PJD was not so long ago looking at trying to source all of its metal hardware from the UK and currently winds its own pickups in-house. We also have the example of makers such as Gordon Smith who craft their own pickups and more for their guitars. But when it comes to parts that home luthiers can buy and use, we’ll do some digging and hopefully Dave can shed more light in a future Mod Squad.