Additional information
| Dimensions | 30 × 4 × 4 in |
|---|
Big Lou Wide Necks
$100.00
Big Lou wide nut necks come in 1 7/8″, 2″ or 2 1/8″ widths with 22 frets. Below are the general measurements.
These necks are rounded off at the base, and designed to fit the Stratocaster or Telecaster style bodies. Frets, and the pre-cut nut are included, but no tuners.
The necks have the Big Lou logo on them, The necks are made with a maple base wood. The fretboards will vary from maple, to african blackwood. Call or email first to be sure of what’s in stock.
Frets are .92″ wide, and .046″ in height (standard frets) Tuner holes are 10mm in diameter (.3937). The scale of this neck is 25.5″. The 2 1/8″ features 9.27mm string spacing.
All Big Lou necks feature a double ended truss rod that can take tensile or compression force.
Generally, these necks are designed to “bolt on”, but you might need to sand down the high E side if your neck slot is too small, or you might have to uses “shims” if your neck slot is too wide. It’s hard to predict since these necks are currently being attached to all sorts of bodies. Thankfully, the vast majority of our customers are not afraid of these projects. There are lots of successful installations out there.
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– Tuners: Schaler
– Pickups: Seymour Duncan – – – – SSL-1 Vintage
– Bridge saddles: Graphtech
– Strings: GHS Boomers
Pretty nice
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Attached are before & after pics of a $30 garage sale 2002 Affinity Squier Strat I remade with a Big Lou 1-7/8″ neck. The only original part on the finished project is the body. I built if for finger picked blues with a single Seymour Duncan Lil 59 in the bridge position with a push-pull coil splitter. Those are Planet Waves locking tuners. The neck fit perfectly with very minimal sanding at the heel and I am really pleased with the end result. I have recommended your company to everyone who comments on this guitar, it is different enough looking to draw attention.
Best regards
Greg Shroff
South Bend, IN
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Hi, Lou.
This thing was probably an Epiphone S-310. I got it at a thrift store for $25 (caught it on a half-price day), specifically for the purpose of putting a wide neck on it to see whether that would help me. It didn’t have a bridge, so I had to add one; but it’s a 2-post type with post spacing of 59.5 or 60 mm, and I couldn’t find one that would fit without modification, so I gritted my teeth and got a 6-screw one instead.
The (original) neck was in horrendous condition, but of course I didn’t care about that because I knew it was going to go away.
What you probably can’t see here is that the original neck was 2 mm narrower than the one I got from you. I’m at my mom’s place nearly all the time now (aging parent issue), with no workshop and only a few tools, so that was a big hurdle. I went to a thrift store where I had recently seen a large bin of used tools, to get a chisel; but of course the bin was gone. (Murphy’s Law.) I ended up getting a large flat-blade screwdriver from them and using the Dremel to convert it. In the end it did what I needed, but only just barely.
Once I’d taken care of the fit issue and gotten the neck drilled & bolted on, I tried to set the intonation. At that point I found that although I had positioned the new neck so the 21st fret was just about where the 21st fret of the original neck had been, I was out of adjustment room on most of the saddles. Go figure.
On top of that, because I had widened the slot only on one side, the strings weren’t properly positioned over the pickup polepieces, and the high E was too close to the edge of the fretboard… so I gritted my teeth and moved the bridge. I have the intonation set pretty well now, and I can get back to trying to teach myself to play. (I can already tell that the wide neck is going to make a big difference.)
I have a friend who says I’m a dumpster luthier. He’s only almost correct, but I have to admit that I like it.
Cheers, and thanks again —
jon
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Louis:
I know I didn’t send the pics of the headstock rebuild, but I thought you might like to see the first Tsunami Guitar built with one of your necks. This is for a customer in Texas. Triple Duncan style four wire buckers in a 14K, 10K, 14K setup, series/parallel switches, Baldwin American made low resistance (125K) pots, retro bakelite knobs, Wilkinson 18:1 self locking tuners. Body is mostly purpleheart on the front with redheart accent stripe, and wild cherry on the back with a purpleheart stripe with flame maple accents on both stripes. The headstock started out as your six on a side, but I converted it to basically an epiphone headstock, veneered with heartwood flame maple, back and front. 14 coats of hand rubbed Tru-Oil finish.
Your necks are great for the money. I still have to take this one through final setup but intonation and initial setup is finished.
Thanks for looking, and if you want, feel free to post a pic or two of custom builders using your necks. My website is http://www.tsunamiguitars.com, and I can also be found on FB under Tsunami Guitars.
Thanks again,
Paul Brzozowski
Tsunami Guitars
Cleveland, TN
biglou.admin –
Well Lou, here we go, the feedback you requested. Squire Strat-2″ Wide Nut Neck conversion. A lot of work, perhaps the 1-7/8″ necks are different? All the heal dims were +1/8″; in width, thickness & length; slightly canted off center-line of frets; fret-board not trimmed properly to frets, lo-E side drifts fat, starting between the 16th & 17th fret, just above the heal; thanks to the sanding disk attachment on my table saw (glue on sandpaper disks of various grits) I was able correct these issues and true the fret-board and heal “symmetrical about center-line” of the frets, which confirmed another issue which I suspected, due to the merger of the neck profile and the heal generating an asymmetrical footprint, ie:…inconsistent radius’ from head to heal as well as either side of center-line…nothing bodacious, but painfully obvious upon inspection and had to be addressed…no power tools here, just very sharp wood carving tools, some hand made temp-lets, several grits of sandpaper, oiled up the elbow & wrist, copped some ZEN and had my way it. Sanding sanding on my Big Lou neck, I’m only doin this,…cause I give a Heck…a LITTLE humor…, the excitement and expectations generated by the concept of a 2″ wide fret-board at the nut guitar neck that I’ve dreamed about for…lets just say a…LONG LONG time is returning (now that the profanity has subsided). Shot a couple coats of finish, a 24 hour cure, hand buffed to inspect and had planned a light sand and a third coat but decided, it looks soooo good…I have waited long enough…I will wait no longer. An install (had to enlarge the heal pocket…sym-abt-c/l…a job in itself, not for the novice and a guitar issue), complete setup, detail and WOW…careful attention to detail, patience and effort pays off with OUTSTANDING results…the action is accurate, precise and “slick as snot on a wet stump”…now I have a guitar that fits my hands and it’s practice, practice, practice!!!
My next project will be an Epiphone SG Special w/bolt on neck, 2 HB’s (bottom of the line guitar)…interesting eh. If I had the money, I’d REALLY LOVE to try out your Roadster instead…even though it only has a 1 7/8″ nut (1/8” split between 5 string spaces is VERY minimal). No one around to snap a pic w/my hand and the guitar neck as you requested (maybe later). Hope this helps…you owe me one. Later
THANKS AGAIN FOR PROVIDING THIS PRODUCT AT THIS PRICE AND QUALITY…A DREAM COME TRUE
Your necks are very good quality materials and, for the most part, workmanship…all the issues I had were resolvable and produced an outstanding instrument that I could only dream of for many years. If you had done the work, that I did, in bringing it to where I wanted it, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. I couldn’t be happier…look at the pictures…WOW…too bad you can’t play it…WOW WOW WOW. Besides, anyone as picky and economically challenged as I am, has learned to do the work they can’t pay for…anyone else won’t even know the difference.
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Hi, Louis.
It took me long to reply to this. I’ve attached a few pictures of the strat to which I added the neck. I do not appear in them since this was a solo effort.
The old neck was always difficult to play. When I measured the nut it was less than 1 5/8 ! So I seldom played it.
Well, when the Wide Nut neck arrived, I first examined it. The wood looks great on it and it turned out to be easy to install. The tune holes were on spot. I had to make one minor tweak — the nut slot for the g string had to be cut a little deeper, which took under 5 minutes. In general the nut was cut very nicely..
I strung it up with 11’s and gave it a try. The difference was incredible. I can even do cowboy chords with all 6 strings sounding. On the old neck I got crowded out. Bending is much better now that the string spacing is so generous. And sonically I think the maple on maple construction provides more clarity than the original rosewood.
Getting adjusted to playing it was a non-issue. I play an archtop, sorted electrics and classic and the adjustment was no different than electric to classical.
So thanks to the wide nut neck it turns out the guitar is actually a great player. Needs a better pickguard (the original one had a pattern that was sickening). But for making music it is now considered among my favorites. I will be converting a Tele soon so you should hear from me again. Thank you.
Ed
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Just wanted to send you a shot of my 1994 MIM Strat in CAR that I have been tinkering with for a couple years, flanked by my modified shredder guitar (Ibanez RG350DX originally) and my sweet Texas Blues baby (all-stock American Special Strat) . The MIM originally had a maple neck and played perfectly fine in current configuration, but with the Big Lou 2” nut-neck (and Guitar Fetish locking tuners in staggered…no string trees!), I think it nicely fits a niche in my collection that had been missing—an easy fingerstyle electric. And bonus, since I didn’t have to modify the body (only a bit of sanding on both sides of the Big Lou to make it fit) I can revert to original if necessary. I’ve been learning (re-learning) guitar fingerstyle on a couple of Yamaha classical guitars (2”), and going back and forth to my non-classical guitars (both electric and acoustic) has been driving me batty! I had settled on playing with a pick (plectrum) on all of my “non-classical” guitars but I’m now jazzed to have another option. I’m very glad that I found your website! – Rock on,
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Thanks again for making a product for us “Big Guys”
John Lasinski – Fenton MO.