80's build.

So on this build i decided to go the way I would have probably gone back in the early 80s.

The neck is a very nicely made modern c neck from the Strat elite. Adding this to a lightweight 62ri body got me thinking about going mint green again but then I decided to stick on the 70's pick guard  with 70's black original covers and knobs as well as a 70's RI bridge with brass charvel string holders. 

The Elite Stratocasters of 83/84 are responsible for the neck and it's absolute class. The back is stripped of all laquer , so feels awesome and the schaller/Fender tuners are a class act on their own. beautifully cast. As written elsewhere, the quality of these guitars was on par with the custom shop and going on the quality of the neck and tuners I can understand why people are scripting as such.

Bridge and neck pickups are vintage Dimarzio and she's wired up with a tone on bridge and neck pickups with middle pickup running straight through. middle pup is an alnico 2 SD. As per the norm all the screws are relic so she looks as if she could easily have been from the early eighties except for the body shape. Those with a keen eye will notice the hole which hasn't got a screw in it as 70's pick guards don't fit directly on 11 hole 62 bodies.

80's Floyd Rose for Zappa project sourced.

Taking shape..

not quite right but has all the necessary parts to start with...

Plan wasn't to buy two necks within a few days...but this came up on the bay and looking at the cost I thought it was worth the money and the effort. It ticks off most of the boxes for the Zappa Strat project and I'm not worried about the quality of the Allparts necks which are made Japan. Those tuners and nut are about half the cost of the rest of the neck. Medium C neck with a compound radius.
Gloss finish also ticks the box.

first things first....

right then, Zappa guitar deco on the bucket list, but first things first. Been busy over the dark months with mixing up and updating as well as facelifting some of the guitars and I'm currently faced with a guitar body that I purchased back in 2009 which deserves a quality rebuild as it used to be one of my favourite guitars but has now had parts removed for greater projects.

the body is an aged olympic white (more vanilla) 62RI , weighing in at 3lbs 15 oz. So for a few weeks I've been looking around for a neck I'd be happy about to join up on this project. There have been some really nice necks up for sale but unfortunately the price tags have been out of the budget for this one and none of the necks had that "something" that I need to convince me to take the plunge..
..until this one came up.

Was rather surprised this hadn't been snapped up. really nice looking piece of maple. the other pictures revealed the varnish on the back of the neck had been played off , so the neck had a classic relic appearance which normally costs top dollar to buy if it hasn't been done naturally.

obviously before I buy anything I make sure I do some research.
So, this came off one of Dan Smiths era oddities in 1983, the American Fender Elite Strat.
reading through some reviews, there appears to be several owners of these guitars who swear by them. Personally I'm not too keen on the look of these guitars, but this neck caught my attention , especially with it's rather unusual neck profile , a 12" radius wide and shallow neck.

really keen on this project.

Grabbed the original tuners as well: