Mai-Guitar

Ibanez Necks

I get a lot of questions about necks. A common one is - can you make a vine neck that goes with this body. I do have some vine necks on my website from some old projects. But I really don’t do those anymore. The main reason is that I’ve never really got an aftermarket to play as well as a factory Ibanez neck. They look cool for sure, but they just don’t play the same.

My recommendation is to find a factory neck that goes with the body that you want to build. I do have a fair number of factory RG necks available if you want to do a swirl matched headstock. I don’t charge that much for the headstock, $125 for a swirl, headstock, logo, and clearcoat. This is on top of the cost of the neck. The price of the neck varies based on the model, year and condition. I’ll do that if you buy the body. I collect necks for projects, so I’m not interested in selling them on their own.

Here is an example of an old RG neck that was swirl painted to match the body. This one was square heel, but the same basic idea works with an AANJ.

There are some old JEM models that have vine necks that are also pretty cool. The old floral pattern JEM neck can be used to make a cool GMC - like this project.

The JEM Junior is a decent way to go to get a full vine neck that can be used with a project. Here is a link with all the stuff you would need.

Another way to go is to get a “donor” guitar. That is where you buy a guitar with the intent of swapping out the body for a JEM replacement body that you buy from us. You don’t get a vine, but they really do play nicely. Here’s an example.

Lots of guys by a neck and have it shipped directly to me. I can then make sure that the pocket fits the body nicely. There is sometimes some issues with the pockets shrinking, or the necks having various sizes.

The main two sizes are 56mm and 58mm. Even with those standard sizes, some necks end up being 57mm. If that happens, they are tough to fit in a 56mm pocket and a 58mm pocket is a bit wide. I’m going to do another blog showing how to add wood to tighten up the pocket in this case. A lot of times this happens with a neck that is not from a MIJ guitar. But even with a MIJ neck, the pockets still have some variability. The test neck I have now seems to be closest to the average. I put every 56mm body through a test with that neck. For a 58 mm next, I have a JEM/prestige that I use for testing, at least until I sell that one.

We do have an Dimarzio account in case you have trouble finding pick ups. Have fun getting some custom made pickups that match a swirl painted body. That adds some flair.