Sticking your neck out - Part 1

None of these things is quite like the other...

A while back I kind of glossed over the fact that I had purchased a few guitar necks online.

Here's why I wasn't too specific:  They were cheap.
...I mean really really cheap...
Cheap enough to make me ask myself, "Are they too cheap?"

Will I respect you in the morning?
...all four of you?

These were about $25-$35 each.  And while that's not an insignificant amount of money when you put four of them together - it's really peanuts vs. buying a new neck.

A premium aftermarket neck from some place like Warmoth starts around $160 (and can go up hundreds of dollars from there).  Even a more affordable option like Mighty Mite necks are still about $100 new.  So, we're not talking about chump change.

Once you get to a comfort level where you are building necks from scratch it becomes more affordable but it still isn't an inexpensive proposition - financially or temporally.  The prices I paid for these necks were in many cases less than what I would have paid for the raw lumber alone.
Which is exactly why I did it - obviously!

Nice backsides.

The reason these necks were so inexpensive is because they are used or rejects.  I bought all of them from Guitar Fetish.  Each one came from an unfinished or a damaged instrument.  Evidently they bought a bunch of these 'distressed' parts and are able to make a profit selling them.
It's a dangerous website - I almost bought two more necks just looking up the URL for the site.

Pictured: A big chip

Not pictured: Frets or fret markers
...but there's a lovely crack in the fretboard

Of course - nothing is for free.  The real cost comes after you buy the neck and you want to use it.  All of these beauties needed to be scraped and sanded to remove the old finish (and in at least one case remove the dents and dings in the wood).  Two of them came without frets installed - which actually is kind of a time-saver as I will probably have to re-fret the ones that are currently fretted due to existing worn or damaged frets.  Some are missing fret markers or tuning peg holes, or the nut.  The list goes on...

...but then some of them look like this...
...and you realize you still got a hell of a deal.

"The story of a boy ...and his headstock?"

In short, I knew there would be a cost for such savings.  I'm just now truly learning the extent of that cost.  As long as they are functional I should come out ahead.  My greatest fear was that one or all of the truss rods in these necks would be broken.  So far - so good.  I may have dodged that bullet.  So, let's see what it takes to get one of these bad boys up and running.