If it's nearly there, I've planed fingerboards before to take out obstinate relief but that's definitely not advised on a veneer board Fender, you need a nice thick fingerboard to get away with that. It's worth a try - just don't be tempted to force the nut anyway if it's not moving. When you get to the neck straight without tension, is the trussrod nut at the end of the thread or is it too stiff to turn? I've occasionally been able to get an extra quarter turn out of a vintage style rod by clamping the neck to a block (actually I use my heat press) with shims under each end then using a clamp in the centre to (gently!) pull the neck into a slight back bow, making it easier to turn the nut because the truss is no longer having to work on the neck. So they're a bit unpredictable in terms of results, and I'd be cautious paying a lot of money for it. I've also had one or two respond nicely but sink back to a bow over a few months. I've had necks go straight back into their original shape with a single short heat treatment, and I've had necks not move at all. Ĭoncentrating on the relief issue, I own a heat press, useful for working on the old German guitars I like which often didn't have any sort of neck reinforcement, but they're hit and miss. This might help, its how I approach the evaluation of every guitar that crosses my bench. With perfect frets I can get 0.014 to 0.018 first fret action and 60 to 90 at the 12th fret, playing cleanly. I also like about 5 thousands of relief which most of the time the strings will pull in from the flat fretboard. My goal is to have the fret plane just hitting the tops of the saddles when they are at their very lowest adjustment. You can make an angled shim if you absolutely have to. Then if you are below the standard 0.625 pocket depth make a shim the right thickness to bring it back up. My suggestion would be to take the shims out, do a light clean up cut with your router (make sure the template is level with respect to the top of the guitar and the bridge. Lastly with all your shimming and screwing around with the neck there is a very good chance that you have too much overstand to line up with the tops of the saddles. I like to use a straight edge on each side of the neck to make sure it is aligned with the bridge. Its going to be pretty difficult to relocate the bridge, your option really is to shave the sides of the pocket enough that you can re-align the neck, the plug and redrill the mounting holes in the neck itself. The strings being off center may very well be the bridge in the wrong place but that is fairly uncommon on a factory guitar (happens a lot with home made ones tho). If you can't level the frets then consider pulling them, leveling the board and refretting. Can you level frets to get a perfect fret plane with no tension on the neck - my goal is always for a perfectly flat neck (level frets). Measure how much relief you have and where it is located. Loosen the truss rod and remove the strings.

Highlighting some of the things you mention (and since I don't have the guitar in front of me I'm going totally by what you say) I would start with the neck. Based on what I see I can come up with a reasonable sequence of things to do. Sold as-is.My cardinal rule is that before I do anything I measure everything. Comes with original tuner ferrules and string tree - I don't have the tuners or neckplate, sorry. As far as I know the frets and nut are original and while well used there's still life left - I had this on a Mustang for the past few years and played it consistently. Original finish has significant checking on the front and back of the headstock, and the finish on the back of the neck is worn down from age, giving a very nice feel. Fender neck shapes can be very variable, and I've noticed a big difference between a 65 to 66 shortscale neck, but all the 65 necks I've had have been similar in feel, and this is one of the best I've encountered. The profile is incredibly comfortable, quick and slim without being too thin (having owned 60s Hagstroms, I've come to realize that there is such a thing, haha). These necks are 24' (from nut to guitar bridge) and are interchangeable with Jaguar, Mustang, Bronco and Duo Sonic II necks. For sale is a Fender Musicmaster II neck, dated to 1965 - as you can see, the stamp is quite faded so the month is questionable but is definitely from 65 and has the right '16' stamp for the model.

1965 fender musicmaster