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I'll put this in the screws sticky if anyone can sort it...

I've got a set of (modern) Fender USA neck mount screws, pretty sure they're #8, 1 3/4" long... they are perfect for the holes in the body I have (early 70's), but they seem to be too thick for the '66 musicmaster neck I've got. Anyone know if the 60's 'student' models had a different size neck mount screws and, if so, what size?

Cheers!

I'm not sure about the width but the vintage ones are def thinner. Watch out for the length too or you might end up with holes in your fretboard.

Axes R us do shorter neck screws.
Not sure on diameter, but I have used them with no issues on a thinner guitar.

Having dismantled around 23-30 Fender style guitars and worked on more - its a crapshoot. There are different lengths and thicknesses of screws with no rhyme or reason, but there are certainly shorter and thinner neck screws available. I'm afraid i sold off all my spares so i don't have any, but see if you can track some used ones down on eBay.

Yeah even those parts I got from you were a wee bit particular about which parts fitted best with each other.

I would just measure the hole depth by the wire like thing that sticks out of the calliper gauge thing hor whatever you call that(never used that term in english)... And than use slightly thicker screws. That will work.

Thomas wrote:Yeah even those parts I got from you were a wee bit particular about which parts fitted best with each other.

Yup, and they were 8 years apart at the most, likely made with the same tooling.

CNC manufacturing makes the same guitar, from the same line pretty much identical, but outside that...

And things like screws probably depend on who the cheapest supplier is at any one time, whether its a US made guitar from the 60s, or a Chinese one from 2015.

Jackson screws seem thinner, you could try those if you don't care about being vintage correct.