I can remember paying $109 for them each when I bought them. My newer DC 400 and TL 60 that don't have near the playing hrs. I bought 2 Carvin bolt necks in the early 90's they must have used stainless steel for the frets because over the years I have many hrs. I'm glad I bought it although I'm glad to own a genuine made in Mexico yellow HSS Stratocaster too. It cost me just over $300 but this was like 15 years ago so. This is because of its extremely large frets and because it need to fret job they need to be leveled or replaced. This is not to say that it plays out of tune it's just that you can hear it, you can hear the difference between it and say my Gibson ES 339 as far as playing in tune. It stays in tune, I have other guitars that play in tune better. It has a very high radius neck which I love it is extremely featherlight which I love. I tried some Malmstem DiMarzios, they sounded generic. I tried some Gibson humbucking pickups they were atrocious in it. I tried Fender vintage noiseless they sounded small and weak. I tried all different kinds pickups and it none were as good as the Carvins except Fender tex-mex which may be a little bit better I don't know. It was so easy to put together anybody could do it. I stained the wood yellow and put about 10 coats of lacquer on it. It needs a fret job now but it still works pretty good.
I had a 63 Stratocaster it was the best Stratocaster I ever had. I ordered an alder body because I heard there were making Stratocaster's out of that particular kind of wood in 1963. Is about 15 years old now, that makes it about 50 in guitar years.