Jump to content

Neck Carve


Daniel Sorbera

whats your preference  

46 members have voted

You do not have permission to vote in this poll, or see the poll results. Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Recommended Posts

I voted other, I like and am doing on a project neck a fat V, I like fat necks and the v shape, so thats my vote. I'm still unsure of the mm's in thickness at the first fret but it definately won't feel skinny, and probably not medium either. Later. Jason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If SPEED is what you're after, then thin is in. If TONE is what you're after, then fat is fab.

Vai may have the speed on that skinny little Ibanez neck, but Jeff Beck has the killa tone with those old baseball bat necks on his Strats.

I always HATE when people say this.

I like big honkin fat necks. I have fairly big hands and wrist problems. Thin necks literally HURT to play for long periods of time. But even not counting that I could always play faster with fat necks than with thin necks simply because they were more comfy.

Thin != Fast

You'll play fastest on the neck that best fits your hand, not the one that's smallest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, skinny necks and speed have diddly to do with each other, far as I'm concerned. To each his own, of course, bit thin necks tend to make my hand cramp up rather badly, and they're simply not that comfy to play on.

I have medium-large hands, and that's kind of the neck I like, too. Fairly thick, but one that doesn't feel massive. I do an aysmmetrical carve, a la SRV/Van Halen (see Warmoth's contours page for pics), with smooth, rounded fingerboard/neck shaft transitions (ie, the fingerboard isn't squared, its part of the neck carve), a flatter, more 'V' shaped shoulder on the treble side (because I play thumb over), moving the apex of the curve slightly towards the bass side of the neck, which has a more 'rounded' shape. It's fairly subtle, but with neck carves, even removing a tiny amount more wood can make the difference between an OK feeling neck and a great neck.

This pic might help a little, or it might not. One of the strat/tele project necks after I'd finished the first round of carving. Still needed some refining, but you can see the slight asymmetry:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics4/stratele78.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gee...I guess I was totally wrong as usual, GEdward. I guess Ibanez, ESP, and Jackson are going to be filing for Chapter 11 because nobody's buying their skinny-necked instruments? Damn. It's going to be sad to see them go.

In other news, I heard Warmoth and USACG are going to stop offering the Wizard neck profiles because they're totally useless and no one is buying them anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gee...I guess I was totally wrong as usual, GEdward. I guess Ibanez, ESP, and Jackson are going to be filing for Chapter 11 because nobody's buying their skinny-necked instruments? Damn. It's going to be sad to see them go.

In other news, I heard Warmoth and USACG are going to stop offering the Wizard neck profiles because they're totally useless and no one is buying them anyway.

gedward is right.it all depends on your hand economics as to what is fastest for you personally.i have the same problem with the wizard necks...the wizard II is about right for me.

my kxk has an interesting neck...it is a flat bottom about 1" wide,and rounded up from there.very,very comfy.my esp lynch baritone has a neck at the same thickness,but rounded..they both fit my hand perfectly...no strain on my thumb at all.my hand just kind of sits there perfectly.

i think the skinny necks are so popular because of good marketing and also because alot of people just have small hands,or they did when they started playing and just never switched to a bigger neck.

but it only makes sense...bigger hands need a bigger neck.

tone is subjective too.i like the tone of a fat mahogany neck...but if it is maple,the medium thin ones sound best to me...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True, my hands were a little smaller when I started playing. When I got the LP a few months ago, I wasn't very comfortable playing on the '50s necks after having learned on a Strat for so many years. So I got a Classic with the '60s profile because it was a little thinner and felt better.

BTW, GEdward, I wasn't trying to flame you in my last post--hope you didn't take it that way. I just reread it and wanted to clear that up just in case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, there has to be SOMETHING said for "fast" necks and their relative size / shape. Hagstrom is known for building "the fastest neck in the world" which was accomplished by using an H shape "expander stretcher" truss rod. I don't think you could make a stable neck of that size using conventional truss rod systems.

I've never known a slimmer neck, width AND depth-wise. 3/4" deep (including FB) at the 12th fret, 1-5/8" across the nut, 2-1/16" across at the 22nd fret.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I've seen the fingerboard, frets, and action make much more diffrence than the neck carve for "fastness". The neck carve should make your hand still comfterable after playing for hours on end.

A flatter fingerboard with low wide frets and a nice low action will get you about the fastest feeling neck you've ever played on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...