Fat Necks

[dpm99]

With every attempted neck I've built, I've gone with a pretty standard approach when it comes to size and shape. If anything I'll build necks thin, as someone once told me thin necks are faster. I got to thinking. I can reach a major 10th on a piano (an octave + a major 3rd). My fingers are much longer than most. And I play the same size necks as Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne. I wanted to see what a thicker neck would feel like, so this time I built it thick, knowing I could always shave off material later if I didn't like it. Right now it's just over an inch thick (33/32nds?) on a 16" radius, and it feels awesome. It's like my hand says "Ahhhhhh...."

I tell that story for only one reason. I know I'm not the only guy here with long fingers (really trying to avoid saying "big hands"...too many degenerates here ), and since many of us are building our own necks anyway, we should not assume that "one size fits all" when it comes to necks. I know the new Les Pauls have assymetrical necks. That's all well and good. But where's the beef? Warmoth offers eight different neck shapes and sizes, including one that's almost exactly like mine. A quarter inch makes a huge difference in the thickness of a neck.

Anyone ever thought through this before? It just makes sense to me that I should have a thicker neck than a sixteen-year-old girl.

-Dave

[stereordinary]

Yeah, a neck that fits your hand is great. I like necks in all shapes and sizes, but def prefer fatties.

[chops1983]

HaHa i love it Dave! We can build guitars for ourselves and to our own specs that is why we build in the first place, so i ask, why do so many people just copy allready built guitars and there specs?

My necks work out to about the inch mark including the fretboard and i love them. The other night at jam practice i let the other guys try my lastest and i borrowed a epiphone SG. The neck would have been less than 20mm thick including the fretboard, played it for about 5 songs and it felt fine, but then i got mine back and it just felt so much nicer. Fits the curvature of my hand better etc. etc.

I have also heard thick necks make for better tone and sustain...can anyone back this up with some proof? I have heard SRV had a really thick neck, may have been nicknamed the "baseball bat" or something like that.

Anyway more power to ya Dave!

[WezV]

i have been doing a few fatter necks recently. they really split the crowd, some love them and some just cant get on with them. personally i find fatter necks help stop my hand aching

i also really like the 57ish fender v profiles which is kinda the polar opposite of a big round fat neck

so yeah, build them to fit!!

[ae3]

I don't like the Ibanez necks, people are under the assumption that they are great because they're so thin (17mm nowadays), which is not the case. Well, some people like them.

I like my electric necks half way; about 20mm thick with a 12" radius. Fret size is also an important factor to consider.

I also play classical and I couldn't ask for a more comfortable neck for that kind of stuff, it's not just chunky, it's morbidly obese!

[j. pierce]

I love me a pretty thick, round old baseball bat neck. Feels great in my hand. For a "faster" feeling neck, I like the same thickness, but knock a little off the "shoulders" of the profile.

My hand used to ache and cramp something awful when I was blistering out barre chords with super fast chord changes back when I played thrash stuff. It was amazing how much a difference just going to a slightly thicker neck made.

[ihocky2]

On top of thickness, width makes a huge difference. A 1-11/16 just feels a lot bigger in my hands than a 1-5/8. My Squire has a fat C profile and a 1-5/8" nut. My Jackson has a medium D that is a good 1/8 to 3/16" thinner (can't remember the exact difference right now), but a 1-11/16" nut and it just fills my hand so much nicer. I've started carving offset necks, with a fat bass side and so far they seem to be really comfortable. I just have to get the gutiars finished to really play them and evaluate them.

[Daniel Sorbera]

My acoustic neck is huge and I can play it for hours on end without fatigue because I mostly play first position chords and rhythm on it. But on electric I like a much smaller neck and I can't play on anything medium or fat. To each his own I guess...

[foil1more]

I carved the neck for my guitar fairly thick and slightly asymmetric. Nice and comfy

[westhemann]

I find the width of the neck to be more important to me than the thickness..I use 1 5/8" nuts and keep everything as slim as possible...I even bevel my frets to a steeper pitch so that I get to take the width down without affecting the playing area...

Just that 1/16" less in width makes a world of difference to me.

Just to be clear...I have a Jackson japan Phil demmel(whoever that is) model Vee...and though the neck is thin...the width of the fretboard is too much...hurts the part of my hand right where the fingers meet the palm...

My KXK v is perfect...so I made my own necks even less wide.

[Bygde]

I'm an Ibanez guy! Thin necks, and I like a little flat area as well. Although, for my Explorer-build, I did carve the neck like 1mm or so thicker than regular Ibanez necks. Sometimes my hand hurts a little when I play my Ibby.

[dpm99]

The fretboard width/string spacing issue is huge. I think I agree with Wes. It's even more important than the thickness of the neck. I used to like a really wide fretboard, but I'm over it. My fingers aren't real fat, so I don't need the extra real estate. But like jp was saying, I spend a lot of time playing bar chords all over the neck with fast chord changes, and after a few hours of that, the cramps get almost unbearable. I've worried that my solos may be slowed down a little, but I really don't think they will. It's just a matter of reaching around the fretboard, arching those fingers, and finding the correct thumb position.

[guitar_player]

Mine are 3/4'' thick C-shaped and don't get any thinner close to the headstock, this feels great to me much better than any other neck I've played on before. I think I'll try 1'' for my next though I can always make it thinner.

[Narcissism]

Best neck I ever played with was a 7 string Ibanez Jem. It fit my hand like a glove. The string spacing was perfect, my fingers could hop from note to note and bar and form chords with no problems whatsoever. Then I went back to my guitar and said "awwwwwwwwww..." because I missed the Jem.

My acoustic has a pretty thick neck, and it makes my hand lock up if i play it for more than a half hour. I'm loosening up and getting better, but I really like those thin flat backed necks.

[Keegan]

I like fat asymmetric necks with a good place for your thumb and a fairly skinny and round fretboard.

Hate Ibanez necks. They might be faster but they hurt sooner. Fender necks are my favorite, though they could be thicker. Gibson necks are a bit flat. Haven't tried Warmoth necks yet.

The back of the neck on the acoustic I have feels the best to me, but not quite thick enough. It's about 7/8", so I think an inch thick boat-neck might be about right. The Fender neck I have feels the best on the front, and it's 9.5" radius.

I have pretty long hands with skinny fingers. 7-1/4" long(from wrist to tip of middle finger) and 9" finger spread(tip of thumb to tip of pinkie)

[XBIGJIMX]

I agree on having a fat neck I had an 80's SG that had the almost a perfect neck but it was big and round. I also have tried the Warmoth Boat style neck...Awesome

[WezV]

so whats too fat?

i know 50mm is too wide for a 6 string

for me anything above 1" thickness starts to become silly.

i am really liking PRS wide fat necks at the moment. a think they hover around 0.8" at the nut to about 1" at the twelve.

on my recent LP junior The nut was 0.9" and 43mm wide but really round too. A lot of players that like chunky necks found it too much but it was perfect for the guy that had ordered it. Acoustically it definatly seemed to make a difference to the tone, not sure it was so much once plugged in

there was a small british company called black carbon guitars who did the chunkiest necks ever on a few models. I tried one out at a guitar show a few years back. it was crazy and i couldnt get on with it - but some people seemed to find it ok

[dpm99]

so whats too fat?

i know 50mm is too wide for a 6 string

for me anything above 1" thickness starts to become silly.

i am really liking PRS wide fat necks at the moment. a think they hover around 0.8" at the nut to about 1" at the twelve.

on my recent LP junior The nut was 0.9" and 43mm wide but really round too. A lot of players that like chunky necks found it too much but it was perfect for the guy that had ordered it. Acoustically it definatly seemed to make a difference to the tone, not sure it was so much once plugged in

there was a small british company called black carbon guitars who did the chunkiest necks ever on a few models. I tried one out at a guitar show a few years back. it was crazy and i couldnt get on with it - but some people seemed to find it ok

I think you answered your own question. It's too big when it's too big for the player's hand.

[WezV]

I think you answered your own question.

i know i did - but i thought the idea of 'too fat' was worthy of discussion, especially for people wondering what is acceptable for a standard 6 string neck

i have ideas on what is 'too fat' based on my experience and i dont stray far from that now. thought it might be interesting to see how wide/fat others have gone and still been happy

[alexoest]

I've been looking for a gutiar with a neck that suits my big hands, so I might as well ask... Does anyone know of a (cheaper) guitar make and model with a neck like Warmoth's wide/fat one (1-3/4" or 44.5mm nut width and 1" or 25,4 mm height at 1st fret)?

I've looked at the specs of Epiphones, Squiers, etc and found none. Preferably a hardtail with 24 3/4" scale length, but If it has a thick and wide neck, I'm not picky.

/Alex

[Keegan]

I've been looking for a gutiar with a neck that suits my big hands, so I might as well ask... Does anyone know of a (cheaper) guitar make and model with a neck like Warmoth's wide/fat one (1-3/4" or 44.5mm nut width and 1" or 25,4 mm height at 1st fret)?

I've looked at the specs of Epiphones, Squiers, etc and found none. Preferably a hardtail with 24 3/4" scale length, but If it has a thick and wide neck, I'm not picky.

/Alex

Not sure of the specs on PRS SE necks, but they're supposed to be wide and fat.

Agile has some 1-3/4" wide necks but they're only 21.5mm at the first fret.

Classic Vibe Squiers have C-profile necks, which are pretty thick.

If you want a cheap guitar with a fat neck, you could just get an SX and put a Warmoth neck on it. That'd run you around $350, about the price of an Epiphone.

[alexoest]

I've been looking for a gutiar with a neck that suits my big hands, so I might as well ask... Does anyone know of a (cheaper) guitar make and model with a neck like Warmoth's wide/fat one (1-3/4" or 44.5mm nut width and 1" or 25,4 mm height at 1st fret)?

I've looked at the specs of Epiphones, Squiers, etc and found none. Preferably a hardtail with 24 3/4" scale length, but If it has a thick and wide neck, I'm not picky.

/Alex

Not sure of the specs on PRS SE necks, but they're supposed to be wide and fat.

Agile has some 1-3/4" wide necks but they're only 21.5mm at the first fret.

Classic Vibe Squiers have C-profile necks, which are pretty thick.

If you want a cheap guitar with a fat neck, you could just get an SX and put a Warmoth neck on it. That'd run you around $350, about the price of an Epiphone.

I've looked at the PRS and Squier website, and it seems both are too thin compared to the Warmoth "wide/fat", so I'll probably buy a Warmoth neck to fit my Squier strat.

Thanks for the advice.

[Crusader]

I'm another guy with long fingers and a fat neck suits me better, and wider too

One day I was playing a friends Flying V copy (I think it was a Formentin) and it had quite a thick neck but awesome action, and I thought that was more important. If you think about it a thin neck will would be more affected by heat, cold and humidity which affects playing action, would you agree? So thinner being "faster" doesn't make much sense to me

On my favourite home-made guitar the neck is 22mm at the nut and 23 at the body join. And the width is 43mm at the nut and 57 at the 25th fret (I like a lot of room for the 1st and 6th string to move around) I find (for example) a Les Paul with binding on the neck too narrow because I often pull the strings off the edge. This is a major reason why I bought a Les Paul Studio, it doesn't have binding on the neck

Another thing worth mentioning is neck profile. I was looking at Classical guitars once and one was really wierd as it was almost rectangular. The explanation from the salesman was it is a Flamenco guitar and I liked it

Many years ago one of my Phys-Ed teachers had a Martin steel string accoustic and the back of the neck was what I call "bony" It was like V shaped in comparison to most other guitars. I could really feel the curve at the centre of the back of the neck which actually hurt my thumb

[dpm99]

Yep, just looking through the Warmoth site will give you a bunch of ideas for shape. As for me, I think I just prefer it round. I haven't tried enough different things to develop a strong opinion, but the new LP asymmetrical thing doesn't sound like my cup of tea, for sure. It's not like my hand stays in the same position while I play. Maybe if I were playing the same three chords over and over...

-Dave

[Keegan]

Hmm, just found out about USA Custom Guitars. They have more back shaping options(C, U, V, or asymmetric in any thickness from .750" to 1"). Cost a bit more than Warmoth though, and they only deal in common woods. They also do a neat 7-1/4" to 9-1/5" compound radius neck.