Pattern Thin vs. Pattern Regular?

[SPORT]

Greetings gang,

Relative newbie here.

A lil background. I've played rhythm acoustic off and on much of my life (20+ years) with an Ovation roundback. Then about 3 years ago I bought my first electric (>>>Ibanez Artcore AM93 semi hollow<<<) to learn leads on. Shortly after I bought a Rondo sold electric (>>>Douglas 625<<<) and use it primarily as my practice/beat-it-up guitar. The Ibanez is slightly fatter, and slower than the Douglas. I'm now beginning to see some differences in neck profiles and was wondering if anyone here would be willing to shed their experience and thoughts on the subject.

I've been following the other thread about how large handers don't care about profile...

Based on my very limited understanding, I'm leaning towards the Pattern Regular profile, as my desire is in the area of lead guitar. Anybody have thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Gnal]

My best recommendation would be to hit up a local dealer and play a few different models with the different profiles. I've played Wide Fat, Pattern, Wide Thin, Pattern Thin, DGT, and I think I've played a Regular before but cannot remember for certain. My impressions overall is that the differences are not huge between the various neck profiles. Wide Fat / Pattern feel the biggest to me but are still very comfortable. Transitioning to the other profiles is really easy.

As a point of reference, I have 3 Wide Fat necks, 1 Pattern, and 1 Pattern Thin neck I play regularly. In the upper registers, say above the 9th fret, the differences I feel in neck profile is negligible, whereas around the nut the size difference can be felt.

 

[jfine]

So are the Pattern and the Pattern Regular the same? According to the specs, my Brent Mason has the Pattern neck, and it's fairly good-sized--not the biggest neck I've ever played, but it fills my hand up nicely, and I like a big neck anyway. The Brent Mason is the only PRS I've ever owned, and when I've tried other PRSi in stores, I didn't pay much attention to which necks they had. I haven't played a huge number of PRS guitars, but I have played a few, and I tend to notice if a neck is too small--my left hand will cramp up!

 

[Whitecat]

No, Pattern Regular is narrower, and overall feels smaller than Pattern.

 

[Bufford T]

Pattern thin for me, nothing else feels as good, but that's just me. All of my 4 PRS have this profile.

It feels like the best of both traditional and modern profiles, without being overly compromised in either direction.

Just my 2 cents

 

[tiboy]

No, Pattern Regular is narrower, and overall feels smaller than Pattern.

Exactly!

 

[FunkyFreeman]

Pattern thin for me, nothing else feels as good, but that's just me. All of my 4 PRS have this profile.

It feels like the best of both traditional and modern profiles, without being overly compromised in either direction.

Just my 2 cents

Me too! The thin profile makes me feel more comfortable than the chunky pattern or wide fat types. Probably because I'm an Asian whose hands are smaller than average western guitarists.
Unfortunately, some desirable models are offered only in pattern or wide fat types.

 

[László]

I currently have both Pattern Regular and Pattern Thin in my studio (and Pattern), and have no problem switching between them. The Pattern Reg is narrower but deeper top to bottom, the Thin is wider but shallower top to bottom. The result (to my hand) is about the same comfort level.

 

[GeoDude]

Well, for what it's worth, I find the pattern Regular to fit my fairly small hands perfectly. I picked up an American Deluxe Strat the other day and it felt quite a bit beefier, if that gives you a frame of reference. Good luck!

 

[Gnal]

I guess what I was trying to communicate to the OP is that while targeting a specific role for the new guitar acquisition (lead work), pre-selecting the neck profile up front is likely less important then say... the feature set of the various guitars available, specifically when you have not had the chance to "get your hands" on the different profiles.

There is a slight difference in the upper registers of the neck between the different profiles, but also between different guitars with the same profile (not as much but its still there). Like I said, I have 3 WF necks and while they all feel 'similar', I could rank them in order of best/most comfortable with regard to upper fret accessibility.

Before purchasing my first PRS, I searched for a dealer that was reasonably close and literally spent 2 to 3 hours just going back and forth between Pattern and Pattern Thin neck profiles to see if I even got along with the brand. Both were super comfortable, both would work fine for lead work, it really came down to a feature set. My preference is for the SC body style and control layout. I had two options one was a hard tail with a Pattern profile one was a Trem with a Pattern Thin profile. I don't use trems, therefore the neck profile choice was decided for me . Later on by happenstance I purchased another SC that had a Thin profile neck and a hard tail, and its a great guitar! Is it better at lead then the WF/Pattern necked guitars? Its subjective, I don't think so, but someone who is more sensitive to profile changes could easily argue otherwise.