Difference in Necks - WF and Pattern

[solacematt]

Just curious as I am looking at possibly picking up another McCarty HB today. Mine is a 2006 with Archtop pickups and the one I'm looking at is a 2008. My hangtag says that mine is a widefat and the seller of the McCarty HB I'm looking at says that theirs is a Pattern. Just curious what the difference is as I want to pull the trigger.
Thanks

 

[sleary]

WIDTH OF THE FRETBOARD AT THE NUT:

Pattern, Wide Fat - 1 11/16"
Pattern Regular, Regular - 1 21/32"

WIDTH AT THE BODY

Pattern, Wide Fat - 2 1/4
Pattern Regular, Regular - 2 1/4"

NECK DEPTH AT THE NUT

Pattern, Wide Fat - 27/32"
Pattern Regular, Regular - 27/32"

Actually not much difference. If you have the wide fat now then a pattern will feel at home for you

 

[solacematt]

awesome, thanks sleary. Just trying to make sure all ducks all bases are covered before pulling trigger on a fiddle I can't try out first that I can't return either. It's a 10 top with piezo though so even if I hated it it probably wouldn't be too difficult to resell too.

 

[kes7u]

I have 2 wide fats and a Pattern. If you enjoy your wide fat, then I am sure you will also be pleased with the Pattern. Per the measurements provided by PRS, they should be identical. In real life, I find the difference to be so small as to be unimportant. (I do believe the wide fats are mildly meatier than the pattern)

 

[ViperDoc]

I have 2 wide fats and a Pattern. If you enjoy your wide fat, then I am sure you will also be pleased with the Pattern. Per the measurements provided by PRS, they should be identical. In real life, I find the difference to be so small as to be unimportant. (I do believe the wide fats are mildly meatier than the pattern)

These measurements have always frustrated me because they don't characterize the SHAPE of the neck. How these listed dimensions change from one another is totally different between certain carves. That said, I own Wide Fat and Pattern Neck guitars and feel that the Wide Fat is definitely rounder in shape than the Pattern, although the difference is only slightly noticeable.

 

[ChrisCst22]

+1, I feel the pattern is just slightly flatter than a wide fat. Like everyone said the difference might not even be a WF vs. pattern thing as it might be just slight differences in individual necks.

 

[watelessness]

I'm not sure that the Pattern carve was even around in 2008, let alone an option on HB's.

 

[solacematt]

I guess at this moment it doesn't matter - I lost by a buck the last 3 seconds on a 10 top w/piezo McCarty HB. I asked the guy a lot of questions and he acted like it was a burden to look at the hangtag to check on that neck question and pickups and asked me to look at the PRS site.
I will however say that this thread has been quite educational though

 

[vchizzle]

Yeah, Pattern didn't exist yet in '08. I have an '08 catalog and it was still WF then. Yes, it's not a huge difference to me either between the 2. I certainly don't ever think about it while I play. Pattern is meant to feel like a very worn in WF. Less beefy in the shoulders of the neck where it wraps around to the fretboard and more rounded at the fretboard edge I think. That said, I will order WF on my PS. They could make it pattern and I probably wouldn't know. hahaha
Some people are far more sensitive to the neck shape and have an issue with it I guess.

 

[shinksma]

Some people are far more sensitive to the neck shape and have an issue with it I guess.

heh, cheers to that! :beer:

I had a Mexi-Strat and a Les Paul for years as my main two guitars (still got them), all those years never really felt a difference that I actually noticed in the necks, even though the scale lengths and profiles are supposedly very different. Now that I have PRSi and the neck profiles are so much a part of the "specification" of these guitars, I recognize the difference and have a mild preference for wide-thin, but honestly I'm happy with wide-fat too, so a "pattern" instead of Wide-fat would be very much unnoticed by me. Now a "pattern regular" might be noticeable, due to the overall neck width, but even then it might take me a while to catch on...

 

[LJD]

The measurements mean nothing if PRS doesn't keep shoulder carve consistent. It typically is, but I am one of the few who received something other than what I hoped for. The "pattern" carve on my AP order came very small, almost a soft v and it's uncomfortable for my slightly larger than average hands. Sometimes I think an elf did the inspection on the neck before it left the factory.