I am so damned confused ---- Neck Profiles

[alantig]

I had a beard, but my wife hated it, so I shaved it of.

I had a beard, but my wife made me break up with her.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I had a beard, but my wife made me break up with her.

I married mine.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I married mine.

 

[matonanjin]

Everybody, thank you for the advice and sorry for the delay in telling you this. A lot of intelligent, helpful posts here. And, as always, I could count on very educational responses from the "usual suspects": @bodia, @dogrocketp, @Mozzi @sergiodeblanc and others.

This is not to say that I am no longer confused. I am. I had related about playing the McCarty 594 at the store and it feeling good in my hands. And I've been playing my Paul's mostly lately. But yesterday I picked up my HB, which has a really thin neck profile, and it felt great! Have I mentioned I'm confused?!

But I'm just going to need to play them so more and as I progress decide what's best for me. I remain concerned about buying a guitar that I may later regret. But what was surprising is the number of posts relating adjusting to what whatever neck profile the poster was playing. Which leads me to my other "ah ha" moment:

I am probably overthinking this. I have a tendency to do this.

Thanks again to everyone for the education.

 

[Mozzi]

Everybody, thank you for the advice and sorry for the delay in telling you this. A lot of intelligent, helpful posts here. And, as always, I could count on very educational responses from the "usual suspects": @bodia,@dogrocketp, @Mozzi @sergiodeblanc and others.

This is not to say that I am no longer confused. I am. I had related about playing the McCarty 594 at the store and it feeling good in my hands. And I've been playing my Paul's mostly lately. But yesterday I picked up my HB, which has a really thin neck profile, and it felt great! Have I mentioned I'm confused?!

But I'm just going to need to play them so more and as I progress decide what's best for me. I remain concerned about buying a guitar that I may later regret. But what was surprising is the number of posts relating adjusting to what whatever neck profile the poster was playing. Which leads me to my other "ah ha" moment:

I am probably overthinking this. I have a tendency to do this.

Thanks again to everyone for the education.

I do think that you can find necks to be comfortable within a range of measurements and often, the different necks, set-ups, scale lengths and tones make you play different, bring something out of you that others don't.

Unless you are playing show after show after show, having a specific neck may help. Its so familiar that you can play the show on auto pilot, hit the bends without having to hear or be aware - its just so ingrained that there is no thought. It has to be a certain way so that you can keep playing without any discomfort.

Whilst that maybe the case for their touring guitars, they often play a variety of guitars when at home or in he studio if looking for a certain tone or inspiration but when it comes to touring, it has to be a certain neck shape to play for hours without stopping or really thinking.

That may also make it a bit more difficult to find the exact measurements if the neck shape that is 'perfect' for you because you are not playing for hours on end, night after night without taking a 10minute break, waking up the next day with discomfort now the adrenaline of the show has worn off. At the end of the day, its more beneficial to have a range of neck shape and measurements that you can comfortably play as that also increases the options of which guitars you can buy. If Pattern Vintage was the only shape youo could play, you would only have the 594 guitar but if all the pattern shapes, despite the differences are all comfortable, that gives you all the PRS (except those unique to Signature models unless they are comfortable too) as options. You wouldn't want to be limited to just a 60's LP neck and can't play anything else.

I can go from the Pattern Thin to the pattern Vintage and its just a moments thought that the neck feels different but getting used to the different switch position takes more thought to get used to it. I am reaching for the blade instead of going for the switch on the top horn and that for me is a bigger difference. All the 'C' shape guitars don't feel significantly different enough to warrant any thought for me. Things like weight, layout, PU's and any mini toggles even the guitars with a middle PU (509, Special) can be a more noticeable difference. Now I know there is a difference and if I had to focus on the neck for an A/B review for example, then of course I could feel the difference BUT swapping between them for my own personal playing pleasure, literally putting one down and immediately plugging in another, the difference in the necks are not significant enough that it sticks out more than switch/knob layout, scale length and string tension, weight, pick up layout, bridge type (trem, tune-o-matic type and fixed adjustable with Piezo) resonance and tone - whether unplugged or not (my HBii for example is much louder than my solid body 594 for example) etc. Despite all having the same body shape and name on the headstock, all my guitars are different and those differences are more signifiant to me than the necks. The only one that really jumps out is the Pattern Vintage because its shaped differently but even that is nothing more than a momentary thought that flashes past as I grab hold of the neck but then my focus shifts to all the other differences and the music I am [attempting] to play.

I can't speak for others but as long as a neck is within certain parameters, ie not too thin or thick, not too narrow or wide, then I am comfortable. Add in things like fretboard radius, frets and scale length too, there are numerous parameters that you could really try to focus and narrow them down to be 1 definitive neck for you - ie a C shape with X width at the nut any Y thickness that must have a N radius and M fret types. Scale Length has to be S" with T number of frets. Only Set neck with a sculpted heel and anything that doesn't conform to those specs is not for you. Or you can be someone that picks up a guitar without any preconceptions about the neck and feel how it plays as part of the complete instrument. So what if you find one guitar you really gel with but is chunkier than your Wizard neck guitars you 'thought' were the best for you. Its more important to takr the instrument as a hole and only worry about the neck if you want to buy online. If you love the Pattern Vintage because you tried it in a shop, that means you can look online and buy ANY 594 and there are a lot of different options from double to single cut, hollow to semi to solid but because you know that neck feels good, its safe to assume that all the other 594's will feel good too. Its the same if you try a Pattern, Pattern Regular or Pattern Thin too - like all of those necks then if you see a great deal on a PRS, you don't have to worry about whether or not the neck will be too thick/thin et.

With more and more people buying online, its becoming more important to have more info on the neck - measurements and shape. If you buy in a shop, it wasn't important because you would just sit down with it and find out how it feels. CNC too has helped by making necks more consistently, reduce the tolerances so that the necks are all within much smaller fractions of a mm - there is still some tiny differences die to the hand sanding but so close its not worth worrying about. As long as its not uncomfortable, it doesn't matter and can be beneficial to have a range of necks that are comfortable - not just opening up a wider range of guitars but also can be inspirational too...

 

[Antmax]

I find reasonably chunky necks easier. Thin wizard type necks have me doing a smaller pinching type neck hold that feels unatural and probably uses muscles different because I get an ache after not too long.

Among my guitars I have a really chunky 1 3/4 nut fatback with wide spacing. It's a bit too chunky 1" all the way along and quire round with extra jumbo stainless frets. It does cause some reach problems but is actually easier for me with chords. I have quite big hands with stubby fingers and the extra string spacing helps for a lot of chords. The tall frets mean you don't have to press so hard which makes them easier too.

I don't have a USA PRS yet, I like both my wide thin and wide fat SE's. Neither is uncomfortably thin like my Ibanez or the Mitchel RG style shred guitar I was given.

 

[justjoshin]

I really like the wide fat neck on my SE ZM, so what would be the closest to that in the USA neck shape?

 

[WA Paul]

I really like the wide fat neck on my SE ZM, so what would be the closest to that in the USA neck shape?

Pattern is closest to the older wide fat, though I believe it is slightly thicker.

 

[Teletex]

I have always preferred bigger necks. My number one since 2012 has been a 52 reissue tele. I have never been able to play the really thin necks like the Gibson slim taper without serious hand pain. Recently I got a Special 22, and was a little apprehensive about the neck profile going in because I had never played a pattern regular neck for an extended period of time.

After the first day of playing my worries were absolutely laid to rest. The neck on the Special is great. It's not big but has just enough depth and shoulder. It's a great compromise between thickness needed for bends and the slimness needed to be able to speedily and efficiently move up and down the neck. It's just a very comfortable and easy playing guitar. To say nothing of the crazy variety of tones you can get out of the three pickups. I probably still prefer a little bit of a fatter neck but this guitar is now firmly planted as my number one.

 

[Glide-bpm]

Broke my left forearm in half (both bones) my junior year in high school (1984-85). My left hand was pointing backwards behind my back where I landed on the ground (fell sideways and went to catch myself).

Found out after it grew back that it was not messed up slightly from calcium deposits as the doctor said, but that dumba$$ Dr. Dalton had put it back together crooked. Hence, if you see pics of me playing, I have the neck pointed up about 45 degrees or more because I have slightly less rotation range than most people. I max most straps for length and that angle still keeps the strumming area of the strings fairly high with a decent angle for my right hand.

It's a b@tch playing a B barre cord on the 5th string root note. My arm will sometimes ache after playing a lot of songs with chords requiring that much forearm rotation.

Amazingly enough, neck carve for some reason still does not affect me that much.

 

[drdoom8793]

Sorry to bring this thread back on topic, but what's the DGT neck carve like? I think the DGT might be the next thing on my wish list, but there isn't a shop near me that has any in stock, so I can't really give one a try barring a road trip.

 

[alantig]

Sorry to bring this thread back on topic, but what's the DGT neck carve like? I think the DGT might be the next thing on my wish list, but there isn't a shop near me that has any in stock, so I can't really give one a try barring a road trip.

It's like heaven. I'm pretty neck carve agnostic, but the DGT is special to me. It's what I chose when I did my PS build. It just seems to disappear in my hand and make playing effortless. I hadn't really given it any special thought until one night when I realized I'd been playing for about 90 minutes and I had no fatigue in my hand. In terms of other PRS carves, I believe it's been said that it pretty much falls between the pattern (old wide/fat) and pattern regular (old regular).

 

[drdoom8793]

It's like heaven. I'm pretty neck carve agnostic, but the DGT is special to me. It's what I chose when I did my PS build. It just seems to disappear in my hand and make playing effortless. I hadn't really given it any special thought until one night when I realized I'd been playing for about 90 minutes and I had no fatigue in my hand. In terms of other PRS carves, I believe it's been said that it pretty much falls between the pattern (old wide/fat) and pattern regular (old regular).

That sounds about perfect to me. Thanks!