makam

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Sep 20, 2022
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I am the owner of thirteen PRS guitars at the moment, having more than sixty guitars which I use in the studio, live concerts and lessons. Among them there are some fine Gibson Les Pauls and archtops, some Heritage (mostly archtops) few Fender tele and strats, Eastmans, Gretsches, D' Angelico's and some fine acoustics and nylon classics.
As I spend a lot of time during the day playing, I have found that for long sessions the wide fat or pattern vintage neck profile is the most relaxing for my hand. I have no complain for the pattern regular but the old wide fat is a must! So PRS became the easy-ergonomic friend with the 'perfect feel' neck.
Unfortunatelly recently it becomes much harder to find this profiles, as many dealers opted for the 'commercially-trade' thin necks. Having an average hand, no big-no small, I had problems when trying to play for a long period with the wide thin profile, stopped just before injured my left hand.
When I see a new presentation from PRS as the new SE NF3 it is such a dissappoinment I will never have this guitar as the neck profile alone is far from my taste and needs.
I think Paul himself prefer the wide fat neck as his choice!
Wish more wide fat necks will be available for newer models.
 
Wide Fat is my preference, followed by Pattern Regular. I'm also OK with Pattern, and with the old Standard. I've given up trying to get along with Wide Thin, which is irritating since there are so many out there that I'd otherwise like. I haven't owned a Pattern VIntage, but when I play one in a store I find it just slightly too large to be comfy.
 
Tbh I’ve no idea what my SE have as neck carves and that makes me feel terrible about myself I should take a second to look it up, bought both used. The tremonti SE feels beefier than the CU24-08 but that could just be me

They’re both great players but with my hands the 24-08 neck feels easy for thumb drips and reach
 
In all honesty I'm the exact opposite on this. My McCarty was reshaped to thin at the PSC, my recent SCHB rebuild I personally sanded down to thin that fits my hand like a glove, and I don't have overly small hands, nor do I have any hand injury problems whatsoever, and I've been playing them for decades.

On top of that I have an SE HB that has that standard neck profile and TBH unless I'm just chunking out chords, I don't enjoy playing it for very long, and reach for my thin necks within minutes. I'm even considering sanding down the neck of it, as I really wanted it for a workhorse, but because it has binding I'm hesitant.

I'll even go as far to say that even though I'm a devoted PRS only player, if I was a guitar newb starting out and couldn't find a thin neck PRS I would probably be playing something else. Blasphemy? Maybe, but I feel there should be more thin neck PRS options available.
 
I prefer the necks of my McCs (wide fat) over the ones of my CUs (WT). But I have no problem with it. Just a preference.
 
I have the W/F on an SE 245 that is ok, but I prefer the pattern regular on my S2’s. Don’t like thick necks. There is something about the W/T that I am not a fan of for some reason. When I first acquired my 245, I wanted to thin the neck down because it does play well, and has the lowest action of all my guitars. It’s the Korean model. But put it off and put it in the closet. Tried to sell it a couple times locally to no avail. Had lots of very low ball offers. Still resides in the closet. Retiring or slowing down in the next year or so. Maybe the neck will become thinner then.
 
I don’t own any with a wide thin, pattern thin or regular..the regular’s nut width is too narrow, and the other wide thin, and pattern thin causes hand problems for me. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m pushing 70, but the only profiles I like are pattern, wide fat, pattern vintage and the new NF3-53 neck shape. I moved anything that creates problems for my fretting hand. I like the “1959” neck shape made by “G” brand, and the “59” shape made by “F” brand.
 
I am also not a fan of the Wide Thin / Pattern Thin , Like the Modern C Fender , Ibanez.
I can live with a Pattern regular and the DGT.
Thats why I keep rotating thru CU24s , there are not as many with Pattern Regular necks and almost none with a Pattern or Wide Fat.
 
I do have Pattern Regular (2011th PRS 513), 513 (2005th PRS 513), Wide Fat ("copied" on two of my three luthier made ones), Wide Thin and others.
For those of you who struggle on Wide Thin: Sometimes the fretboard radius makes a difference, too.
I don't like ultra flat necks. I had once a Japanese Ibanez RG570CATM (only being mqnufactured in 1995), but the neck was not for endurance playing. I sold the guitar.
But the Wide Thin with 20" radius (Holcomb SE) feels comfortable likewise my prefered profiles (Pattern Regular, 513, Wide Fat).
 
You can't find a new CE24 with a pattern regular or wide fat neck and this is a pitty. Thats why I stopped looking for a new CE24 as I can't stand its wide thin neck. Same with all SE models, with the exception of SE Hollowbody II which has a wide fat neck.
 
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