Jump to content

Recommend some guitars with thick necks, please


charlie13033

Recommended Posts

  • Members

As I get older, I find I get a lot of soreness in my left hand after playing. I play rhythm guitar and only do occasional leads. I am used to playing Tele's and Rickenbackers but I must admit I get less fatigue playing my acoustic guitar than my tele or Rick, less with the Rick though.

 

I have been told that I need to get a guitar with a thicker neck and put on higher gauge strings. Any recommendations?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The Epiphone Sheraton II has a pretty thick neck - or at least to me it does. It fits my hand like a glove, as opposed to my strat and 60s neck gibby LP which my hand has plenty of room over. Though it depends on what kind of music you're looking to play..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I take it you're talking about the neck Back Profile, correct? How thick the neck is front to back.

 

Its something I've been looking at lately - I've gone in and tried some various guitars to see what I liked most - this is what I found:

 

#1 - A Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul with a '59 neck back - huge, hand-filling, comfortable as heck!

#2 - Fender Clapton Strat - nice soft-V neck back, not as full as the Gibson

#3 - Martin "Golden Era" Acoustic - not as big as the Gibson, but close, and a hint of soft V (or so I thought)

 

I've been eyeing the Warmoth "Boat" or "Fat" neck profiles

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/BackContours.aspx

 

If you've already got a Tele that you like, you could just get a new Warmoth neck for it with a bigger neck back profile and swap me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

+1 for the '50s necked SG.

 

I have a Gibson SG faded and the wide neck and rounded rear profile suits me very well. It does almost seem like it tends towards being an acoustic neck yet it is very fast and comfortable. My Charvel San Dimas USA production also has a wide neck but the fingerboard is flatter than on my Gibson. Both are the easiest of my guitars to play and are more forgiving of errors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm a big fan of thick necks. The thickest I've found on production guitars are the ones on the original Jeff Beck Strat and the 50's Les Paul necks.

 

Next group would be the Eric Johnson Strat, Nocaster, and GE Smith Tele.

 

After than would come the '52 Reissue Tele, modern Jeff Beck Strat and SRV Strat. Then the various Fender V's: 50's Strat/Tele, Clapton, Jimmy Vaughn, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The biggest necks I've ever played have been on Les Paul R4s and some custom shop Teles and Esquires with boat-necks.

 

They are VERY satisfying. The Clapton neck is a great compromise that I'd highly suggest checking out though - it is large and comfy in the hand, but still quite streamlined. Hard to describe, but a wonderful thing. That being said, because necks are usually hand-shaped, there is variation. Mine is an older Clapton strat, and the neck is much bigger than any of the new ones I've tried.

 

Necks like those on the R4, on the other hand, are just big all around. I LOVE huge necks. In fact, one of the biggest dissapointments in my life is that my Gilmour neck is so small. It's been killing my hand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

They advertise the Baja Tele as having a "V" neck, so figured that as they're made in the same plant, it would be the same neck as the Jimmie Vaughan Strat. Boy, was I wrong. The JV has a medium, soft "V" profile neck. The Baja has a big, fatass neck. Feels really rounded to me....I'm not getting any of the "V" that Fender says it has.

 

Supposedly the GE Smith is based on a lap steel, so that oughtta be super-fat.

 

YMMV....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

+1 for SX

 

Lets talk about the measurements that make a neck thick, is it:

 

The Nut Width?

E - e Spacing?

Neck Shape?

Width at 1st fret?

 

Example, I think the a squier has the same nut width as an sx but different everything else. It make it had for me to find replacement necks without all the dimensions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

the Gibson '54, '56, '57 and '58 reissues have some really nice full necks. fuller than the standard Gibson '50s neck carve that you can find on regular production gibsons. the Gibson SG Standards also have very thick, very comfortable necks.

 

my McInturff Taurus also has a very full neck. it's right in league with my Gibson reissues in terms of fullness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...