PRS necks... wide thin vs. wide fat. What's the diff?

[cvogue]

Just wondering what the difference is between the PRS wide fat and wide thin necks.

 

I have small hands so I'm leery of the wide fat necks... for reference I've played Gibson SG's in the stores that felt like baseball bat necks and the same goes for Jackson necks if you're familiar with those.

 

Any idea how the PRS necks would compare?

 

Thanks for any insight

[HELSTRUME]

They are like bats on the wide fat.

[Zbingu]

Wide fat is very thick (not baseball bat thick, but acoustic guitar thick...) while wide thin is thinner than say a strat neck, but thicker than an ibanez wizzard. Both are about that width too. Both are also quite confy.

[InnerVision]

All I know is that the Wide Thin isn't really all that thin compared to other guitars with thin necks...The Fender Modern C is much Smaller than the W-Thin Neck.

[Schwarzwind]

i have small hands (your teenage daughter probably have bigger hands than i do).

 

not all gibsons have thick neck, like Angus Young signature is pretty thin, cuz he has small hands as well.

 

i had my fair share of high end ibanez with super thin wizard necks, to be honest, i hate it.

 

you should give jacksons another try, their compound radius on their neck-thru are really comfy to shred on.

 

that or Ibanez Wizard necks, FYI Herman Li Signature is thick on the top and thin towards the body.

 

dont bother with Dean's V profile necks.

[Brian May]

My two fave necks from all the 8 guitars I own are my PRS's wide/fat and my Gibson SG Standards neck...they are NOT thick necks - at least not like the old baseball bat necks on some custom shop reissue LP's etc...they are not necks that many would be finding cumbersome or too much of a handfull - they are just nice in the hand - rounded...that is unless you really have girl sized hands. They would only be considered really fat when compared to an Ibanez Wizard neck or similar. But thats because really its those necks that are skinny anorexic thin rather than the PRS's really being "wide/fat" ....if your considering between the two options on a PRS then go to some store and try out both. If thats not possible say what your fave necks are so we can compare. I can happily play skinny necks and nice rounded ones - as I do own a couple of Ibanez's like a JS and an RG...as well as owning an S540 previously...they are skinny, but dont stop me playing. I just enjoy it more when I got a nice handful of wood in my hands that fills my palm - it just feels more comfy to me and more natural. The skinny necks feel ok but always like some err wood is missing..oh yeah thats actually the case!

 

One thing I dont buy into is that skinny necks allow you to play faster - thats nonsense to me. The only logic is this - necks that are massive thick may hinder you...simply because you struggle to get your hand around them but as long as a neck isn't too fat then whether skinny or nice n rounded makes nadda difference IMO.

 

Skinny necks really are for children and women.:poke:

[cvogue]

 

i have small hands (your teenage daughter probably have bigger hands than i do). not all gibsons have thick neck, like Angus Young signature is pretty thin, cuz he has small hands as well. i had my fair share of high end ibanez with super thin wizard necks, to be honest, i hate it. you should give jacksons another try, their compound radius on their neck-thru are really comfy to shred on. that or Ibanez Wizard necks, FYI Herman Li Signature is thick on the top and thin towards the body. dont bother with Dean's V profile necks.

 

 

Yeah I have a Les Paul and it's not that fat, really like the neck on it... it's a strange guitar though, it's a Studio Custom from 1986 and it has a maple neck, gold hardware, dots for position markers... very different neck from an SG I tried in a store recently

 

I also have a new Kramer (MusicYo... yeah I know, it's my frankenstein guitar) and I like the neck on it as well as the neck on my Wolfgang specia.

[Belva]

To each his own. I have smallish hands, but a thin neck (C shape .830 @ 1st fret) has me cramping up in about a half an hour. Playing my .860 asymetrical is comfortable for me all night. Nut width on the 2 necks is both around 1.650 To the OP, Play the damn things & see what you like. Don't let anyone tell you what to play. Let your hand tell you. And play for awhile. Not for 3 minutes. Your girlfriend wants more than that. So does your hand.

[cvogue]

Your girlfriend wants more than that. So does your hand.

 

Now THATs sig-worthy material!

[DonK]

Man, there's a lot of misinformation in this thread. Neck depth info is available right at the PRS site, but to cut to the chase, the wide-thin has a depth of 25/32" at the first fret, which is about .78". That's slightly thinner than a typical MIA Strat or Tele, for which the modern C runs about .80" thick at the first fret (sometimes a tad thinner; note that MIM modern C's are thicker than MIA modern C's). To put .78" in perspective, note that an Ibanez Wizard Prestige neck is .71" at the first fret (very thin), while an Ibanez Wizard II is .75". So a wide-thin is slightly thinner than an MIA Fender modern C at the first fret, and slightly thicker than a Wizard II.

 

A PRS wide-fat is .84" thick at the first fret: about the same as an SRV Strat or Clapton Strat (.835" at the 1st fret, though the SRV is thicker further up the neck)), and significantly less thick than either a current edition Jeff Beck (about .85) or an Eric Johnson Strat (.86"). And if you want to talk about a baseball bat, try one of the original Jeff Beck Strats: .90" at the first fret.

 

And yes I've owned a half-dozen PRS guitars, all but one of which - a CE22 - had the wide fat neck. It's not thin, but it's hardly fat either.