Neck profile preferences?

[deeaa]

Hello,

What's you neck profile preference?

Mine is sort of 'V'. I like a neck that's thick enough in the middle so it sort of fills the hand and is not tiresome to play chords on, yet on the bass side of the neck I want to get my thumb near the fretboard like it was very thin. So a V works the best for me. I played regular U's and C's for almost 20 years and I can't believe I never realized how good V shape is.

I have two V neck guitars, on my strat the neck is regular strat thickness but clearly V up to say 10th fret, and on the Davette it's thinner all the way but also V for a long way. Actually on that one the V is so deep that the neck starts to tilt away already ON the fretboard right after the frets, there is no 'even' edge at all on the neck...and it's SOOOO light and great to play.

I have a Flying V too, but it has more of a thick U profile and I have decided I hate it. It's good for chords but it forces the thumb all too far from the fretboard making it really tiresome to play leads. Guess I gotta start sanding the neck to my shape :-)

So, what's your preference?

[marnold]

I prefer thinnish C-shape. My Jackson's is thinner than a typical Fender, but not as thin as a typical high-end Ibanez. I've only played a couple Strats that were V-shape. It was one of those "neither here nor there" kind of things. For me I've found that neck shape isn't as big of a thing as fretboard radius. The flatter, the better for me. I don't much care for vintage frets with a vintage radius.

My bass as a thicker and wider neck than I thought I would like and with a 16" radius which is pretty unusual for a bass, but I love it.

[Robert]

C-shape is my preference.

[bigG]

My preference is pretty much anything but U-shaped. The only guit I have w a U-shaped neck is my tele, and I don't much care for it, or play it.

Modern C-shape on all my other guits, except my Fender Sp Ed Lite Ash Strat which has a V-shaped neck that I love, and my Peavey HP Special USA which has an asymetrical neck (shaped like it's been worn-in after 20 years of playing). Love 'em all - hate the U-shape.

[Spudman]

My favorite so far is the asymmetrical V shape on my Musicman Luke. It's extremely comfortable. Otherwise a C shape seems to work okay.

[Robert]

I really dislike the X-shape. :)

[deeaa]

So quite a few here share my liking for the V shape. Since I never knew how good it was until I got one, how about you who prefer C - have you ever played a V shape for a while and still prefer C?

I guess for fast playing a thin C would be very nice.

[Robert]

Yeah, I don't dig the V shape that much. Just doesn't feel right to me.

[Plank_Spanker]

All these Fender players here............:D

Gibson Slim 60's, but I'm not too picky - I can play anything as long as it's not an absolute ball bat.

[sunvalleylaw]

My first love was a Fender modern C, as on my strat. I cannot say i have really played a V, other than on a Martin with vintage specs. That felt different at first, but it seemed I would easily get used to it. I also really like my Hagstrom slimmed down C which is kind of its own thing.

[R.B. Huckleberry]

C-shape witha singnificant girth to it. This is most comfortable for me to play rhythm, and I spend 90+% of a song playing rhythm. :D

[deeaa]

Actually, my V shape is sort of like this, roughly...it's a bit exaggerated but you get the idea:

http://deeaa.pp.fi/profile.jpg

It's kinda like a gibson when you examine the high end side...fills the hand for chording and over there the thickness doesn't get in the way...yet on the low string side the neck slopes away VERY steeply, right after the fret really, so you can put your thumb like two fret thicknesses from the E string, which makes for really nice riffin' and lead playing too.

I dunno if any manufacturer makes that sort of a neck...I've done them myself by just sanding off lotsa wood where it's not needed and then had them re-finished by a luthier. Doesn't seem to do anything to the stability either.

[sunvalleylaw]

That looks like it could be really nice to play with. I will look for a neck like that sometime to try, if one is made. My palm is large, so my overall hand is big enough, but my fingers are kinda short and stubby. I am wondering if getting rid of that bulk in front of my thumb would open up some things. I do like to wrap my thumb over to form chords quite a bit. I wonder how that feels on one of those.

[bek]

I have a v-neck on a mid-1930s Regal resonator, and it is really wonderful. With that type of instrument, of course, it has a flat fingerboard, but it's still great. Other than that I have a couple Linderts, which are something like the OP (deeaa) is talking about, but the high point is moved off-center toward the treble strings. Lindert patented the design, calling it the "Escape Velocity" neck. Thumb-wrapping is essentially automatic, and I still can't believe how comfortable they are. I've had trouble with them seeming to be temperature-sensitive, though, and they have to be removed from the body to adjust them, so it's a gigantic pain. I'm using them for bottleneck (which works perfectly), but I'd love to have a neck made like the Lindert but a little thicker, to see if it would feel as great but be more stable.

[deeaa]

I don't know if they make anything like that shape these days. Mind you, the shape is not quite consistently that throughout the neck, I shaped it by hand and it changes to more of a U on the davette as you get up the neck and C on the strat.

I got into it almost by accident, I wanted to try and make a neck profile like that and bought that old Charvette for a hundred, just with the idea of destroying the neck basically by shaping it myself. Turned out the best guitar ever, and I also got the strat done the same way. And soon I will do it to the Fying-V as well.

It sure was worth trying...the thumb position is the key. Playing licks it feels like an ultra-thin neck, but when chording you still get the hand support. The bad side is, these days when I play a lot of barres on a normal type neck, my hand tires easily, as it's used to them being very light to play.