How much do you care about neck specs on guitars?

[Armistice]

I've just been cruising around a few boards reading stuff, and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care about a lot of the stuff that a lot of guitarists obsess over.

I have no idea what fretboard radius any of my guitars have - I have necks of various thicknesses and various scale lengths. I have rosewood, ebony and lacquered maple fretboards.

I never go "OMG I can't play this, it's terrible because it's got a 12" fretboard radius! Quelle horreur! It's shit. Burn it!"

Don't get me wrong - I can tell the difference - in feel, in sound (which largely depends upon pickups) - and for feel, scale length in particular is a factor, and I'll use whichever guitar I need to get whatever sound I'm interested in, but I don't particularly fret ( ) over what I consider the minor details - they're still all guitars. There are some I haven't gotten along with, but they're outliers. Mainly I'm good with pretty much anything.

This is not to diss the pursuit of tone, or the importance of finding your own sounds, and we all have favourite guitars for various purposes, I'm just sort of astounded at how narrow a lot of the internet guitarists' preferences seem to be....

[JD01]

I think I might be relatively narrow in my choice of spec.

I like Fender style "modern C" neck profiles. Relatively thin.
I don't like overly fat necks, while I find them comfortable to smash out a few chords I find them more difficult to quickly change powerchords, particularly over large distances, and my forearm gets tired more quickly - particularly if a song is all powerchords. I find that quicker lead isn't as easy on them either.

That said, I don't mind a neck with a bit of chunk to it, just not something that's a really fat 50s style neck - played a 50s (reissue) blackguard Tele recently - hated it.

I also have an Ibanez with the super thin U profile "wizard" neck which is totally flat and a little wider. This makes playing quick lead very easy and while its not difficult or uncomfortable to just strum away on some chords it doesn't feel "good" either - feels like you're just using a tool. (I realise this sounds wooly and doesn't make much sense)

I like the longer scale length of Fender/Ibanez. I don't get on with the shorter scale length of Gibson. I'm right handed and when I play Gibson scale guitars (like my Washburn) sitting down I feel like the bridge is way off to my right hand side, almost like its going behind me and I this makes my playing position uncomfortable. The strings also feel a bit floppy.

PRS is also slightly shorter than Fender and while this effect is noticeable on the PRS its not as bad, probably 'cos the guitar is better balanced and lighter weight too.

I also like jumbo frets, but I'm pretty light fingered so don't press them out of tune that much.

I don't really care about fretboard material. Although I don't have any maple board guitars.

[Greg_L]

I've just been cruising around a few boards reading stuff, and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care about a lot of the stuff that a lot of guitarists obsess over.

I have no idea what fretboard radius any of my guitars have - I have necks of various thicknesses and various scale lengths. I have rosewood, ebony and lacquered maple fretboards.

I never go "OMG I can't play this, it's terrible because it's got a 12" fretboard radius! Quelle horreur! It's shit. Burn it!"

Don't get me wrong - I can tell the difference - in feel, in sound (which largely depends upon pickups) - and for feel, scale length in particular is a factor, and I'll use whichever guitar I need to get whatever sound I'm interested in, but I don't particularly fret ( ) over what I consider the minor details - they're still all guitars. There are some I haven't gotten along with, but they're outliers. Mainly I'm good with pretty much anything.

This is not to diss the pursuit of tone, or the importance of finding your own sounds, and we all have favourite guitars for various purposes, I'm just sort of astounded at how narrow a lot of the internet guitarists' preferences seem to be....

No points, no hot pickups, no jumbo frets, no Floyd Rose.

If a guitar meets this criteria, I can get a long with it. I'm pretty much the guitar-opposite of JD.

[JD01]

I've just been cruising around a few boards reading stuff, and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care about a lot of the stuff that a lot of guitarists obsess over.

I have no idea what fretboard radius any of my guitars have - I have necks of various thicknesses and various scale lengths. I have rosewood, ebony and lacquered maple fretboards.

I never go "OMG I can't play this, it's terrible because it's got a 12" fretboard radius! Quelle horreur! It's shit. Burn it!"

Don't get me wrong - I can tell the difference - in feel, in sound (which largely depends upon pickups) - and for feel, scale length in particular is a factor, and I'll use whichever guitar I need to get whatever sound I'm interested in, but I don't particularly fret ( ) over what I consider the minor details - they're still all guitars. There are some I haven't gotten along with, but they're outliers. Mainly I'm good with pretty much anything.

This is not to diss the pursuit of tone, or the importance of finding your own sounds, and we all have favourite guitars for various purposes, I'm just sort of astounded at how narrow a lot of the internet guitarists' preferences seem to be....

No points, no hot pickups, no jumbo frets, no Floyd Rose.

If a guitar meets this criteria, I can get a long with it. I'm pretty much the guitar-opposite of JD.

I agree with you on the points and the floyd rose.

[Greg_L]

Drummers sweat little details too. They care about wood, and hoop forgings, and lug placement, and all sorts of stupid meaningless shit. At gigs I'm constantly being engaged in drum talk and I'm just not interested. I love playing drums, but drum gear is just not as interesting as guitar gear.

Drummer: Ah dude, I got this walnut/bubinga alternate cross-ply, odd-lug, quadruple flange titanium hoop snare made from a tree that fell in egypt while they were making the pyramids.

Me: I don't give a fuck. Get away from me.

[Roman]

For me it all boils down to this;

People are crazy. Musicians are crazier. Only things crazier are music, art, movie, and literary critics.


Oh, left out poiticians and college professors.

[muttley]

You guys have no idea how OCD some (probably) a majority of guitar players and musicians are about their gear...

Working with them on a daily basis you get to spot them straight away the moment they pull up outside the workshop. The worst kind are the ones who spend ages parking the car and lining it up in exactly their chosen spot. Then I know I'm in for a long session..

In truth there are good and bad examples of every style shape and arrangement of guitar. The rest is preference. Another reason is that too many buy into the hype that dealers and manufacturers put out there without checking the facts or actually looking into how valid a claim maybe. It's VP stuff mostly...

I'm not against people being picky but being vague AND picky is a nightmare from a builders point of view. Being picky is actually good because it nails down the detail so I dont have to tease it out of them.

[Lt. Bob]

I like ALL guitars if they're playable.
I especially like cheap guitars 'cause, even impoverished as I am, I can afford them.
And I do see how OCD guys can be about minute differences and yet, that level of detail leads to someone like greg getting the best rock sounds ever.
Where it gets stupid is if you end up so distracted by some tiny difference that you can't play worth a crap. Which does happen to some players.

My only strong preference is for 25.5" scale length ..... I don't care that much for 24.75" .... feels rubbery with 10's but 11's are a little too stiff.
Also, I play so much that the shorter scale gits (which I rarely use) have me reaching a bit too far sometimes.

having said that .... it'd only take a day or two and I'd be right at home with the Gibson scale ..... but I way prefer the Fender scale.
However, it's not about tone for me with regard to scale length ..... only the 'feel'.

Other things I like .... 24 flipping frets!
The Stinnett opened my eyes hallelujah!
I play up there a significant amount and really miss the extra two frets and the access to all the high frets when I use something else.

P'ups ..... well, I like how some of my gits sound better than others .... p'ups are part of that.
But in general I find I can set my amp to make pretty much any guitar sound ok at worst.

I sorta like neck thrus .... the Firebirds I've had and the Stinnett seem to have a somewhat different sustain.
Hard to put my finger on but it somehow 'feels' different in some way.
I've read some stuff by muttley where he debunks this and his knowledge is high level and what he has said makes sense but I still feel like I've felt a difference there.

Another thing about p'ups .... while I can dial in my amps to sound ok regardless of what p'ups are going into them, I don't use amps that much anymore unfortunately.
For my solo gig I use a modeler.

And with modelers you have to program a complete different set of presets for each guitar.
Modelers are difficult to make sound 'real' and non-fizzy in the first place, and they're super sensitive to the differences in p'ups' loading and output.
Change guitars and your great sounding preset you spent days tweaking to perfection sounds unusable.

I literally have a complete seperate set of presets ( It takes about 8 to cover all I need ) for each guitar I use regularly.
I have a set of presets I've programmed for the Stinnett ..... a completely different set for the tele ..... I'm working on one for the Zak Wilde and I'll do some for the 335 I'm building.
The modeler I use has 100 user presets so no problem.
But I HAVE to use the correct presets for each guitar or it sucks.
It's not like an amp where you can just tweak the gain and treble ..... It responds SO differently you just have to do totally different programs for each and every guitar.

But I pretty much like most guitars.
I'm currently working on using a solid body 12 string to go play some rock leads with ..... that'll be cool.

[muttley]

I was talking neck through the other day with JD and just to clarify. They do not add or subtract sustain but what they do imho is reflect a lot more of the higher and weaker partials that on bolt on's get lost. Espescially at the lower frequencies which is why bass players love a thru neck. I think that reflects in a perception of greater sustain when in reality all thats happening is that the note rings truer without the decay in the higher partials that often define say a fender sound. The note decays at the same rate you just keep some of the colour for a bit longer. Fixed/glued falls between the two.

[Farview]

I've found that the less I play over the years, the more the neck makes a difference. Right now, the only guitars that don't feel foreign to me are the ones with what ever neck is on the 70's Gibson explorers. Which makes sense, because my main guitar between 1979 and 2005 was a 1976 Explorer.

Anything else feels strange and impedes what little playing I can do at this point. Unfortunately, I no longer have a guitar with that neck. Luckily, no one makes me play guitar anymore.

When I was playing all the time, I could pick up any guitar and play it comfortably.

[JD01]

I was talking neck through the other day with JD and just to clarify. They do not add or subtract sustain but what they do imho is reflect a lot more of the higher and weaker partials that on bolt on's get lost. Espescially at the lower frequencies which is why bass players love a thru neck. I think that reflects in a perception of greater sustain when in reality all thats happening is that the note rings truer without the decay in the higher partials that often define say a fender sound. The note decays at the same rate you just keep some of the colour for a bit longer. Fixed/glued falls between the two.

They also look cool and feel nice.

Its the feeling of sustain illusion or not is what attracted me to them. I ended up getting my first neck through guitar almost by accident; but then really liked it but they're just so bloody rare in "off the shelf" guitars.

[muttley]

there were a lot of them about in the 70's and 80's. Production wise these days very few.

[JD01]

there were a lot of them about in the 70's and 80's. Production wise these days very few.

Yeah, my first neck through guitar is a '78

[Tadpui]

I'm not sure that i could name the neck shape on any of my guitars, maybe a couple. My favorite is the 60s slim taper on my LP. That's just the ideal size and shape for me. The wide/flat jazzmaster neck is great for that guitar, and fortunately it's not as wide/flat as an Ibanez, which is way too much for me. My telecaster has an odd shape, with a compound radius fretboard that takes a little getting used to. It feels a little clubby in the middle of the neck, but is nice in 1st and 12th positions.

[Greg_L]

I totally misread this thread at first. I didn't see "neck" specs. I just saw specs.

I am a little particular about necks. Not too bad, but I have my preferences. I like the shorter Gibson scale length. I don't like the wide, flat profile and flat radius fetboards that you commonly find on stupid pointy shred guitars. It's uncomfortable. I don't want to play a fence picket. What is a Gibson fretboard radius? 12"? Perfect. Fender's vintage tighter radius fretboards feel good too. Too bad I hate Fenders. I mentioned I don't like jumbo frets. There's no point in that shit for me. I know shredders love that crap, but they're just speed bumps for a mostly rhythm player like me. I like neck binding. It's not just visual flash. It feels better than fret ends. What else? A big chunky to medium slim profile is fine for me. Again, no flat shredder fence pickets.

Basically any guitar neck that is not for shredding is one I'll prefer.

[Farview]

The only neck I've always hated were the Dean necks. I'm pretty sure the scale length is longer and the string spacing is wider than most other guitars. Being mainly a Gibson guy, the Dean's were just a step too far.

What's all the pointy guitar hate? Most of the shred fools play some sort of strat shaped nonsense. I did the pointy ones because I'm 6'5" and strats and pauls look like belt buckles on me. I needed something bigger bodied. I did have a few Icemans (icemen?), which are not pointy, but still big.

[Lt. Bob]

I like the Iceman ..... I saw one called, I think, the Cracked Iceman and it had a mirror front with cracks all thru it like a broken mirror.
It was very cool.

[Greg_L]

I like the Iceman ..... I saw one called, I think, the Cracked Iceman and it had a mirror front with cracks all thru it like a broken mirror.
It was very cool.

That's Paul Stanley's guitar.

[liv_rong]

I prefer fatter necks. My LP has a 50's neck but it doesn't seem huge like a lot of people claim but I don't have a ton of experience with them. I do not like thin necks at all I do know that. I feel like maple fretboards are slower/drag or something but that could very well be my imagination.

[ocnor]

Guitars are tools so which one I use depends on what I'm playing. If you play just one type of guitar all of the time then anything else will feel weird. It's good to switch it up so that you can be comfortable playing multiple guitars. I'm not really a shredder but the flat neck pointy guitars work great for arpeggiated chords. I tend to prefer 24 3/4 scale guitars because I have short fingers. To me the shorter scale is better for fast lead playing than the so called shredder guitars. The rubbery feel is much more conducive to string bending and over bending which I do a lot.