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What's your favorite neck profile?


pauloqs

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I understand that Gibson necks are hand carved and no two necks are identical. However, I believe there is a trend with each profile. Personally I currently like the asymmetrical slim tapered and 60's neck profiles the best. However, with age I'm liking the '59 and rounded more and more. I suspect that I'll eventually prefer those more than the 60's and 60's inspired necks, but only time will tell if that actually happens.

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I don't know about hand carved or not. I'd suspect they're CNC'd to a point and then some hand working after that. That seems to be what most of the factory videos show.

 

I have three guitars with R0 necks all made within 8 months of each other. Two made within 1 month of each other. They all measure within 0.02 at the 1st and 12th frets but they all feel about the same, although the R0 has slightly softer shoulders and is my favorite. They are all much thicker than a modern slim taper but all have a more comfortable profile (softer shoulders).

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I don't know about hand carved or not. I'd suspect they're CNC'd to a point and then some hand worked after that. That seems to be what most of the factory videos show.

 

I have three guitars with R0 necks all made within 8 months of each other. Two made within 1 month of each other. They all measure within 0.02 at the 1st and 12th frets but they all feel about the same, although the R0 has slightly softer shoulders and is my favorite. They are all much thicker than a modern slim taper but all have a more comfortable profile (softer shoulders).

 

I stand corrected. Thank you.

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I don't know about hand carved or not. I'd suspect they're CNC'd to a point and then some hand worked after that. That seems to be what most of the factory videos show.

 

 

Yeah.. Not hand carved, but hand finished, thus why each is ever so slightly different.. They use one of those big belt sanding machines... Same with the neck joint which is again why each is just a tiny bit different and why its worth taking time to find one that suits you most.. Of course there are some people that just don't care and will play anything..

 

I love 60s necks... Be it tapered or asymmetrical.. Fat 50s necks cramp my hands a bit after about ten minutes.

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Most of mine are either '60s or slim tapered, SG and LPs. I don't mind either. Also like my 2017 LP Standard neck.

 

I think it was posted earlier, it just depends on the whole package. I agree with that.

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I understand that Gibson necks are hand carved and no two necks are identical. However, I believe there is a trend with each profile. Personally I currently like the asymmetrical slim tapered and 60's neck profiles the best. However, with age I'm liking the '59 and rounded more and more. I suspect that I'll eventually prefer those more than the 60's and 60's inspired necks, but only time will tell if that actually happens.

 

 

60's Slim Taper...for the past 28 years and going.

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I really enjoy the 60's slim taper neck but I like to practice on 50's rounded C profile, because it makes me work harder. My absolute favorite neck is a 25.5" scale slim taper.

 

Does anyone know what other Gibson's use a 25.5" scale slim taper besides the Knight Hawk and Blues Hawk?

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The Johnny A Custom is 25.5, but that's not regular production. Don't know of any others.

 

Thanks for the info about the Johnny A Custom with a 25.5" scale neck.. It seems that one of the most frequent inconsistently produced is the Les Paul Custom Long neck, the last time in production was 2014. Also a rarely produced SG, but I thought I had seen a Firebird on occasion. But doing a google search showed a few other models, none of which seem to be currently in production.. I just wish Gibson would tag the neck information for shape and length better and have it as a possible search criteria on their site..

 

I did vote for 60's slim taper... and other for scale....

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I don't know that I have a favorite or if I did, what that'd be. I'm pretty much ok with any style neck as long as the string height is good. If the string height is too high or too low, I have to adjust my playing a bit but that's ok too.

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One thing that does annoy me is that Gibson has had almost exclusively slim taper necks as of late on SGs that aren't the lower-end models (Special, or in 2019, the Standard Tribute). I could never get an SG Standard with a rounded neck.

 

If I wanted a rounded neck on an LP, I was forced to go with the Traditional, which never had the nice tops like the Standard.

 

Only in 2018 did they make the LP BFG again, which has a rounded neck, and which is what I ended up buying.

 

 

Just wish Gibson would offer people more of a choice in this respect.

Well aren't they doing a Standard with 50s and 60s specs this year?

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I selected the "Slim Tapered" profile, but the one I'm used to reading about -- and the one that I own the most of -- is a profile I've always known as the Slim 60s profile. So is that "Slim Tapered" or "60"? Or both? I own four Gibsons and another make, all 5 of which have what I've always understood as the Slim-60s profile. I own an Epiphone Joe Pass that has a semi-chunky neck profile. Supposedly it is a "1960s Slimtaper C" profile, but it is not at all like the Slim-60s profile I'm used to. It's a comfortable player, though, so no complaints. So which of the above profiles does a "1960s Slimtaper C" fit within, being that it's got a slim taper and it's a 1960s design?

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The Joe Pass Emperor-II PRO info reports a custom hand-set 3-piece laminated hard Maple neck. Not unusual for upper end Epi's to have a neck design requested by the "Signator". So it has a custom 1960's SlimTaper C Profile neck and has "Joe Pass Emperor-II PRO" on the truss rod cover. This model has several other custom features. [thumbup]

 

PASS_BACKS.jpg

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So in other words, a 1960 Slimtaper C profile is unique? It reminds me a lot of the profile on the 55 Epi Custom with P90s, but I dunno if that is indicative of any particular year of Les Paul neck profiles -- 1955 perhaps?

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Not sure what the age requirements are for hiring at the Gibson Qingdao factory in China where the current Epi's are being made.. [confused]

 

But they are producing a quite a few additional neck shapes for higher-end and signature models...

 

My personal favorite is the 25.5" scale SlimTaper D profile which Gibson introduced in 95, I think, maybe earlier with the Night Hawk......[thumbup]

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I think the right neck shape is dependent on the style of music/playing. I find the wider fret boards make legato fast runs easier for me. However those bluesy fast repeating licks where you bend a string and rake the rest are a lot easier to play on a les wide fretboards. As for shape I have a DBZ Imperial with a V shape neck and that thing practically plays itself.

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