Necks

[saturn]

I hear a lot of different opinions on the various neck styles. I know many people don't care for the 50's necks because they think they're too fat. I've always said that I like the 50's neck, but now I know even more why I like it.

 

I felt bad because my old Strat has been neglected since I've gotten my LP. So I decided to start playing it some more. I realized that I had forgotten how tired my hand used to get from playing that thing. My left hand never gets tired when playing my LP. I've only played the 60's necks for short times while trying out some Standards in the store. I wonder if my hand would get tired on them like it does on the Strat?

[AXE®]

Hands , Maybe ...

Ears Not so much ...

[NeoConMan]

Tired?

I dunno.

 

I prefer the slimmer neck, and I have pretty big hands.

Fatigue is not really an issue, just preference.

[Thundergod]

I preffer the 50s neck... i like my gibby to have a baseball bat instead of a golf club.

[Geetar_Axl]

Is there a big difference between the 50's and 60s? I've ended up with the 60's neck, because I couldnt pass the deal, I remember playing one on the weekend (bearly..) a 60's Neck Faded, as seen in Thunders sig. It was good I think, now I have an excuse (a good one) to get another Gibson, heres how it would play out.

 

Person: "What!? Another Gibson?!"

Me: "Yeah, as beautiful as I the last one was, I wanted a different neck profile!"

Person: ".......ok?"

[Aaresz]

I do have small hands, and after playing both neck profiles found I prerfer the 60's neck. Though the differance is slight between the two in my opinion.

[Tom99SS]

Saturn. I have experienced the same issue. I have a LP with 50's neck and can play it for hours. The Strat, after playing it for about an hour sometimes my fretting hands starts to cramp up. But then I am almost 50 so I say it is old age.

[RichCI]

I don't really have a preference for neck shape and don't even know what type of profile my LP has. I switch between that guitar, a Strat, a Tele, an SG Junior and a few others and they all feel different but good to me. I actually make a point of not playing one guitar too much because I get too comfortable with it and the rest all end up feeling strange.

[saturn]

As far as playing, and being able to hit the notes and chords ect. I adjust to any neck pretty quickly. But I remember now how my hand and forearm used to cramp up when playing the Strat. Especially on a song with a lot of bar chords. I had forgotten about this phenomenon because it never happens with my Studio. I think it has more to do with the width across the fretboard than the thickness from front to back! Maybe also the longer spaces between frets on a Strat.

[Bluemoon]

I tried both. They both felt good to me and I didn't feel a huge different between the two. I went with the 60s.

[Zaphod B]

I have very small hands and in the past I have favored thin necks. But over the past few years as my guitar collection has grown, I have acquired guitars with widely varying neck profiles. My latest acquisition, a Custom Shop 1954 reissue, has what is supposed to be the fattest neck profile of all the LPs, the dreaded "early '50s rounded" neck.

 

And you know what? I can get around that '54 neck just fine - just as well as the skinny-*** neck on my '91 Strat and all the necks on my other guitars that are in between those two.

 

I've come to learn that, at least for myself, a good setup and good frets are much more important than the neck profile. Also, creative fretting hand and thumb positioning can go a long way towards being able to reach fret positions on the fatter necks.

[ChanMan]

While the 50's neck is more comfortable to me (closer to the V neck on my Elite) I went with the more slim 60's neck because I coud play faster. Hand fatigue, for me, has been more closely related to long sessions and unfamiliar licks. (and MUCH reduced by a Les Paul!!!)

[HeadCase]

Fat necks for me! Slimmer necks just don't feel right.

[led floyd9]

I like 50's necks. I also like SG-style necks. All in all, I like fat necks. I played a 60's neck LP once, and it was good, but I'm used to fat necks.

[esch]

After trying the different profiles over the years I prefer the 60s neck, just find it more comfortable for me and it allows me to play a bit faster (I have trouble with that to begin with, so I can use all the help I can get). I believe my SG also has a 60s style neck.

 

Also I noticed that even though several "identical" guitars may have a 60's profile for example, there are some fairly considerable differences within that profile - some are thinner than others and some even get closer to the 50s profile. I am sure this is true of 50s profiles too. I was told these variations are normal - it just depends on how they ended up at the gibson factory - no two are exactly alike. That's why going by feel, we might prefer one guitar over another even though they have the same profile.

[guitar_randy]

I like both but prefer the beefier neck,feels more like I have better control and some may disagree but I believe it also gives little better sustain than the thinner ones

[Tim Plains]

I don't like slim necks, they feel weird for some reason.

[ibis]

I own amongs other things a R7 GT (Big, Big neck) and a SG 61RI (Surfboard skinny). I feel at home with either, but have notice recently that the R7 is easier to play for longer at gigs. We did 2h 15' without a break the other day at a function and it felt, kinda 'so right' even at the end. The SG, does tire my hand quicker, although its a 'faster' neck.