Gibson neck profiles

[Riffster]

So, I want the neck on my R8 resized to my needs and there is plenty of wood to go around, so I thought why not used solder to measure the neck profiles, led solder is very soft so it worked.

 

I took several pics because I could not get a single angle that would tell the story.

 

Left to right: 2008 Explorer, 2005 Les Paul Vintage Mahogany, 2009 Les Paul R8

 

Measured exactly on the 1st fret wire and then on the 12th.

 

 

 

[ShredAstaire]

That's a good idea to use solder to measure..its crazy how different they are!

[Riffster]

And it is crazy how a neck can feel by a tiny difference.

 

Like the Explorer on the left at the 1st fret you can tell it is ever so slighlty beefier than the Les Paul Vintage Mahogany, yet I can tell the difference in my hand.

 

I prefer the Explorer.

[WahKeen]

Yeah, both my Studios are fat after the 12th fret and that's why I'm selling the Ebony. That particular one feels the biggest to me. My r68 custom, however, feels better with the 60s slimmer neck.

[rocketman]

Wow that does look quite different. Great idea! I think my Sonex has the thinnest neck all the way around. I don't know whether that's why I feel more comfortable playing fast runs with it or because it was my main guitar that I used to gig with for 10 years.

[Riffster]

The Explorer neck is great because the first few frets have a 50's style carve and the rest 60's style carve so it is the best of both worlds to me.

 

To me 60's necks just don't have enough meat on the cowboy chord frets.

 

Some people swear by V profile necks since they give support to your hand but the "shoulders" are not there so it is a fast neck.

 

You can tell that at the 12th fret my 2 Les Pauls are not that different but the R8 is rounder and that gives a completely different feel.

[milod]

Very interesting... and a great project.

 

I personally prefer the more "thin" neck - least distance between the fingerboard and the center back of the neck. Never cared for a "v" or the baseball bat sort of thing.

 

Another factor mentioned even by Henry J, though, is that because the final finish is done by hand, each neck will be slightly different. I found that quite interesting in that he suggested trying several instruments of a type to find which is more comfortable to the individual player.

 

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