Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

[TheProphet]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

My old Performer series Jackson Kelly, super thin, near flat radius, this unspeakablly awesome wierd type of not-quite-gloss / not-quite-satin finish which I have yet to encounter on any other guitar.

The guitar was crap and since been tossed, but I still have the neck for when I get something custom built

 

[uOpt]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

My PRS McCarty. Back shape shape, fretboard radius, fret size, workmanship and feel of the finish all fell into place.

My Warmoth Tele neck with '59 back profile, 6105 frets and straight radius is a close second. This one has an unfair advantage due to the ebony board.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

i have a few that i really like. there is a warmoth that im not sure what shape it is but its about 1" the whole way down with a rw fretboard. feels great in the hand

 

[Fender_Punk]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

I really love the neck on my '04 MIM Tele. If my '99 Squier Tele had a bit chunkier neck it would be a tie. Both are all maple, 21 fret.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

The neck I got from Butch Snyder for my Tele...it's a 60th ann., and is chunkier than my G&L, the MIM Tele I had, and the neck I traded to Butch.

It's not quite as fat as a 52, but it's a good size.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

Best small neck I have is my Moderne...it's about the same girth as a modern Gibson "50's" neck but is the perfect C shape, perfectly worn edges, smooth rosewood board and frets that even after a lot of use are perfect, flat and smooth.

Best big neck I have is my Cleveland Guitars Broadcaster and it is a MASSIVE neck...a hair over 1 inch thick at the 1st fret, a full C shape, 1.65 nut width that is perfect for cords or leads, hand rolled edges, felt broken out of the box. It has a 9.5 inch radius and 6105 frets that feel great, a handcut bone nut and despite being HUGE it plays like butter.

Fav all aorund neck is my 2005 R8...bigger than the Moderne and a hair smaller than the Broadcaster...nice and smooth and just abotu the perfect size for a Gibson IMHO.

These 3 are just killer...my sunburst Esquire is good and I think taller frets would make it better and my black strat is also smokin', with a V that changes to a C but I wish the nut width was closer to 1.65 over the 1 11/16 that it is...

 

[JOEBACCA]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

2001 Jackson Soloist Archtop P90 (SLATQ).

25.5 mahogany neck, 1 11/16 width at the bone nut, 22 jumbo frets, 12-16 compound radius, ebony board, oil finished neck, neck is nicely rounded and moderately thin (thicker than the wizard & wizard 2 necks... which is a GOOD THING IMO).

It has the best neck and is my favorite guitar in my collection by a landslide. Its also extremely hard to find. Limited to 60 pieces all hand made. Being its an 01 its a Pre Fender Jackson, its also the only year that had Seymour Duncan P90's !!!

Oh and one more thing.... if you've never played an oil finished neck.... BE WARNED YOU MIGHT NEVER WANT TO PLAY ANYTHING WITH A GLOSS NECK EVER AGAIN !!!

 

[darnright]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

I've got an old Tele(?), that I have had since the early 80's and it is worn and broken in...and just feels perfect!

(?)- came to me as a standard Tele...but no one ever said if it was a Fender or not. Back plate says Fender, headstock doesn't say anything. I have a "Hot-rails" for Strat in the bridge and no neck pup...right now. I have swapped just about every thing on this except neck and body. More than 25 different pups have been in it.

love this one!

-dave

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

2001 Jackson Soloist Archtop P90 (SLATQ).

25.5 mahogany neck, 1 11/16 width at the bone nut, 22 jumbo frets, 12-16 compound radius, ebony board, oil finished neck, neck is nicely rounded and moderately thin (thicker than the wizard & wizard 2 necks... which is a GOOD THING IMO).

It has the best neck and is my favorite guitar in my collection by a landslide. Its also extremely hard to find. Limited to 60 pieces all hand made. Being its an 01 its a Pre Fender Jackson, its also the only year that had Seymour Duncan P90's !!!

Oh and one more thing.... if you've never played an oil finished neck.... BE WARNED YOU MIGHT NEVER WANT TO PLAY ANYTHING WITH A GLOSS NECK EVER AGAIN !!!

That's an awesome guitar. For one of those things, I'd pimp out my SL2HT so fast…

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

Hmmm . I cant pick just one.. If I could merge the dimensions of the Gunslinger with the build of the WM526, we would have perfection. The WM is VERY close, its just alil thicker at the shoulder than i prefer.

Overall feel would be my WM526 Washburn. Shape, SS frets, composite board.

Ease of play: Gunslinger Reissue

Best LP neck Ive ever played : My Burny

And just "special and close to perfect": Kramer pacer Imperial and Washburn MG104

 

[Destructone]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

currently loving the newly improved 2010 fender am deluxe strat neck. it feels like a modern C slim. plus, that new compound radius and contoured neck heel is out of this world.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

currently loving the newly improved 2010 fender am deluxe strat neck. it feels like a modern C slim. plus, that new compound radius and contoured neck heel is out of this world.

I can't believe how much the price of Fender Am. Deluxes have shot up in the past year or two, but the feel of those necks is worth the price of admission.

 

[JOP]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

My strat ultra. Fits my mits like a knuckle sandwich in the face (pretty well). My craving for ebony fretboards is becoming insatiable.

 

[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

Hmmmm my 4001 Rickenbacker and my Warwick thumb

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

I'm sure it's just me, but I've never had that feeling of *the best neck*.

All my guitars are different and feel different, and that influentiate my playing, which tends to adapt to every guitar, making me play different every time I switch.

I don't know, but I like to think of it as a win-win situation for me and the audience.

But, generally speaking, the one neck profile I've always bonded very well with has been the Gibson '50 taper from my 335 copy, which I have in my EPI G-400 Custom too.

I've recently acquired a 1980 MIJ Tamaki 335 copy which sports Gibson's '60 slim taper; this one makes me play faster, which is NOT always a good thing, so I've set it with thick D'Addario Half Round strings and use it for mainstream Jazz, so I couldn't play it fast even if I wanted to... but my jazzy chops and slurs come out pretty good, I'd like to think.

Last year I got a SSS PRS SE EG, which has a "baseball bat" profile, but in this case's the SC config that makes me play it in a certain way, playing mostly funky rhythm, chord and arpeggio playing, always clean with a touch of reverb and/or chorus wiyh a little bit of delay.

My 1980 Vantage Lester Custom Black Beauty copy has a neck profile very similar to the PRS, so it's straight-ahead Rock, power chords and soaring leads, which are never over-the-top due to the neck profile.

My 1986 CS Mayones Maestro prototype is a shredder's dream. 25 !/2" scale with 16" radius makes it the fastest neck on the planet without being Ibanez toothpick-like. I tend to play everything fast and faster, so it's used for certain songs with fast ostinatos and melodic lines only. Used as the only guitar, it makes me sound... *obnoxious*, for the lack of a better word to describe it.

Well... I went far-out-of-topic, didn't I?

So, there you have it. FWIW, here's my two pennies of opinion nobody asked for! :naughty:

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

I still have my 2 electric guitars because the necks are perfect for me; they're both very similar: the wide/fat PRS neck on my '96 McCarty and the large soft V neck on my custom shop '56 RI Fender Strat (which is the main reason why I picked that specific custom shop model). Thin or narrow necks make my hands cramp, so I stick to guitars with sizes that I can enjoy playing without having to concentrate on where my hands are. Some people can adapt to anything, but after years of playing different stuff I've realized that guitar playing is just more fun when you don't have to fight the feel of it.

 

[Jeremiah]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

You may laugh, but it's a Yamaha Pacifica.

A transparent blue Pacifica 604W from the late 90s. It's very thin neck, originally with a satin finish, which has become glossy over years of use but still has a smooth satiny feel, with a flat fretboard. I love thin necks, not because I want to play shred-type stuff but because I have very small hands and find thick chunky necks a struggle.

I don't play it as much as I used to, because I prefer a hardtail to the Wilkinson VS50 tremolo, and also I've been playing a lot of 12-string recently, but when I do go back to it, it always feels so much nicer and more natural than any of my other guitars.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

the neck on my kirk hammett LTD is pretty good. granted, its one of those really flat radius shred necks, but it's comfortable. the necks on my fenders are a close second: the neck on my gibson V feels kind of like a "D" instead of a C.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

It's interesting that 90% of these posts are about guitars that people currently have. I wonder how much familiarity breeds love of your guitar's neck?

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Of all your guitars, which ones have the absolute best necks?

It's interesting that 90% of these posts are about guitars that people currently have. I wonder how much familiarity breeds love of your guitar's neck?

It's not a chicken-egg thing. You don't love a neck because you play that guitar a lot; you play that guitar a lot because you love its neck!