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Help me to understand my neck dimensions.

arealken

Senior Member
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I have a Warmoth neck installed on a Warmoth  body. It's hard for me to play- seems  wide and thin, or maybe the radius is flatter or action is a little higher than I like or something.

I am hoping someone can tell me about it relative to Warmoths neck guidelines. I have three measurements I took with a caliper.They are as follows;

Nut width id 1.67". Width at 12'th fret is 2.0 inches. Thickness at 12'th fret is 0.9" thick. I could get a measurement of thickness at first fret but would need to loosen the strings.

Thanks.
 
Unless it's one of their "superwide" necks, they're all 2 3/16" wide at the heel. the 1.67" at the nut says they were shooting for 1 11/16" width at the nut. Depending on the nut width, the 12th fret width will vary. Thickness at the 12th is one thing, but you can have the same thickness with several different profiles, and the profile will change the feel dramatically. Profile doesn't really have a dimension, it's a shape ("C", "D", "U", "Clapton", "SRV", etc.).

The hand has a lotta nerve endings in it, so it's super-sensitive to detail and texture. People talk about their hands being too small or too big for a given neck, but what they're really describing is feel. Unless you're a small child, you should be able to play any guitar neck. But, if you get used to something that's 1.67" wide and .800" thick at the nut, even 20 or 30 thousandths more will make the thing feel like a baseball bat in your hands and it'll be nearly unplayable. Of course, the opposite is true as well - 20 or 30 thou less and it'll feel like a broom handle.

So, why does yours feel different? Who knows? Why do a dozen "identical" strats feel/sound different? Probably because they are different, but that difference is doesn't move outside the standard dimension. In other words, a nut width spec'd at the standard dimension of 1.6875" (1 11/16") will continue to be labelled that until it moves more than .03125" in either direction, at which point it'll be called a 1 5/8" or 1 3/4", depending on the direction it moved. Can't see it, but you can feel it. Put another way, it means two necks, one 1.655"  and the other 1.715", will both be labelled as 1 11/16" necks, even though they're nearly 1/16" different in width at the nut. And while that sounds like a small difference, your hands will tell you it's huge.
 
What Cagey said + lots of useful info on Warmoth's neck contour info page.

If you take the neck off, it should have some info on the heel, including the board radius - 'Warmoth radius' for 10-16" compound, or just a number for straight radii - and the measured nut width - handwritten, presumably before any finish.

I thought they also all stated the back contour, but looking at the showcase, it appears only the custom (upcharge) ones do. So if it doesn't show it, it's standard thin, boatneck or fatback and it should be easy to tell which. If it is a custom contour it'll be branded '59' or 'CLT' etc.

This all assumes it's not an old neck that doesn't have the above info, or a previous owner has helpfully sanded it down etc!
 
So, how about fret size, type of strings and gauge and how old are the strings and how hi or low is the action?

It might be a good idea to have a trip to the local music store. Take your guitar in quesiton with you.
Talk with the luthier and tell them what you're experiencing and ask their opinion and also play a few guitars there to see if anything feels more comfortable.

From my experience I'd suspect it's more of a setup issue than neck size.
Even so here's the neck profile description page so you can maybe zero in more closely to what you do have.
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/BackContours.aspx

I have 1 standard thin neck and I can make it horribly difficult to play by setting it up poorly ... poorly *for me* that is.
Well ... actually I can say that about any of the 4 warmoths I have.
One other is a '59 round back and the other 2 are boatnecks.
3 of my warmoths are 1.75 nut width and one is 1-11/16".
2 of my warmoths are 10-16 and theother 2 are straight 10" (nylon strung strat) and straight 12" regular steel strings.
I'll not be buying an other 10-16 again. Too difficult for me chords up high.
I need the straight 12" for me to feel normal on a steel string electric.

2 non warmoths ...
1 is a G&L F-100 II with a 1-1/8" nut width and close to a '59 round back but slightly less meaty,
and the other an Ovation with 1-11/16" and almost a warmoth boatneck ... slightly less thick.
Both are straight 12" radius.

All of them need a different setup to feel good to me  ... but generally ...

I've come to discover about myself that I need a higher action to make a guitar feel easy to play.
Reason seems to be, if it's too low I end up digging in too hard to get the sound that isn't there because the action is too low.
Same complaint if the strings get too old.

Also, the neck relief, if it's too straight can make a guitar feel "cold" to me, and difficuly to play.
My local luthier always comments on my neck relief(s) being slightly off ... "to him."

Also, if you've got a bridge that has advanced setup capability with 2 screws per saddle then ... well ... for me
I can make any of my 4 warmoths difficult to play by having the saddle angle incorrect ... incorrect for me.

And then there is fret size ... and for me a different fret size requires a different action height to feel comfortable and easy to play.

It's all very personal and subjective, and the more sensitive you are to detail the more troublesome it can be, until you discover your preferences.

So maybe have the local luthier re-string and set it up for you after you tell them what your impressions are after playing a few other guitars.

I'd see nothing wrong with saying "can you make it play like this one or that one" after pointing to what you liked in the store.
Then, ask him what he did if you like it.

 
Cagey said:
The hand has a lotta nerve endings in it, so it's super-sensitive to detail and texture. People talk about their hands being too small or too big for a given neck, but what they're really describing is feel...
Amen to that. And, your neck will feel differently as time progresses. I was seriously considering sanding down the back on my Clapton profiled JM neck, it felt way bigger than I had anticipated. But after playing it on a daily basis for a few months, I've gotten used to it and actually prefer it for certain types of playing.
:icon_thumright:
 
Yeah, you can get used to anything. Might not be what you prefer, but at least it won't get in your way.
 
Cagey said:
Yeah, you can get used to anything. Might not be what you prefer, but at least it won't get in your way.
I'm sort of hoping this love affair continues as time continues to go bye. I've also started playing my Epiphone Chet Atkins SST again, (its got the Epi LP neck). Trying to broaden my neck horizons, so to speak.
 
It's probably just a coincidence, but it seems lke most Epiphone necks I play are noticeably small. And that's from a guy who normally plays a standard thin.
 
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