I hate my baritone!

S

swarfrat

Guest
After getting my 7.25" radius boatneck, 1-5/8" nut neck.... I hate my baritone neck. Not because of the length, but the thing is a freaking aircraft carrier deck. Please please please Warmoth - consider adding 1-5/8 as an option to baritone necks. I could live without the 7.25" radius (though I do love it - I think this is my new "go-to" neck) - mostly because I doubt Warmoth is interested in adding 7.25" to anything other than "vintage construction".  But that nut width is killing me. And the bump on the baritone necks to fit the width is also a bit funky - you wouldn't need it if you made a 1-5/8 neck, hint hint.

 
I had a similar experience with the baritone. My preference is for 1 5/8" nut width too, but I have a Warmoth standard thin 1 11/16" neck and it's fine for me - yet the baritone 1 11/16" ST felt huge. I really should have measured it to be sure of how it compared, but it's gone now. Just to confuse things further, the 1 3/4" 12-string also suits me fine.

I'm guessing that there are issues of expectation and experience at work. My Fender-ish Warmoths have 1 5/8" necks, the broadly Gibson-ish (Diamondback) is 1 11/16" and the 12-string is, well, a 12-string. I had no 'natural' expectations specific to the baritone so possibly just equated the longer reach with a bass, so it 'should' have been narrower (I like a JB style 1 1/2" neck on a bass), or maybe I just expected a 'normal' width at the same physical position as on a 25 1/2" neck.

Or maybe it's something else.  :dontknow: If I'd put the time in working out how to use the thing, it probably would have become 'normal' in time.

The sideways overhang at the heel is another matter. Without it the shallower taper would mean that the baritone neck was actually thinner at any given position than a standard neck. The strings would also be closer to the edges of the board at the fiddly end. Both would still be the case if the nut was 1 5/8".
 
swarfrat said:
After getting my 7.25" radius boatneck, 1-5/8" nut neck.... I hate my baritone neck. Not because of the length, but the thing is a freaking aircraft carrier deck. Please please please Warmoth - consider adding 1-5/8 as an option to baritone necks.

:icon_scratch:
 
Confused? Easy. I have more than one Warmoth neck. The 1-5/8" width 7.25" radius neck is 25.5". Baritone is only available in Nimitz class fingerboard.
 
How did I make it to work?  I'm clearly not fit to drive lol.  I had to read that 3 times to comprehend.
 
I'm the reverse, I can't use the 1 5/8's necks ... I find them sort of cramped ... I have to play them Bo Didddly style with my thumb.
 
If you cut a new nut that has string spacing to your narrower preference, it should feel fine, with just a little more than normal fretboard space beyond the lowest string.
 
My neck preferences couldn't be more different. Before I ordered my Warmoth baritone neck, I wrote to them, asking if they could make it with at least a 1-3/4" nut width, preferably 1-7/8". They wrote back, saying that the widest they can make it is 1-11/16", so that's what I ended up with. A little cramped, but I can live with it. With respect to neck radius, for me, the flatter the better. I like a 16" radius, but I decided to go with the 10-16" compound one. Not bad. It feels pretty good, especially with the thin neck profile I went with.

So to each his own, eh?
 
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