Super Skinny and Thin Slim Taper Necks

[Bijou Drains]

I’ve owned my 1968 Cherry SG Special with an ultra skinny / narrow and thin slim taper neck (I‘ll be able to share caliper measurements in a few days) since 1993. I’ve got small hands and I absolutely love this neck. It’s a true bond.

I’m wondering whether this type of neck is more or less common on vintage 60’s SG’s. I do understand that back in the day necks could vary quite a bit due to the hand manufacturing process. I’d sure like to find another SG with such a skinny neck.

 

[DrBGood]

One that qualify and plays incredible if you don't mind what's on the headstock.
The 2011 Epiphone '61 SG Reissue, if you can find one. A tone monster.

 

[Ess]

early 70s they were really saving wood. my 73 special neck is 38mm but its a fast guitar.

 

[Amptech]

Well, my 68 special, 69 special and 69 Standard have necks that resemble a Louisville Slugger, cut lengthwise. The "speed necks" I have are 72-75. The 72 through 75s I have all measure a 1 1/2" nut, the 68-69s all measure 1 9/16" and are wlextremelt " full " in your palm

 

[Amptech]

Extremely full

 

[Go Nigel Go]

I have one of those 1 1/2 inch wide necks, and they are very cool. Super slinky feel. I wouldn't want it on ALL of my guitars, but for some stuff they are just the ticket. I'm especially thinking blues and swamp rock. I'll never sell the one I have. It's such a great option to have in my tool kit. They are unique and haven't been duplicated since the early '70s as far as I know.

 

[WTW]

I can’t play a 1 1/2 neck. Can barely play a 1 5/8. Need a 1 11/16 or better yet a 1 3/4”

 

[ezypikins]

I had a Polaris White 69, the neck was pretty chunky. I even filed it down, and it was still big.
Skinniest I had was my Angus Young Thunderstruck model. Nut was 1.55.
It could power chord all day.

 

[Go Nigel Go]

I can’t play a 1 1/2 neck. Can barely play a 1 5/8. Need a 1 11/16 or better yet a 1 3/4”

I get it, trust me! It took me quite a while to get used to. I do actually like it now and find it very useful for a lot of things, but it is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Probably why it hasn't been made for over 40 years. I'd never sell it because i could probably never find another one without a lot of unncessary cost and effort.

 

[alexander paul]

I’ve owned my 1968 Cherry SG Special with an ultra skinny / narrow and thin slim taper neck (I‘ll be able to share caliper measurements in a few days) since 1993. I’ve got small hands and I absolutely love this neck. It’s a true bond.

I’m wondering whether this type of neck is more or less common on vintage 60’s SG’s. I do understand that back in the day necks could vary quite a bit due to the hand manufacturing process. I’d sure like to find another SG with such a skinny neck.

my parents bought this uber-thin neck sg for me december 1972... it was modified before it left the store, i bought a black plastic toggle switch for 10 cents to replace the white one, now it's brass...

Heritage Cherry SG?

my heritage cherry sg standard faded to brown decades ago because it can... i always thought it looked cool under a black light which shows off it's "pedigree" known to the proletariat as "wear & tear"... so i went to the local "black lights are us" & snagged a big one...the next week is crazy...

www.everythingsg.com

 

[Brooklyn Zeke]

I have a '68 or '69 SG Standard I bought, new, in my teens (it's hard to determine its year of manufacture since the pots are almost completely covered in solder and wiring). I'm now 71. It is a dark walnut nitro finish. S/N 950581 embossed into the headstock wood, with MADE IN U.S.A. embossed beneath the S/N. The neck has a volute. The thickness that the volute adds to the neck ends at the beginning of the 2nd fret, which is the thinnest point of the neck. The neck thickness at that point is 3/4" (0.750"). The neck thickness at the 12th fret is 57/64" (0.891"). The neck width at the nut is
1 9/16" (1.563"). The neck width at the end of the fretboard is 2.165" (see photo, attached). I'd call that a narrow, thin neck.
I think that the guitar was one of the last few SGs manufactured by Gibson, weeks, or less, before the Norlin era began. It came with witch hat knobs (now gold Gibson Speed), an ABR-1 bridge with retaining wire and nylon saddles (now AVR-2 TonePros locking). It had a nylon nut (now bone), Gibson tuners (now, Sperzel locking tuners), and a String Butler has been added.

 

[jk67SG]

I have a '67 Standard I bought in Jan or Feb 1968. The nut width is 1.580", 1st Fret is 0.8355", 12th Fret is 0.950". It was my first guitar (I played bass before then). I paid $338 for the SG and $28.00 for the case- eat your hearts out. [Actually, corrected for inflation, that's pretty close to todays prices). I also had a 1968 SG Special, it had a baseball bat neck, and I really didn't like it. I kept it as a spare in case I broke a string on stage or something else prevented me from using my number 1. I don't have the '68 anymore because during a break one night someone walking across the stage accidentally knocked it off the stand and the headstock snapped off like a dry twig.

Besides the SG, I currently own 5 Less Pauls and 1 PRS McCarty 594 Core (more to come).

After a lot of analysis of my guitars I have come to the conclusion that how thick a neck feels to you is due to a lot more than how thick it actually is. My SG Standard never felt small, it felt normal to me. I played it almost exclusively for 4 decades and it felt normal and comfortable. When I got my first Les Paul - a 2016 True Historic and played it for a while, when I went back to the SG, it felt unquestionably thinner. I measured the width of the necks of my Les Pauls and the SG at the nut and there was about 1/10" difference; I couldn't imagine how 1/10" could feel so different, but it did. Later, after buying 4 more Les Pauls - another True Historic, a 60th Anniversary '59, and a 1997 Les Paul Special DC, I found that all of their neck profiles were about the same, the typical '59 to early '60s dimensions except for the SG which had a slightly narrower neck. The measurement of the guitars thickness at the 1st and 12th frets and the Les Pauls and SG yielded a bigger surprise- all of the Les Pauls measurements fall within the range of what Gibson uses for '60s sized neck on their Custom Shop guitars, even the '97 DC. The bigger surprise was that the SG was not the thinnest neck of them all- in fact, 4 out of the 5 Les Pauls are thinner than the SG at the 1st Fret and the 12th fret measurements, and one is thicker, yet when I play all of the Les Pauls, I never thought to myself that any of those 4 felt thinner or thicker or felt any different than the others. So something else must be at play and that was'nt very hard to figure out. The the Les Pauls are all medium jumbo that have rounded tops, and the SG's frets are lower, look wider, but maybe because their tops are flatter. I wasn't unusual to use 7's or 8's in the '60's and '70's and later, with lower frets could play fast, still bend easily without having to have the strings high enough to exert as much pressure with the side of your finger when doing bends, and there less down travel when playing cords that could potentially detune notes... you played with a lighter touch and probably more finesse was involved. This also probably meant your frets lasted longer because when you did bends you weren't dragging a metal string across the fret with the higher pressure would use for a bend on Medium Jumbo or other taller frets.

I bought a brand new 2021 PRS 594 Core Single Cut 10 top Brazillian board TCU-tuned 58/15LT+ pickups for $4600 all-in during the pandemic after spending a lot of time staring at guitars for sale during the pandemic. Yes, I know, blasphemy coming from someone who never wanted anything but Gibson guitars, and who'd only had a few unclean thoughts about having a Telecaster or a Strat added to my harem up until then. Don't worry about blasphemy, that's nothing compared to the heresy I'm about to commit.

Over the following months I focused on playing that guitar, and after a while I noticed when I went to pick a guitar to play out of my collection, it was a Les Paul. The neck felt uncomfortable, it felt thicker... it has an asymmetrical neck, slightly thicker on the bass side above the 12th fret (or so they say - I've looked and looked at the neck over and over, and I can't see it or feel it. After a while I thought about selling it, I had no complaints about it's build, I never felt comfortable with the neck though, it felt thicker than my Les Pauls, and I couldn't figure out why. When I checked it's measurements, it was slightly thinner that the True Historic and the 60th Anniversary that I played every day and loved playing. The frets were about the same as the medium-jumbo sized frets, but instead of being semi-rounded on top, like the Gibson Medium Jumbos, the were very slightly flat at the apex of the fret... not enough to feel any different than the Les Pauls, nothing to fret about (sorry). The biggest difference was the f'ing case - it weighs 18 lbs! Empty! I started think about selling it because I wasn't playing it, and it sat for 2 years in it's case. Someone expressed an interest in buying it and I was seriously considering doing so, and after considerable thought I decided to do one more thing before I committed to selling it. I'd switched my 10's out for balanced tension 9's on 2 of my Les Pauls, initially just one and then a second.. the two I'd been playing with 9's exclusively for a few months, and I really liked them after about 2 decades of playing 10's on everything. I've got them on 3 Les Pauls, and I'm not going back.

Warning! Beware of Heresy! (Don't say I didn't warn you).
So I took the PRS McCarty 594 to the guy that's been working on my guitars for years and knows how I like them set up and always gets the best out of them. Even though I know how to do all everything myself, he does it faster and better and I like to support him to keep him in business. And in a strange twist, after years of working on my guitars and amps, we both realized at the same time that he lives in the same condominium complex that I do... before then I always brought my work to the music store he worked at. He replaced the strings, did some cleanup and reset the truss rod and intonated it... the usual. When I took the 594 home, it was like a totally different guitar, the neck felt just like my LPs, and I've played it every day since and I'm never selling it, and in fact I'm looking for another one, so I can leave it in a different tuning. It's not replacing my Les Pauls or SG, it's just another arrow in the quiver.

What I got out of this was, thickness of the neck is only one factor of how the neck feels in your hand. Necks with the same thickness and:
different width fingerboards, different cross-sections ( "C's" with bigger or smaller shoulders, or "U's", etc) can feel a lot different from one-another, and maybe a more important spec might be the circumference of the neck at several locations, (maybe in addtion to the others).

 

[Feverdog]

I recently owned 3 SGs at the same time. A 2012 ‘61 reissue standard, a 2013 standard, and a 2011 standard.

I’ve sold the ‘61. It had what Gibson calls the ‘60’s slim taper neck. And at first I really didn’t notice anything awkward about it but after playing for a few months the flatness of the neck + the way I set my fret hand combined for very uncomfortable. I could never get that right balance of holding/playing. I’ve got relatively small hands as well so I thought the neck would be perfect.

The 2013 was nearly identical but w/ a slightly rounder neck. Not quite there yet. The shoulder actually caused pain at the joint btw my finger and palm

But to my surprise the 2011 has the most comfortable neck. Right away it feels thicker but the more I play it I’m thinking it’s not thicker per-se but just rounded as opposed to flat.

So, for me at least the perceived thickness or size of the neck wasn’t as essential as the shape or feel. The more guitars I play the more I’m convinced that every neck is unique

 

["ef"G]

You see some variation comparing three examples: Zeke's, JK's and mine.

My early '69 Gibson SG Special neck specs:

Fretboard width:
1.5625" @ bone nut (1-9/16")
2.175" @ end of fretboard past 22nd fret

D-profile neck/no volute, thickness:
0.800" @ 2nd fret (thinnest point)
0.970" @ 12th fret
1.570" @ 19th fret/heel (smooth heel joint, not stepped)
1.665" @ end of fretboard to back of body

Not the slimmest, but certainly not a caveman's club

 

[njpaulc]

I played a 2011 '60's tribute SG with P90s in Guitar Center in 2011 and the neck was very close to my '69 SG Special which I think of as the "classic" '60's taper, and, during the same visit I played a Guitar Center exclusive SG with push/pull pots that had a similar neck. The Epiphone Elitist Casino that I used to own also had a '60's taper neck. They're out there you just have to play them to find them.

 

[PermissionToLand]

You see some variation comparing three examples: Zeke's, JK's and mine.

My early '69 Gibson SG Special neck specs:

Fretboard width:
1.5625" @ bone nut (1-9/16")
2.175" @ end of fretboard past 22nd fret

D-profile neck/no volute, thickness:
0.800" @ 2nd fret (thinnest point)
0.970" @ 12th fret
1.570" @ 19th fret/heel (smooth heel joint, not stepped)
1.665" @ end of fretboard to back of body

Not the slimmest, but certainly not a caveman's club

This seems to be the most common profile from the late '60s and '70s: thin and narrow at the nut, but growing to be pretty chunky at the 12th fret.

 

[Gary Gretsch]

One that qualify and plays incredible if you don't mind what's on the headstock.
The 2011 Epiphone '61 SG Reissue, if you can find one. A tone monster.

View attachment 53622

And I see P90's a big plus.

 

[Gary Gretsch]

Well, my 68 special, 69 special and 69 Standard have necks that resemble a Louisville Slugger, cut lengthwise. The "speed necks" I have are 72-75. The 72 through 75s I have all measure a 1 1/2" nut, the 68-69s all measure 1 9/16" and are wlextremelt " full " in your palm

WOW, But so narrow.

 

[S.Ustain]

What I got out of this was, thickness of the neck is only one factor of how the neck feels in your hand.

This deserves repeating! A "big" neck with appropriate relief, correctly cut nut slots, and beautifully adjusted action can play way easier than the typical neck of just about any type with the usual too-high nut slots, poorly adjusted rod, and poorly adjusted b ridge, saddles, and stopbar. I handle many, many guitars, and I rarely -- and I do mean rarely -- see one where the nut slots are cut to be right for the instrument. Having strings starting out too high from the nut end means that they will be too high are every fret for the whole length of the neck. It makes little difference what the neck thickness is if the setup works against you. I've never been able to make sense of Gibson's necks. They just seem to change over the years, and within years. Occasionally, as with the oldest SGs, "Fretless Wonders," etc., the company will identify a neck configuyration as a selling point, but Gibson has been loosey-goosey for much of its history, so unless you try before you buy, there's no guarantee of anything. The outlier profiles, like the slim/wide neck on my old Custom, can be awful for many, but great for some -- like me! Personally, the narrower necks many posters seem to like are awful in my hands.