Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Ian Price on April 24, 2008, 07:17:58 PM

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: Ian Price on April 24, 2008, 07:17:58 PM

Quick question for you all. Would it be possible to reduce the thickness of a neck on a set neck guitar? Might sound like a stupid question but I have no idea if it is theoretically possible!!

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: opprobrium_9 on April 24, 2008, 07:27:04 PM

Well it depends where you want to reduce the thickness.  I would say if you wanted to bring the thickness down on the neck you could do that.  If you wanted to do that on the body you would have to be very careful about how much you removed on the neck joint.  :)

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: gwEm on April 24, 2008, 07:42:47 PM

didn't jimmy page have this done?

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: WezV on April 24, 2008, 09:28:33 PM

i wont do stuff like this unless:

a) its a cheap guitar and teh customer is prepared for the risks
b) i have an x-ray of the guitar neck so i know how much is safe to remove

but i will say that sometimes removing the cheeks of a round neck can make is seem much thinner without actually removing the all important wood behind the truss rod or affecting stability much


yeah, jimmy page did it... if you have a vintage gibson with a fat neck you can probably do it too  :wink:

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: FernandoDuarte on April 24, 2008, 09:36:01 PM

A 1958 Les Paul is cool to do that, but I think the 59 is the right one for this flight!  :lol:

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: Philly Q on April 24, 2008, 10:06:01 PM

I know Peter Frampton had the neck of his old 3-pickup Les Paul shaved.  And didn't Scott Gorham have it done to his LP Deluxe? (or was it that he used that model because it had a thin neck? :? )

I can't imagine why anyone would want to reduce the thickness of a neck, though!

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: noodleplugerine on April 24, 2008, 10:21:08 PM

Quote from: WezV

i wont do stuff like this unless:

a) its a cheap guitar and teh customer is prepared for the risks
b) i have an x-ray of the guitar neck so i know how much is safe to remove

but i will say that sometimes removing the cheeks of a round neck can make is seem much thinner without actually removing the all important wood behind the truss rod or affecting stability much


yeah, jimmy page did it... if you have a vintage gibson with a fat neck you can probably do it too  :wink:

What do you feel about removing the finish of a neck?

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: FernandoDuarte on April 24, 2008, 10:44:07 PM

Quote from: Philly Q

I can't imagine why anyone would want to reduce the thickness of a neck, though!

Usually people who likes Ibanezished necks... Some Strat players too...
But they must know that a LP with a thinner neck will sound probably less "full" than normal...


Thick neck FTW!  :twisted:

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: goddamn electric on April 24, 2008, 11:28:42 PM

I used to like thin necks, but now i like thick necks.....thats a pretty boring story. sorry.

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: FernandoDuarte on April 25, 2008, 12:06:13 AM

Quote from: goddamn electric

I used to like thin necks, but now i like thick necks.....thats a pretty boring story. sorry.

Stories about thinner necks' addicteds going to a healthy life always are welcome!   :P
 :D

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: WezV on April 25, 2008, 07:13:25 AM

rather than strip a neck i would just knock the shine off it - that way it can still be buffed up if wanted.. again it depends on the value of the guitar but i dont like doing irreversable things to expensive guitars

Title: Neck reduction
Post by: ToneMonkey on April 25, 2008, 10:35:36 AM

I reprofiled a neck once (albeit a bolt on).  Wasn't too difficult but you have to be really really REALLY careful not to go through into thr truss rod cavity.  It's also amazing how much different it feels once you take off the slightest bit of wood.


Personally though, I'd say that the risk of knackering a perfectly good guitar would be very high.