How Thick Do You Make Your Guitar Necks? 

I've played many acoustic and electric guitars throughout my 73 years, and what I can state regarding neck shape is that some guitar necks seem to FIGHT me. Others are like a match made in heaven. I can literally play them for hours. My 2010 Epi Dot neck has that meaty D shape with thick shoulders that give my fretting hand a cramp in minutes. My Jimmie Vaughan Strat neck is a lot easier to play. But when I tried a Strat Player neck at GC, I could have played that for hours. I have a Martin D35 12 string that was always a beast to play. A luthier friend lent me a Washburn 12 string back in the late 80s that played like a dream. So here is a possible idea ..... maybe others are already doing this: Send someone a Tele body, preferably a contoured one like from Warmouth, and then something like 7 different necks. The neck that the buyer likes the best, either go with that contour, or send 3 more like that one that are a bit different. Think of it like the optometrist that dials in one lens after another, asking which one is clearer.. That way the neck is tailored to that player's hand, style, etc. There is no "one size fits all" neck profile. It will be great for a handful of people, and god-awful for everyone else.

As I have never made guitars for stock, I shape my necks to a standard 'D' shape measuring 24mm thk at the 1st fret and 26mm thk at the 12th. This is my starting point before I invite the customer to visit for a fitting. I then carve the neck to their specific requirement and comfort. Interestingly approx 75% of my customers end up having a thicker neck than they 1st thought of and as I make my fingerboards slightly wider than the norm @ 44.5mm at the 1st and 52.5mm at the 12th this allows me to really roll the edges for a much better feel. If my customer has really small hands I simply adjust my starting dimensions accordingly. I dont like dual action truss rods as they remove too much wood from the neck and I want maximum wood and minimum metal, which is why I make my own stainless steel, two element, single action rods which are much lighter than a Fender or Gibson but totally different in design and have plenty of stength to do their job. I have never had one fail and very rarely need to adjust them. I believe this is because I dont have to remove anywhere near as much wood. I made my prototype back in the early seventies and put it into a very thin neck which has never moved or needed adjustment. It became my testbed guitar and hangs on the workshop wall in ever changing climates here in England. Hope that helps you in your quest.

My favorite neck is a Warmth boat neck. It's 1“ thick all the way and has a very soft V shape. There's plenty of material at the back of the neck which makes bar chords easy, but the shoulders are relatively narrow so it doesn't get in the way of fast playing or intricate chord shapes. The extra mass also means it's very stable and very resonant.

if you have a neck with a glue joint then you can reinforce the headstock end of the neck with a harder wood that would not split as easy under the tension of the truss rod..i think it is important to have a taper from the heel to the headstock in order to get the right type of adjustment to counteract the pull of the strings

I only build for myself. Personally, I have medium hands and still love a deep, soft V profile. I wrap my thumb and find the deep, soft V better supports my bending and vibrato. I like about .91 to .93 at the 1st fret and .99 to 1.0 at the 12th. I like a narrower nut to compensate a bit - 1.64ish.

.85 at the first and .90 at the 12th for me. For those who ask for a thin neck I go .80 to .82 at the first and 90 to .92 at the 12th. Great video Chris!

As important as neck shape and size are, it's amazing and highly annoying that it seems to be the most disregarded description/measurement in seller listings of guitars. Thanks for thinking about it!

I made a Telecaster style neck and used dimensions from another Tele neck that I liked. I made it .840 at first fret and .940 at 12th fret just like the neck I measured , but the one I made felt more like a baseball bat and I was surprised . Tuns out when I made the CAD drawing I made the profile more a D shape and not a C shape. So you can pick a thickness but the profile is important too.

I've always wondered why necks get narrower and thinner towards the nut. Overly thin necks give me a muscle cramp at the base of my thumb, My necks are 3/4" maple with a 1/4" fingerboard. Little to no taper from 12th to 1st fret. Asymmetrical V shaped. I think that often we assume that what Fender or Gibson did , must be correct. Everyone's hands are different, as are their fingering bending and vibrato styles. Play that which is comfortable and efficient for you!

Really helpful video

Nice !

For my experimental non-traditional builds I use Ebay necks and plane them down to 20mm thick - even the heel. This leaves enough wood behind the truss rod for most necks. But it's a case-by case-basis. The last experimental wood neck build I did had a deep truss rod routing and could only be planed down to 22mm thick. I give the necks a trapezoid profile with a 10mm wide spine. The heel joint is triangular, 90mm long and 40mm wide where the neck meets the body. This seems to yield the lowest possible cross-sectional area for the neck profile and the smallest possible heel joint while still being strong enough.

As a player, I like .85 to .86 first fret. Thin necks cramp my old hand.

Those intros can be made into a horror film series

I'm not a luthier, or even a hobby builder, but I am a player and have had custom guitars built. Over the years, I discovered that fatter necks not only support my hand better and result in a slightly meatier tone, but that the idea that fat necks slow you down is a myth - everything, of course depends on the shape of the neck. My absolute favorite neck is the USACG fatback, which is 1" deep neck to heel, ostensibly a C carve, but feels like a tiny bit of the shoulder was removed, making it just delightful to wrap my hand around. My hands are actually smaller than yours, but I find thinner necks very difficult to play, especially those with a D profile. I'm convinced that the nut width, fingerboard radius and fret size all play a part in the feel, and my favorite spec is as follows: 1 11/16" nut width, 10"-16" compound radius (although I believe 10"-14" could work better, if you take into account the ratio between nut width and heel width), and big 6100 frets - and run through a Plek. Personally, I think that specs like these are more effective coming from players than from builders themselves. It's one thing to like to build necks to a certain spec, and another to build a neck for player, IMHO.

I like a taper of about 0.1" between the 1st and 12th fret. Machining this taper is my first step in the neck carving process, and I use a shim that represents the taper I want. Then I establish the depth I want at the first fret, and the tapered shim takes care of the rest. Typically I like anywhere between 0.82-0.85" at the first fret, and 0.1" thicker at the 12th. However, the thinner the neck, the more likely I am to carve a D shape profile, and thicker necks are usually closer to a C

As a 3 & 4 string cigar box guitar builder, we typically use 3/4" X 1-1/2" maple or oak stock for our necks, which never have a taper. As it relates to neck dimensions, we've found that a substantial number of older six string players who have been forced to give up playing their guitars due to arthritis in their hands which makes playing difficult and painful, can easily and comfortably enjoy playing a 3 string cigar box guitar.

I’ve got quite an extensive guitar collection. I dig thicker necks. 0.90-1.00 is ideal. Also I’ve had custom necks made with a soft V shape, and I really dig it. Very different hand feel and feels great.

I have a 30years old Charvette with a paperthin U maple neck, it is insane how stable it is, you can go mad on the whammy, in the morning there is 15-16C in the room, I heat up to 23-24C during the day, stays as it is, maybe 2% off from perfect tunning, I have no clue how and it has a scarf joint, with a huge truss rod adjuster routing. I never liked thin necks, but this is the one I play the most! XD 1st fret 18mm, 12th fret 22mm.

Thank you! Something I liked from the video was the same taper in width and thickness. I don’t have an opinion on the thickness; but a measurement I’m also interested in is the ratio of neck width and neck thickness.

Hi! Nice series of videos! I am new to instrument building but I have been playing for decades. So I just took an instrument with a neck I like, measured it and will use it the for the first prototypes I am currently working on. It turned out to be 24 mm at the first fret and 26 mm at the body (approximately at the 13th fret - there are 17 frets in total). I am going for kind of a modern D shape. I guess I will find out the hard way if it works :)

I think an equally important question is what shape you like the neck to be as it works hand in hand with the depth. With that said, I like V shaped necks, and aim to be in this general area: .850" at 1st, .940 at 12th. When I make a neck for myself, I prefer a bit beefier than that, but when making for others those are the dimensions I shoot for. I like to fret with my thumb on the 6th string, and find a thicker V shaped neck more comfortable for that.

I’ve almost finished my first guitar from scratch and I chose to use stewmac neck profile templates since It was my first time carving and I chose the 54 tele because I like a thicker neck. The neck ended up being .915 at the first fret and 1 inch at the 12th

Thank you for the great information. Just a player, and I do like a very thin neck. I just bought my first acoustic, and I was wondering why it has suck a fat neck. Now I know, It has a double action truss rod in a Mahogany neck. I guess Im glad they over built the neck it will just take some getting used to.

A certain brand of guitar I build replicas is known for thin necks. They use two single action truss rods, but I prefer a single, dual action rod in my builds. The issue with that is these guitars use a thick 3/8" fretboard, which doesn't leave a lot of room between the bottom of the channel and bottom of the neck. Neck made of rock maple so I haven't any cracking issues, even with the 12 strings.

Thanks!

I really like the old Charvel profile, starting at around 0.770 ~ 0.780 in at the first fret to around 0.830 in at the 12th.

As someone with very large hands "square" shape hands with thick finger ends, I like a nut width of 47mm and a thickness of 25mm at the first fret with a D shape and 12 radius

My last guitar has 0.97" at the first and 1.07 at the 12th. I noticed when I started making beefier necks, my hands don't cramp. If I were making one for another person, I would have them tell me which of necks feel right to them and go for that size.

I think depending on the style of music, you need access to different strings at different frets. For soloing that may mean the bottom strings at the highest frets, but for more down picking metal you might want to mostly be able to properly fret the top strings for chords. I think that's where the answer to neck shape really comes from

I am just recieve my custom guitar. Firebird model but in 25.5 scale, with nut width 44mm, 1st fret Thickness was 23.5mm, and 12th fret Thickness was 25mm. Really enjoy it for bending in 0.13-0.56 D standard tuning 👍👍👍

Hi. Cool topic. I am primarily a bassist that makes basses. I have a couple basses with thick necks, 1" thick at 1st fret, 1" at 12th and 1" at 20th. Been playing 40 years, and built my first bass 35 years ago. I used to like thin and narrow necks, but over the years I have gravitated to fatter necks that are wider, like a fat p-bass style. I have short fingers too. Fat necks are way more comfortable to me, allow me to play longer, and are so much more stable than thin necks for bass. I have several exotic wood necks that literally never move with the seasonal changes, and I live within a half mile of Lake Erie.

I've only made 2 guitars so far, made the necks myself on both of them. One acoustic and one electric. I didn't measure on either, I did them to feel. The acoustic was my first guitar and I actually completed the guitar and when I started playing it I found the neck way too chunky, so I grabbed my Shinto and shaved it off until I liked the feel. Didn't even take the strings off when I did that, just took it down with the shinto, then sanded, then had a feel, until I liked how it was and then wiped on some more Tru-Oil when I was done. On the electric I went for a really thin neck. I even made the fretboard on the thin side to help have the neck extra thin. I included a couple of carbon fibre rods in that and it's really hard and stable despite being really thin, on some guitars I can effectively bend the note down by bending the neck, can't on this one despite being super thin. I used the low profile dual action rods, even on the acoustic where I wasn't going super thin, so as not to have any issues with risking hitting the truss rod cavity when shaping the neck. I think I'll always use those, don't see the point of the thicker dual action rods.

I go for about .78” at first fret and about .89” at the 12th. I also do what I call a double asymmetric profile. Which is standard asymmetric at the 1st fret (thinner on the treble) and transition a flip as you work your way down the fretboard (thinner on the bass side). People who have tried it gave really liked it.

I like to go about .85” at the 1st fret and about .93” at the 12. I think the width of the fretboard is often overlooked. The neck can be as thin as you like but if the fretboard is too wide it becomes very uncomfortable. And conversely if it’s too narrow the strings will fall of the edge or if you compensate by reducing the string spacing then it can be difficult especially if you have larger hands to not mute or fret strings unintentionally

Mine are 19mm 1st fret 21mm 12 fret. Sometimes when I use ebony for fretboard I go down to 18mm and 20mm so forth.

I made my first neck about 2 months ago. I built an EVH Franky. I carved the neck by feel and using facet lines. The thickness I have mine at is .85 at the first and .89 at the twelfth. I don’t like a real thin neck. This one I just kept going until it got to where the feel was good. Also, like Chris said, I have a double action truss rod so I was starting to get a little nervous as I got down thinner😬

I am a amateur builder and i make my necks with a thickness of 22-23mm top to bottom, it does not get thicker near the heel. I like them like because i change slightly the profile as the neck gets wider (C to V) and i find that change has a bigger impact in feel then changes in thickness.

thickest I've went was 23mm 1st fret/to 25 thinnest i've went was 18mm... first fret/22 I like around 22mm all the way down like les pauls

I can get along with a variety of neck profile as a player. My happy place is about .83” at 1st fret and .87” at 12 fret. Flat radius (like 16”) and 6150 fretwire…..SRV neck profile and 1” 5/8 nut…… Graphite reinforcement rods and quartersawn maple (roasted perhaps)……. Mmmm yummy!!!!

Goldilocks zone for necks is 19.5mm @ the 1st fret and 21.5mm @ the 12th. An even 20-22mm is a good place to shoot for

I like a 22/23mm 1st fret and 25mm at the 12th. Medium jumbo or jumbo frets max. Also most necks I like are 43mm nuts. 59ish Les Paul necks. McCarty Wide Fat.

Looking at your neck before you revealed its thickness, I guessed it was in the neighborhood of .860 to .960, because it looked a lot like those I build. Man, did I get close! lol

As a player, I prefer a little more meat on the neck. Too thin and my thumb cramps up really bad. Next string change I will have to remember to measure my #1 guitar and see what the actual measurements are.

Thanks for the video, just what I was thinking about in regard to my incredibly cheap HB Tele Deluxe (so funny to see a Deluxe name on a 150 euro telecaster). The guitar is an awesome base for someone to tinker with a guitar as the body and (caramelised) neck are good but the neck desperately needs a reshape as it is very awkwardly shaped at the nut, to thick for my hands, the the curve to the headstock starts too soon and it makes me not want to play it in this state. I will also have to work on the electronics as the switch in crap and wobbly, the pickups are weak for my taste and position 2 and 3 are the same, so rewiring is needed, ... well I'll just replace everything. So what I wanted to ask is if a caramelised maple neck is better for reshaping than a standard maple neck? Thinking of taking a few milimeters off, but am wondering if it will affect the stability/integrity of the wood.

Cheers to the thick as heck neck players!!! My strat and tele got upgraded to warmoth U shape. Thing is a baseball bat. I feel wrong on thin necks now. That thick neck with 11-56 (yes in standard) they are so full. So loud. And sustain like no other!

I build classicals. As I'm sure you know, the neck joins the body at the 12th fret, so I can't give you a meaningful thickness for the 12th fret because the heel is there. So I measured the 1st and 7th frets of one of my guitars using a set of digital calipers. The 1st fret was 0.732" and the 7th fret was 0.764". So I have very little taper with my necks, which I prefer. I also prefer thin necks. My favorite Gibsons have the classic slim 60s profile and my favorite Fenders' necks aren't much thicker. If you're wondering if such a thin neck can be stable on a classical with no truss rod, all I can say is, they are with mine. You also need to keep in mind that a classical's string tension is much lower than a guitar with steel strings.This particular guitar has a mahogany neck that was well quartersawn, plus it has a 1/4" thick fingerboard of premium ebony. I built this guitar 18 years ago and it's fingerboard is still dead flat.

Good information that I needed to hear... I bought a cheap, I mean cheap dreadnought acoustic with a broken neck. I have built flintlock rifles before, but never anything of a guitar, only repairing a damage vintage Martin Ukulele once, that turned out pretty well. So how hard can it be building an acoustic guitar from the body back? Harder than I thought. The neck I'm making out of Maple. The fret/finger board..... and I can hear the groans now when I say.... I'm using Black Walnut. Why? I have it available, and the wood is 12 years old. My neck is 17mm thick with a 7mm thick fretboard. I'm tapering down back side of the neck to a soft, smacked in the nose V shape. One more thing. I'm making a "5" string. Many years ago, I lost the first digit of my left-hand index finger in a factory accident. So, I'm compensating by using open tunging and playing to a different tune. Bad pun. 😊 Thank you again for the info and take care. Best regards, Steve

It depends on the length of your thumb and your fingers, relative to the palm of your hand and if you want or need to be able to fret the low E string with your thumb. If you have short fingers and a big palm like me, you want as little wood as possible between the fret board and your palm for obvious reasons. If you feel that the neck is 'in the way of your playing' and if your thumb is constantly struggling en gets tired quickly doing Barre chords then the nick is too thick. Don't think you'll get used to a neck that is too thick because that is impossible due to your physical limitations. It's like lifting weights in the gym under a weird, unnatural angle.

.830" at the first fret. 1 11/16" wide.25.5" scale length.

It depends on the guitar and who I’m making it for. Thin necks are great for shredding but when you get older and your hands start to stiffen up a thick neck allows you to play longer. Most of mine tend to be .85 at the nut and .90 at the 12th

I hardly care for THICKNESS as much as I care for SHAPE. I like the whole range from thin to thick necks as long as the shape feels good. I don't like shoulders, they seem to get in the way. I don't have measurements, but you could look up the specs: I rejected a 2014 R9, but love my 2018 R9 (they changed the neck shape a little that year). I sold a Strat with Deep C, but like my '08 with Modern C, and AO 60s. Played a Wizard III neck for the first time yesterday and liked it. On the other end, I also like my PRS Santana core which has a super thick neck. Hope this helps.

Jackson slim for me please. .774 at the first and .840 at the twelfth. (Thats the profile on my Kelly, and I had that measurement handy as someone had only just asked me that! But I think my Jackson RR1s are slightly flatter and thinner feeling (I dont have the measurements on hand). I really prefer the feel of these Jackson necks and find it difficult to play fat gibson necks. When I do it makes me play quite differently, tame, slower and no over bending, I have swapped to my thicker necked Gibsons on occasion to force myself to come up with other parts in particular songs.

that intro was worth the click alone.

One of my favorite necks was on an early 90’s MIJ Jackson King V “Pro Standard”. Very thin “C” shape, but never had any stability issues. I still prefer thinner necks, but I like the extra bit of shoulder that a “D” profile affords now. Ive never enjoyed “baseball bat” necks.

I seem to like 0.900" at the first and 0.950" to 1" at the 12th. I have big hands and I only build for myself so I tend to like thicker necks. Just going by feel, not getting wrapped up in whether it is more stable or not.

19mm @ 1st, 21mm @ 12th. Modern U/D shape. Kinda like an Iby wizard neck, but not as thin as that. Flatter radius fingerboard and biggest fret wire I can find (hate feeling much of the board under my fingers)

I love the feel of a thin neck but the ergonomics aren’t great for my large hands. I built a thicker U shape neck and I absolutely love how comfortable it is for chord progressions. I will probably be making/playing more “thick” necks for future builds.

Maybe that's not a super specific measurment thing, but for chunkier necks assymetrical profile is the way to go imo. Chunkier neck with assymetrical profile feels slimer than neck with same thickness dimensions but without assymetrical profile

Hi Chris, thanks for yet another vid. Just wondering if you would allow the neck to be thinner with carbon fibre rods than without?

I 3D Printed a tool yesterday and paired it with a dial indicator to help me measure some guitars to see what I like. This is an awesome coincidence.

I aim for around .880 at 1st fret and .910 at the 12th. I have gone with this because it's a happy medium sized thickness.

I tend to make my Fender style necks thinner than Gibson style necks but it mostly depends on who is going to be playing it.

intermediate player, wanna be luthier here. I am 6 foot tall and have hands that might be slightly on the large side for my height. In terms of what feels better to play, I feel like the few guitars I own that have a really thin neck are uncomfortable for me. My hand feels too "pinched" or scrunched up or something. I own a sire l7 LP style guitar that is pretty nice. I have yet to measure the neck but it is medium thickness with a nice even C shape and I like it a lot. I'm not a shreddy fast player, so maybe I would like a thin neck if I were, but I do have a hard time imagining how it really makes that much of a difference to have the neck a few more mm thicker.

21mm top 24mm heel

19mm 1st fret, tapering to 20-21mm 12th fret

18.5mm first fret and 19.5 at 12th fret for me it's more fast and comfortable for me aleast

Anything from 20-22 mm 1st and 22-25 12th, I'm not very picky about the thickness, I prefer 42mm wide necks.

I shoot for .810 at first fret; .910-.950 at the 12th. I like them a little on the thin side.

Question: If im building a guitar using fender style neck dimensions, can i change the shape of the headstock, so its 3 tuners each side(w/o using a scarf joint) Love your channel Thanks

As a player who pays attention to neck sizes, I prefer them to to fill my hand, as my muscle memory is on the poor side in regards to placing my hands in space accurately without looking. A thicker neck gives me more tactile cues and I get lost less. I really prefer necks at least 1-11/16" wide or even wider if possible, though I can manage 1-5/8". Less than that gets really difficult for me to play cleanly. The depth can vary depending on the contour. If it's round or softly V'ed, I like it between @ .90" to 1". I can adapt pretty well in that range. Strangely, (to me anyway) if the back of the neck is flattish and the depth gets carried to the sides more, sometimes something as thin as .8" to .85 can feel fine. I don't particularly like them heavily tapered from front to back, but that's a small issue to me. My favorite necks have been actual '70s Strats, which I haven't actually measured but seem to be around .87" to .9" deep and are very round with almost no depth taper. The Vintera '70s Strat necks i've played seem close to that. I'm currently mostly playing a recently purchased Jerry Donohue Hellecaster Strat with a soft V neck about .9" at the first fret. Not sure about depth at 12th. I'd like a rounder neck better, as it's a little less comfy when I put the thumb back there, but feels fine when the thumb is wrapped around. I also have a Squire Classic Vibe Tele that I bought a Musikraft neck for. I bought the biggest neck they make, thinking I'd trim it down, but I got used to it, LOL. It's 1-3/4" wide at the nut and 1" deep along the whole length. It definitely beefs up the sound of that guitar, and once the novelty of playing the Strat tones fades I'll be switching them off regularly. I also have a couple projects that I need to build necks for, and I'm looking forward to learning the process. They will probably end up on the chunky side I'm sure.

Personally, I like the chunky ones. Most recent guitar is .977" (24.9mm) at the 1st fret, and .920" (23.4mm) at the 12th. I think it makes well more sense for the neck to be thicker in depth when it is slimmer in width at the 1st fret, both for structural reasons and playing reasons. That being said I lean well to the baseball bat side of things, and I know most people would prefer something significantly thinner overall regardless of the taper direction.

Today most builders got it the wrong way I think, usually starting at the low frets,, and the 12th fret is almost allways thicker!, NO! WHY? in the 50's the best necks on a Tele was thinner at the 12th fret and thicker at the frets you make chords on, and that make sense because at the 12th fret and above, you only do solos anyway so you would want it thinner there, so a thin part here is great, and at the lower frets you would want that support in your palm, thats just more comfortable and stable, oh man those early Tele necks was amazing to play., most beginner players "think" they hate fat necks , but then again they never played a great tele fat neck, its more comfortable!

I like them thin. My favorite guitar is an Ibanez that's 17mm at the 1st fret. It's a bit wide with a 44mm nut. Just seems to fit my hand nice. I like necks thicker than that, but not really anything past say 20mm.

23mm / 25mm. Seems like a good middle ground.

So I'm a bit of an odd duck, because I'm a bass player. But, I'm also not a big guy, so I have what I would say are smaller hands and somewhat shorter fingers. I find thinner necks easier to play, for me anyways, so I tend to like them thin. I prefer the Ibanez neck profiles, so 17mm at 1st fret and 19mm at 12th fret for guitars and 20mm at 1st fret and 22mm at 12th fret for basses. Again, that's my preference, I like thin necks. Not everybody does. The guitar players that I know and have played with in bands also tend to like thinner necks, leaning towards the Ibanez profiles.

In this video, the neck on the example you are using looks like the headstock is offset quite a bit more than usual. Are you concerned with the strength of the neck there or did you use a scarf joint. If any of your guitar plans reflect what you did there let me know so I can buy it and clear this up for myself. Thanks.

I prefer relatively thick necks and that’s a huge problem. Almost everything in the local guitar shop has a rather thin neck. For my hands the most comfortable neck shapes so far have been my Eric Johnson Strat and 50’s boat neck Telecasters. EJ Strat’s neck is 0.86-0.96 inch thick. 50’s boat neck has an even one inch thickness. At least for me thickness is less important than the shape of the shoulder area and rolled fretboard. Thin shoulders and heavily rolled fretboard edges make that full inch thick 50’s boatneck feel really comfortable. Thin neck with sharp fretboard edges feels really uncomfortable.

I definitely prefer the slimmer “superstrat” necks too.

Surprised you didn’t mention shoulder shape. I’ve found this key in my preferred neck carve. I like you have relatively small hands and thought I would prefer a thinner neck. After much experimentation I’ve found a neck with significantly thicker depth but very sloped shoulders feels best. Soft V? So nice.

I have 2 issues small hands, with long thin fingers! with a thin neck my fingers seem to get tied up in knots! it's a real struggle! with a fuller necki fills my palm placing my fingers in a more comfortable playing position, I prefer it to be closer to an inch at the nut with a taper up at the 12 fret of maybe an inch and an 1/8!

As a player I am still on a neck quest figuring out what suits me best. I write down every information of every guitar I own(ed). I measure all the basics and file it. Conclusion is that many factors influence how a neck feels. A thick or thin neck on a 6-string feels different than on 7-string. Also fretboard radius, neck profile, scale length, neck width and fretsizes play a big part. Even the finish. So if I want to know what neck thickness I like the most then I have to cut out all the other factors. But how exactly must I do that? How can I determine exactly what thickness I like the most cutting out all the other factors? How do I measure that? Whereto must I focus on? I hope I will find the answers one day in this great guitar journey. I am learning step by step but it is hard to find answers. I keep trying out all kinds of guitars and write down the specifications. I hope you as a luthier understand my question and can highlight about it 🙏

browsing the comments i feel like i must be living in the land of the giants,:), but i get it, there are so many advantages to a thick neck (anything>22.5mm at the first fret by my categorisation). Its a pretty good unique selling point too in a way, ...the nearest non boutique guitar shop to me would only carry 5-10% of stock with a neck greater than 24mm first fret depth. ...but in all half seriousness:) the demographic with the most disposable income wants to play boomer bends, so a fat 50's profile akin to a baseball bat is an absolutely superb choice for pentatonic licks where palm support is integral) *just thought id throw in a curveball or two off the top of the dome,...great topic/resource.

Can you tell about how different thickness of neck affects the overall sound of guitar or bass?

As thin as possible. 43mm at the nut, 58mm at the 24th fret. Thickness is 17mm 1f, 19mm 12f. I'm only a player not a builder.

I do not build guitars but I do assemble them from pre-made parts for my own personal use. The guitar neck that I prefer is a quarter sawn shaft with a hard V boat neck shape. The nut width can be 1 5/8 or 1 11/16 and the depth at the first fret is 1 in and the depth at the 12th fret is 1 in. The V fits perfectly between my thumb and first finger and makes the neck actually feel smaller but more comfortable. I will often sand the shoulders down just a little bit more until it feels just perfect in my hand. The funny thing is if I order a fatback neck with the same 1 inch at the first fret and 1 inch at the 12th fret it does not feel at all good. The neck having a flat back even though it is the same thickness makes it feel uncomfortable. And I then have to sand it down to the v boat neck shape that I like. I don't like tilt back headstocks nor scarf joints in the shaft. If I were building a guitar neck either with six in line or three on the side tuners it would be a solid shaft Fender Style neck but I would have the drop between the nut and the face of the headstock be 2 mm deeper and then I would make the head stock 3 mm thicker so I would have the 2 mm that I took off the face added to the back side plus an additional millimeter and I believe that would give me a break angle from the nut that would no longer require that I purchase staggered tuners to avoid adding string trees. I would like to try this experiment with a PRS headstock style neck that does not require a tilted headstock or scarf joint which I believe would make the neck stronger and easier to maintain. Thanks for doing this video.

As an Ibanez collector and a player I can answer that from my experience. The thinnest I have has 1.7mm at 1st fret and 21mm at 12 (1986 RG 550- super wizard) but in years and different profiles of profiles i think I prefer 1.8 mm at first and/but more comfortable 2.1mm at 12th a (mix between wizard and super wizard I guess).

For 25.5" scale guitars, I like the SRV profile: .84" at the first fret, .97" at the twelfth. Asymmetric profiles allow you to play a thicker neck without it feeling like it's thicker. For a 24.75" guitar, I like a medium 50's profile. Something like .86"/.96".

Chris, how do you measure the roundness of an excising guitar. Let's say you're trying to reverse engineer it, and draw it in CAD or Illustrator to make lofted surfaces.

I personally go at the neck with an aangle grinder until it feels good.

I just bought a Squire J Mascus jazzmaster. I measured first fret at about 21 to 22mm. Very good for me. 42mm nut. Wish the nut was 43....You may have to borrow one for an example. Sorry...dont make guitars, just try & play.

As a player, I have guitars with a number of various shapes, and generally prefer a thin, flat C, but it doesn't matter too much. I have modified a couple of my guitar necks, Strat and Nylon, to have an asymmetric contour where the treble side is thinner and doesn't have a D-shape curve. EVH and SRV played asymmetric necks, at some point in their careers. Couple other related features: Smoothed/rounded fretboard edges feel better, Satin neck finish is preferable for fast playing.

What is the final cost of your cnc.

Do you make custom necks?

Small hands,small neck,big hands ,big neck.no hands,no neck.its all depends on your preference I guess.

anything under 22mm at the first fret , feels too thin to me