50's Les Paul Jr. Neck profile

[Tom.B]

Ok. So here's my story. I had the chance to play this old beat up 50's (single cut) les paul Jr. at 30th street guitars maybe a year or two ago. I fell in love with it immediately (I actually went back and played it several times). Great feel and sound, but it was totally out of my price range. What I really loved was the (huge) neck. It made it much easier for me to play with my arthritic hands. I've been searching off and on for the profile/size, etc. of that neck, but I've never found anything. Would the Warmoth 59 roundback profile get me close? I feel like it was bigger and less tapered then the dimensions they suggest (1st Fret .860" 12th Fret .970")... To add to the confusion, the guys working there didn't know the exact year of the Jr. It looked like it had been burned(!!) and was definitely refinished. Thanks!

[alvarado1357]

I've played some singlecut Juniors with really thick necks, and I love 'em. It's not the same as the '58/'59 necks, but those are pretty nice, too. What you want is the neck that came on the '54 goldtop custom shop LP, that should help you explain what you're looking for.

I really do not understand the virtue of thin necks. I don't have especially large hands, but the thicker the neck, the more comfortable it is to play, nevermind the structural and sonic benefits.

[Tom.B]

Thanks! I don't suppose you have any idea what the dimensions are on that thing? Or the neck shape (I'm assuming a D)? In any case, it gives me somewhere to start.

[Exluthier]

Out of the options that Warmoth offers I think the '59 is probably going to be closest to what your after. Really what you're looking for is the shape of the fatback but with the thickness taper of the '59 (I think, I'm a little iffy on pre 58 gibson necks). The Custom Shop used to have kind of a generic 50s neck that they used on all the Reissues which was pretty much the fatback shape and was .9" at the 1st fret and 1.0" at the 12th and felt huge to me.

[Tom.B]

Thanks very much! Musikraft (musikraft.com) offers a 'chunky D' that tapers from .9 - 1 inch... Might be exactly what I'm looking for. Any idea what the nut width is on old Jr.'s? 1 11/16 inches? I can probably find that somewhere...

[BrianGT]

There's a very good thread on here by River.....lot's of guys posted in their neck measurements from their own instruments over a very wide time frame....50's to present day.
One very vital key is that you can't just go by the first and twelfth fret depth....girth counts for much of the feel.

Found it! One of the best threads ever on neck thickness and feel factor.

Measuring a Neck for "Feel"

[Tom.B]

Thanks Brian. I did see that thread. I'll reread it, but I imagine it'll be hard to explain to a neck builder?? There certainly is a difference between a fat tele neck and a fat gibson neck in terms of how it fills out my hand while playing. I always assumed that was a difference between the fender terms of C and D or even U profiles. But I don't know. Maybe I should just call a few after market neck builders and see what they have to say...

[Exluthier]

Originally Posted by Tom.B

Thanks very much! Musikraft (musikraft.com) offers a 'chunky D' that tapers from .9 - 1 inch... Might be exactly what I'm looking for. Any idea what the nut width is on old Jr.'s? 1 11/16 inches? I can probably find that somewhere...

Hey Tom, checking that site it looks like the chunky D will probably be about what I described. It's going to be beefy with quite a bit of "cheek" or "shoulder" to the neck, by comparison the vintage bursts actually have almost a soft V profile with a little "cheek" (and in fact it seems like that site has a '59 option as does warmoth, you can actually see the difference on warmoth's site.) I never liked that big chunky type of neck but I knew plenty of guys with hand problems who thought it was quite comfortable on LPs, if not historically correct.