History of sculpted heel?

[candid_x]

I recall seeing a video of Steve Morse showing how he shaved away the heel of his #1 (I think?), because he was wearing an arm cast and needed to access the higher frets for his gigs.

Was that the origin of the contoured 5 bolt heel?

 

[Larry]

Good question...

 

[guertzi]

As far as I know, that was the origin, yes.

When I was working in a music store back in the 90's, the first EBMMs we got from the distributor still had the old neck heel with six bolts. I guess it was something around 1991/92, when the first 5 bolt neck heels came along.

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I thought it was developed as part of the design process for the EVH guitar.

 

[ShaneV]

Were EB guitars the first bolt on guitars to have a sculpted heel?

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

Were EB guitars the first bolt on guitars to have a sculpted heel?

Fender did it on some of the Richie Sambora guitars, though I am not sure of the timeline.

 

[wired]

The contoured neck joint is one of the defining EBMM features for me. Most comfortable neck joint you'll ever find on a bolt-on guitar. Peavey ripped this off too on the Wolfgang (though not exactly the same).

The Fender contour is just a regular heel joint w/ a diagonal piece shaved off, it's not a nice, round heel all around like on an EBMM.

 

[spychocyco]

Fender did it on some of the Richie Sambora guitars, though I am not sure of the timeline.

I've got a Squier HM model from probably '90 or '91 that has a sculpted heel. The Fender HM models that were produced from the late 1980s to the early 1990s had them, too. (That was my "dream" guitar before I played an Axis.) It was a bit different from the MM, though, more like they just cut one of the corners off and smoothed it out.

 

[ShaneV]

The contoured neck joint is one of the defining EBMM features for me. Most comfortable neck joint you'll ever find on a bolt-on guitar. Peavey ripped this off too on the Wolfgang (though not exactly the same).

The Fender contour is just a regular heel joint w/ a diagonal piece shaved off, it's not a nice, round heel all around like on an EBMM.

Totally agree.

I can't even stand to play most bolt on guitars because the heel joint just feels so cheap and low class compared to the music man style. I get to the high frets and just sigh and put it down.

 

[candid_x]

So we have two theories:

The heel was born out of Steve Morse's necessity during a broken arm.

The heel was designed for EVH.

hmm..

 

[robelinda2]

didnt Ibanez do the heel in the 80's?

 

[Big Poppa]

The sculpted heel was something I wanted on the EVH way before the sambora...eddie liked it dudley did a fabulous job

 

[Tobin31]

That he did BP.

 

[candid_x]

Cool, thanks, BP!

 

[guertzi]

BTW, I vaguely remember a 27 or 31 fret guitar with some wild heel design - sorta like Nuno's N4's. It might've been Washburn. I'm vaguely seeing some red 80's type crackly finish and that outrageous, diagonally cut fingboard end with really tiny frets.

You're right, it was a Washburn.
They even did a 36 (!) fret model with a single Humbucker. Those were the days of the shred...