Thinnest to Thickest necks?

[Rivers]

Am looking to purchasing another EBMM guitar and was wondering if folks would agree that the listed necks below would be in the right order of thickness (from thinnest to thickest)?

1. Silhouette Special
2. Axis Super Sport (probably tied with the Silhouette special?)
3. Luke III
4. Valentine (Not sure on this one)
5. Stingray

Also curious if the Silhouette special and the Silhouette share the same neck carve/thickness?

 

[GoKart Mozart]

I think you could flip a coin on your list of 1-3 as far as thicknesses; it's the profile that distinguishes them more than the max thickness, at least on my personal ones (Silo Special, Axis SS, and 3x Lukes). YMMV. I don't have a Stingray and no longer have a Valentine but I remember it being slightly thicker than those, about the same as an Albert Lee.

To me, an older Axis or Axis Sport is the thickest of the bunch.

 

[DrKev]

From the very few measurements I have seen online, and my own instruments, and if you are talking purely about thickness at the 1st fret, like GoKart said, the first three on your list are probably right but the profile is the biggest difference. And of course the necks are hand sanded and finished so there is variation from guitar to guitar and there will be overlaps. The Cutlass would also be someone in the 2 to 3 zone on your list, BTW.

And yes to the bets of my knowledge the Silhouette and Silo Special are the same profiles. But the Silhouette has a true 24 fret neck vs the Special's 22 fret neck, and the body shape is different too as a result (because the heel position relative to the bridge must change) so it feels like a different guitar to me.

 

[Rivers]

Thanks folks! Curious in your opinions which neck profile from the list above would be ranked skinniest to thickest?

I played a Cutlass before and felt that it was actually quite abit more chunky than the ASS and Luke III i own. Trying to make assumptions based on the experience of others as I would most probably have to purchase my next guitar online (currently looking at a Silhouette special).

Thinnest to Thickest Neck Profile?
1. Silhouette Special
2. Axis Super Sport (probably tied with the Silhouette special?)
3. Luke III
4. Valentine (Not sure on this one)
5. Stingray

 

[DrKev]

I played a Cutlass before and felt that it was actually quite abit more chunky than the ASS and Luke III i own. Trying to make assumptions based on the experience of others as I would most probably have to purchase my next guitar online (currently looking at a Silhouette special).

My first Cutlass neck measured 0.81" at the 1st fret, the current Cutlass neck measures 0.82", and my (18 year old) Silhouette Special is 0.80" (which has been lightly sanded clean 20 odd times so a new one may be the same thickness as a Cutlass). On the basis of that I would not expect the Cutlass to be thicker than either the Axis or LIII.

BUT the profiles are as important if not more important when the difference are that small. My Silhouette Special might measure a hair thinner at the centre of the neck but what I notice is slightly more material under the base of my thumb on the Silo Special due to the C-shape carve vs the Cutlass's soft V-shape carve. One doesn't feel obviously chunkier than the other, they just feel a little different.

In some ways your ASS and LIII (which to the best of my knowledge are not vastly different in thickness) profiles will be more different from each other than the Cutlass and Silhouettes are (because the ASS is asymmetric C-shape with more bulk on the bass side and the Lukes have a harder V-shape than the Cutlass).

 

[msquared]

I don't think you can rate this on model.

As anecdotal information, the neck depth for my Valentine Tremolo is .767" at the first fret and my Valentine BFR is .821" at the first fret.

 

[Rivers]

It's interesting that from what I've read, that the ASS necks are relatively chunky whereas my experience with my semi-hollow ASS is that the neck profile seems to be super slim. I have small hands and much prefer my ASS's neck profile over the Luke III.

One of the weird tests I do when trying out guitars is try to do a thumb over the 12th fret and have my index finger touch my thumb. This is easy on my semi-hollow ASS and slightly harder to reach on my Luke III, and from what I remember, toughest on the Cutlass that I tried on.

Maybe I just got lucky with this ASS that had a slimmer neck profile. Fingers crossed that the Silhouette Special I get next online will be similar though that's probably a huge gamble at best.

 

[GoKart Mozart]

I wouldn't base your next purchase solely on the opinions of a bunch of randos like us, especially since you can get variations from guitar to guitar.

 

[Johnny Alien]

I think my older Axis Sport is slim as well. I am not sure how it would compare to a current Super Sport. I owned a Silo Special and a Stingray at one point. I still own the Axis Sports. From my experience from what felt like the slimmest to what felt like the thickest Axis Sport > Silo > Stingray. It probably isn't all that much of a difference. I do remember when I got the Stingray that the neck felt exactly like the Axis Sport but with a little bit more chunk.

 

[Rivers]

Just measured the neck thickness of my semi-hollow ASS and it comes in at 0.79" and 0.89" respectively.

Wondering if that sounds normal to folks who have an Axis / ASS?

 

[Ted]

Man... I wish there was some other abbreviation or nickname for the Axis Super Sport that people could use. Or some nickname or something. Waking up and grabbing the coffee and going onto a guitar forum- and being confronted by tales of people measuring their semi-hollow ASSes... Please God no. haha.

 

[Rivers]

Sounds like a perfect start to the morning!

 

[fbecir]

Perhaps it's time to talk about lubricant ... for you guitar nuts !