Ever find one that blows you away, but.......

[Andromeda]

I was gifted a late 70s early 80s Yamaha FG-335 and it sounded amazing! However, the neck felt like a baseball bat to me. I sold it and bought Yamaha's current offering the FG-830 which has a much more comfortable neck and sounds excellent too. I like the looks of the FG-830 better too.

[godfreydaniel]

Originally Posted by jklotz

Played a Collings OM2H rw with baked sitka today. Man that guitar knocked my socks off! I loved everything about it except that darned skinny neck. Ugggg! I can't do skinny necks. When I asked about getting one with a fatter neck, they told me there is a year backlog with Collings and if I put down a deposit, I couldn't even get an estimated delivery date for a year, so it could be as much as 2 years, possibly more, to get it.

I liked that guitar so much I'm going to go back and play it again just to see if I could possibly live with the neck, but I know it's doubtful it would be a long term guitar, and that's just too much money to put into something that's not perfect.

Bummer.

Look for the Traditional version, which has a 1 3/4” nut width and (I’m pretty sure) 2 5/16” saddle spacing. I’ve played two of these (OM2H Traditionals with torrified Sitka tops) and they were both amazing. I’m a dedicated short-scale fan or I’d have bought one of these.

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by jklotz

Played a Collings OM2H rw with baked sitka today. Man that guitar knocked my socks off! I loved everything about it except that darned skinny neck. Ugggg! I can't do skinny necks. When I asked about getting one with a fatter neck, they told me there is a year backlog with Collings and if I put down a deposit, I couldn't even get an estimated delivery date for a year, so it could be as much as 2 years, possibly more, to get it.

I liked that guitar so much I'm going to go back and play it again just to see if I could possibly live with the neck, but I know it's doubtful it would be a long term guitar, and that's just too much money to put into something that's not perfect.

Bummer.

I took my Eastman E1-ss-ltd to a local luthier and had him make a replacement neck for me. Took a month. Of course that is only an $800 guitar. But it turned out great. He even was able to reuse the Eastman fingerboard. He filled the dove-tail and made the new neck a bolt on.

Probably would really degrade the value of the Collings. But are we in this for the investment potential?

[1Charlie]

Owning a great-sounding guitar with a neck that doesn't fit your hand is an exercise in frustration.

As I got better as a guitar player, and as more guitars passed through my hands, that became more and more obvious to me.

Same thing holds true for scale length and string width at the saddle.

I can do more on a guitar that fits me, which gives me more confidence in what I am doing. And as it turns out, there are lots of great-sounding guitars that fit what my hands want.

[jklotz]

Yea, I hear you guys. It's frustrating that the industry as a whole has gone to these super thin necks. I have some issues with tendonitis and thin necks make my elbow hurt in short order. There are so few off the rack guitars I can play these days. I'm starting to be able to empathize with lefty's. I don't need a baseball bat neck, just a medium C would do just fine. My Eastman e20-om works just fine. Why do they all have to be pencil thin these days?

[Erithon]

Originally Posted by big jilm

In my view, comfort and playability is far more important than tone.

If my hands don’t fit with a particular guitar, I will eventually case the instrument and play something else that feels better, even if the first sounds better than the second.

It’s taken me awhile, but I have come to realize that a guitar’s neck is the #1 concern for me. I like fat necks with wider fretboards, also preferring satin finishes that don’t cause drag on my left hand as I move around.

Originally Posted by 1Charlie

Owning a great-sounding guitar with a neck that doesn't fit your hand is an exercise in frustration.

As I got better as a guitar player, and as more guitars passed through my hands, that became more and more obvious to me.

Same thing holds true for scale length and string width at the saddle.

I can do more on a guitar that fits me, which gives me more confidence in what I am doing. And as it turns out, there are lots of great-sounding guitars that fit what my hands want.

These are well said!
Not only do I agree with the premise (no matter how good an instrument sounds, I'll always end up playing something else if that something else is more comfortable), but I share the preference for wider nut widths, chunkier neck depths, and satin finishes.

[Graylocks]

I fell in love with my Collings OM2HT Baked because of the neck. It was almost the holy grail i had spent a number of years looking for. I bought that guitar after thinking about it for three months and i do love it. However, I still longed for my Santa Cruz OM Grand whose 1.75 chunkier neck I couldn't get used to after years of trying.

Consequently, I have a custom OMG on order with specs very close to the Collings neck but with a 1 11/16 nut. Projected October delivery.

[Tom60]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

No, this has never happened to me. As an insensitive caveman multi-instrumentalist I've never found a great sounding instrument I couldn't adapt to.

I started playing in 1971, on classical guitar... crazy wide nut, flat fb, no markers..
Later on (electric guitars ) I played anything - fat necks, hard V, flat profiles.. you name it..
I found I dont care - and that I can too adapt to a great instrument and find my way around..

But 1 11/16 feels like home, and fat shoulders (playing mostly Gibson LPs)

The only thing I cant stand is sharp fretboard edges - that ruins it for me.

[bufflehead]

I'm at a point where playability is as important a consideration as tone. I can get great tone in a guitar with a 1 11/16" neck if I look hard enough, so why settle for something other?

[gmel555]

If I’m in a shop and a neck is immediately very uncomfortable I don’t get very far in assessing the tone. I’m sure there’s been a few instances but I put them out of mind pretty quickly. I do move back and forth between 1-11/16 and 1-3/4 and soft V and slimmer, so it’s only usually above or below those nut widths that I put back quickly. Not long ago I got really excited finding a 1968/9 Gibson J50 in fantastic condition at a very reasonable price. In less than 1 min I was asking what’s with this neck, is it really as narrow as it feels?...it was 1-5/8”. Unplayable for me, I put it back and couldn’t even tell you what it sounded like.

[donlyn]

Originally Posted by jklotz

Played a Collings OM2H rw with baked sitka today. Man that guitar knocked my socks off! I loved everything about it except that darned skinny neck. Ugggg! I can't do skinny necks. When I asked about getting one with a fatter neck, they told me there is a year backlog with Collings and if I put down a deposit, I couldn't even get an estimated delivery date for a year, so it could be as much as 2 years, possibly more, to get it.

I liked that guitar so much I'm going to go back and play it again just to see if I could possibly live with the neck, but I know it's doubtful it would be a long term guitar, and that's just too much money to put into something that's not perfect.

Bummer.

jklotz,

Sorry, but I don't know what the usual nut width is for that guitar, and it would be helpful to know. I am fortunate enough to adapt from 1+11-16" widths to 1+7/8" (for 12 string) without too much problem. But it is worth noting that the neck cross-shape and carve factor into this too, and you didn't mention much on this either, unless I missed it.

Don
.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by donlyn

jklotz,

Sorry, but I don't know what the usual nut width is for that guitar, and it would be helpful to know. I am fortunate enough to adapt from 1+11-16" widths to 1+7/8" (for 12 string) without too much problem. But it is worth noting that the neck cross-shape and carve factor into this too, and you didn't mention much on this either, unless I missed it.

Don
.

Nut was 1 3/4", which I get along with just fine.

[donlyn]

Originally Posted by jklotz

Nut was 1 3/4", which I get along with just fine.

jklotz,

OK, I get it now. It wasn't the width of the neck but the depth and maybe the carve.

Good luck on your search.

Don
.

[joeld]

Yep, there's no point in trying to force yourself to like a guitar that isn't right for you. The perfect guitar is out there somewhere!

Off topic: Hey Graylocks, how do the Santa Cruz OM Grand and Goodall Concert Jumbo compare tone-wise?

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Tom60

I started playing in 1971, on classical guitar... crazy wide nut, flat fb, no markers..
Later on (electric guitars ) I played anything - fat necks, hard V, flat profiles.. you name it..
I found I dont care - and that I can too adapt to a great instrument and find my way around..

But 1 11/16 feels like home, and fat shoulders (playing mostly Gibson LPs)

The only thing I cant stand is sharp fretboard edges - that ruins it for me.

Yes, I grew up playing all sorts of neck shapes, neck widths, whatever. I adapted to the guitars, and I still do today.

But not everyone can do that. At an AGF gathering some years ago I was showing someone my Olson SJ, which has a very shallow neck shape, almost like the neck shape on my late '70s Gibson ES-335. He liked the tone of the guitar, but as soon as he played it, he said, "Oh, but I couldn't handle that thin neck!"

If you are a person that is not tolerant of a shallow neck shape and you know it, there is no sense buying a guitar with that attribute.

- Glenn