Guitar Necks

Yours guitar's neck may be the single most important part of your guitar. After all you want a neck you find comfortable, you are going to be spending a lot of time holding it. More often than not, if you don't find the neck comfortable then your technique will also suffer. If your technique suffers your overall tone will not be as good, it might not be as clean of a sound. Many players love thin necks... they say they play faster. The Ibanez Wizard is one of the more common "thin" necks and has a somewhat cult following among shredders who like light strings, low action and a thin neck.

Of course this setup requires an extremely light touch, not as much room to dig into the strings without getting some buzzing. With this setup you may be capable of playing faster but also lose some control over dynamics as you can't really hit the strings too much harder than you normally would.You can only go softer and with an already light touch that could be a challenge. On the contrary a lot of people like a big fat "baseball bat" neck. Something you can really wrap your hands around and feel. Its not common to see people with thicker necks also prefer heavier gauge strings and a generally higher action. Many believe there isn't any other way to play the guitar and if you do your sacrificing tone. Look at SRV he played a pretty fat neck, huge strings and a high action. He has some good tone going on. But Eddie van Halen, Billy Gibbons, Tony Iommi and Brian May all played really thin strings and I never hear anyone complaining about their tone. So my suggestion to you is try it all, stick with what you like. Legato is easier to obtain on lighter strings while a more percussive style of guitar is easier with heavier gauge strings. You need a guitar set up to suit your individual needs and style.

If you are experiencing any buzzing or strings cutting out during bends be sure to check the Proper Setup page to see how you can setup your guitar neck to play its very best. So many times have I seen brand new "Factory inspected" guitars arrive with less than adequate setups. Its not hard to do and as long as you take your time and follow my guide you wont mess anything up and I guarantee you... You will have a better playing, better sounding instrument.

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