I hear randomly on these Forums that people order Strats or Teles made in either Mexican or American made and that the neck felt awful.
I think that Fender are probably manufacturing their necks with CNC machines and not drawknifes like in the old days.
With the tolerance of necks on CNC's, what is it that is usually meant by the neck feels terrible? How is there a variant in the neck even within the same model?
As I am getting ready to order soon .
Ronald

Final neck sanding and dressing is still performed by hand AFAIK plus the type of final finish coat applied has a lot to do with the overall feel. Thus, enough of the "human" factor remains that variations in profile and contour still occur. To players accustomed to a specific feel when playing a guitar, even a minor deviation can be immediately palpable. If they can adapt to these differences then there's usually no cause for concern. In the extreme though, a guitar neck may feel so alien that comfortable play is simply not possible.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

OK then,
I would be coming from playing Acoustics, these days it's a Martin D28 low profile which is nice to a Fender American Standard Strat.
How much adaptation?
Ronald

While I don't discount how important the feel is, don't live and die by it.
I played the same Guild for 44 years. When I started looking at Strats they all felt a bit weird to me. I've been playing my new Strat for about 5 months daily. Last night I picked up the Guild after not playing it for about a month and guess what, it felt kind of weird. We adapt.
I've come to believe the "feel" quotient involves a lot more than just the contour of the neck. The size of the nut, the spacing of the strings by the bridge, the height of the strings, the gauge of the strings, the radius of the fretboard and whether rosewood or maple fretboard all play into how it will immediately feel.
I wasn't used to playing light gauge strings and a lot of guitars come with 9's and they felt like spaghetti to me. It took me a while to realize this was throwing me off.
So this feel thing isn't black magic, it's mostly a bunch of variables and you need to put the right ones together.

_________________
'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Hey Ronald I 2nd Arjay's remarks. I have 6 MIA Strats from 2005 thru 2008. Only 2 of them have necks that I would say are close enough that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if my eyes were closed... and they were both ordered at the same time. While the width at the nut and and fretboard radius are the same the finish on the back changed from a thicker shiny poly coat to a thin satin finish starting with the 2008 models. (Which I admit I like much better despite what I may have said in other posts.) The biggest difference is the shape in the back of the neck. Some are beefier than others and I can feel it although I have never taken a pair of calipers to them. I'm sure that comes from the final sanding and finishing. While they have to meet certain tolerances its enough for me to notice the difference when I play them. All that being said its not enough to bother me.

I think neck shape is more noticeable between brands of guitar than models. Ibanez is known for their thin flat C shape necks whereas Gibson tends toward a thicker D shape. If this is your only guitar you will grow accustom to the neck and it will feel as comfortable as your arm around your wife... You may play other guitars or have a fling with another neck but they just don't feel the same as your first love....

_________________
I'm not slow... and I'm not fast... just sort of halffast...

Excellent observations, Drew!

Thanks for helping to "fill in the blanks".



Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I Try to rotate playing time with my guitars so the feel of the necks don't feel weird. I have a 1977 guild acoustic, my tele has a U-shape neck, my strat has a V-shape neck and my les paul special feels like a C-shape neck. I have more options when tryin out guitars now. I put down too many nice guitar because I only felt comfortable with the C-shape necks for years.

_________________
2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e

I want a B shaped neck

_________________
Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

What everybody above said...play a bunch of stuff and the neck/strings/spacing/frets/scale length will become automatic...

..but Floyd, a "B' shaped neck? What about S or W?

W would be a pointy little bastard and S.... well, I just don't like the letter S.....


I'm actually a bit curious as to what a B or S shaped neck would feel like now.......

_________________
Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

Can you make a B chord?...how about the relative minor key,what is it?