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Post subject: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat?
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:26 am
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I am thinking of buying a new American Deluxe Stratocaster ("modern C-shape" neck), and I want to know: are there any Fender Stratocaster models with a thinner neck in production? How much thinner are they?
Let's leave neck radius out of the equation.


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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:49 am
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andrius wrote:
I am thinking of buying a new American Deluxe Stratocaster ("modern C-shape" neck), and I want to know: are there any Fender Stratocaster models with a thinner neck in production? How much thinner are they?
Let's leave neck radius out of the equation.


You cannot leave the fretboard (not neck) radius out of the equation and get meaningful answers. A smaller fretboard radius means it's thicker in the middle, so unless you mean how thin the neck is at the edges, it directly affects the answer.

Also, thinner where? Near the nut or at higher frets?


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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:54 am
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arth1 wrote:
Also, thinner where? Near the nut or at higher frets?


Okay, I might not have been specific enough, but aren't they all getting slightly thicker towards higher frets equally, proportionately?


arth1 wrote:
You cannot leave the fretboard (not neck) radius out of the equation and get meaningful answers. A smaller fretboard radius means it's thicker in the middle, so unless you mean how thin the neck is at the edges, it directly affects the answer.


I'm just trying to avoid statements like "they're all different because of the radius".

Also, from a quick scan through various models, I'm assuming that a Fender Stratocaster guitar that's going to have a thinner neck than American Deluxe is not going to have a smaller radius (because - and that's just my assumption - smaller radius associates with old-school, vintage, and vintage goes hand in hand with a thicker neck), and hardly will have a bigger radius (is there a model that has a flatter fretboard?).


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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:09 pm
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Even though I haven't played one,I would imagine that the '65 Strat reissue would have a somewhat slimmer neck than most of the others.The latter L series Strats had a B neck with a shallow "C" profile.My '65 Strat has a neck that is far slimmer than the necks of my other 4 Strats,as does my buddy's '64 Strat,so I would imagine that the '65 reissue would follow suit.

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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 5:42 pm
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From what I can tell by a quick Google, there are quite some variations:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1207204

A quarter inch difference is significant.

Fender's replacement neck sales pages would have been useful, except that the thickness is only listed for the older entries, not the newer ones. And is almost certainly wrong too, as the thickness stated (and all other data) is the exact same for all the necks where it's stated, whether Mexican, American or Vintage. I truly hope that someone just copypasted willy nilly and that a $200 Mexican neck isn't 100% identical to a $500 American neck. Cause $300 is an expensive decal...


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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:03 pm
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Don't assume "Old School" design means "thicker" neck...
Depends on the year.
1962 saw the introduction of a thin Stratocaster neck from Fender. Lot's of folks refer to it as the "Dream Neck".
My '62 RI has that... noticeably thinner than the standard/modern C necks.
1965 (as mentioned) also sported a thinner neck.

Something to keep in mind... thinner neck doesn't necessarily mean easier to play.
Thin neck and... radius effect the way the guitar is gong to play.
Especially so w/ 7.25 radius... you need to be spot on anal to set those up right.

I spend a good deal of time getting my '62 RI set up perfect.. have to... the radius (7.25) along w/ the slim neck can be a bit tricky. The radius poses apparent probs and thin necks like to move a bit more than thicker ones... they generally require more attention w/ truss adjusts. I hate fret buzz, rattle and fretting out on bends so I don't mind spending more time when maintaining/setting up the RI.

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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 9:00 am
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andrius wrote:
I am thinking of buying a new American Deluxe Stratocaster ("modern C-shape" neck), and I want to know: are there any Fender Stratocaster models with a thinner neck in production? How much thinner are they?
Let's leave neck radius out of the equation.

Hi andrius: my 2005 American Standard Strat (or American Series, as they were calling it at the time) has the thinnest Fender neck, front to back, that I personally have come across. It measures

20.90 mm (0.823") at the first fret
25.33 mm (0.997") at the twelfth

Again, that's the thickness front to back, not the width. Neck widths vary very little.

This is not exactly shredder guitar skinny - I'm sure Ibanez and others probably make significantly thinner necks than this. Still, it's quite slim.

BTW:

andrius wrote:
... aren't they all getting slightly thicker towards higher frets equally, proportionately?


Actually, no.

Interestingly (quite), some guitar necks get hardly any thicker along their length. For example, I have a Special Edition Lite Ash Tele which measures

22.16 mm (0.872") at the first fret
22.88 mm (0.900") at the twelfth

As before, this is measuring the thickness front to back.

You'll see that this makes the Tele a comparitively hefty "baseball bat" handful near the nut, but quite a bit thinner even than the thin C-shape Strat at the twelfth fret. It thickens by less than three quarters of a mil along its length - which means that proportionate to its width it actually gets much slimmer up towards the dusty end.

That's Teles for us.

Anyhow. In conclusion, if you're looking for a skinny Fender neck you probably will end up with a modern C-shape American Standard or American Deluxe Strat.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 10:37 am
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Ceri wrote:
Anyhow. In conclusion, if you're looking for a skinny Fender neck you probably will end up with a modern C-shape American Standard or American Deluxe Strat.


Or get an Ibanez Wizard profile strat neck from Warmouth - those are substantially thinner.


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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 10:56 am
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arth1 wrote:
Ceri wrote:
Anyhow. In conclusion, if you're looking for a skinny Fender neck you probably will end up with a modern C-shape American Standard or American Deluxe Strat.


Or get an Ibanez Wizard profile strat neck from Warmouth - those are substantially thinner.

Well, yes indeed.

I'm not sure if andrius is looking for a shredder's guitar, but if he is a Fender might not be the answer. Fender have always tended to leave the extremes in those spec sets to other makers.

On the other hand, lots of people over the years have felt that Fender's slim-ish C-shape covers their bases nicely. All a matter of horses-for-courses, I guess.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 11:34 am
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Thank you for your replies, people!

I've tried a couple of American Standards and although their neck is an improvement from my '59 Les Paul copy to me, after I tried a guitar with a thinner neck (not Wizard though) I am not going with Fender :). Not saying anything bad about Fender, just that I needed a more modern neck.


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Post subject: Re: What models have thinner neck than American Deluxe Strat
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 11:40 am
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The measurement that I took of the depth at the 1st and 12th frets, on my Am Dlx with a modern C neck are, 1st - .830", 12th - .870".
The smallest neck I've run across was a Telecaster FMT HH that I had for several months because my friend wanted to sell it to me, but I ended up passing on it. It measured, 1st - .825", 12th - .815". Yes, that's correct, it was slimmer at the 12th fret. I'm not sure if they were all this way or if this one unit got a different shape. It was actually a little weird feeling the neck get smaller as I moved up the fret board.

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