I have very large hands and I have a MIM Strat and it has a modern C shape neck which causes me some discomfort. I was looking at other strats on guitar centers website etc.. and there werent too many that werent a modern C shape. I believe the kenny wayne shepherd and the classic player 60s have the largest I have seen. Any other strats with large necks? American or Mexican

Hi illini3332, welcome to the Forum.

Here's some useful stats on several factory guitar necks in my possession. The first measurement is the thickness (front of the fingerboard to back of the neck) at the first fret, the second is at the twelfth:

Squier Strat - 20.65mm (0.813") - 23.40 (0.921)

MIJ '57RI Strat - 21.95 (0.864) - 25.40 (1.0)

MIA Std Strat - 20.90 (0.823) - 25.33 (0.997)

MIK Tele - 22.16 (0.872) - 22.88 (0.9)

Les Paul - 21.39 (0.842) - 24.81 (0.977)

Yamaha CPX - 21.02 (0.827) - 22.44 (0.883) (at the tenth fret)

I include the LP and the Yamaha just by way of comparison, to point out how similar guitar necks are across brands.

From these numbers we can see that the Korean Lite Ash Tele is the biggest handful near the nut - and like many Teles it certainly feels like a baseball bat. However, it has almost no taper to the carve and so both the modern Am Std with its C neck and the MIJ '57 Reissue with its soft V are larger up at the high notes.

Confusing, huh?

In other words, there is no substitute for getting down to a shop and trying them with your own hands.

(Though an off-brand hint: the Brian May Red Special replica has a truly monstrously fat neck, in emulation of the original...)

Cheers - C

The Eric Johnson has a nice neck, and the Jeff Beck is pretty slick, too. The Stevie Ray Vaughan neck is probably my favorite. If you ever get your hands on an old Jeff Beck Strat (from the early '90's), you may fell in love just like I did. It's basically a baseball bat with a fretted piece of rosewood on top of it. For guys with big hands, it's a dream come true.

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Strat+Tweed=Tone

I've played a few guitars with a fat neck, i have rather large hands as well. My stevie ray strat has a nice thick neck, and the music director at my school had a 70's strat and the neck on it was pretty nice as well. Not much help but just my lil bit of input on the problem

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2001 MIA Trans White, 2006 MIA Hss Sienna Sunburst, 92 SRV, 94 Black MIM w/CS 57/62 pups, 94 Red MIM, 08 MIM Sienna Sunburst w/texas special pups.
Hot Rod Deville, Hot Rod Deluxe, Champ 600, Marshall 59slp ri, Marshall Class 5 Head, and Peavey Windsor.

Fender used to make guitars with 3 basic widths the A,B and C with A being the narrowest.I'm not sure what the increments were but it was possibly 1/8".I don't know if they still use that method it was probably abandoned years ago because they make so many different models now.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Yeah, they use some cryptic sizing scheme (combination of approximate year and imperial size). I heard the CS guys talking about them. In a discussion I had with the CS builder when Fender had a road show in Toronto, He mentioned that he worked in a production line in the past and thinks that SRV neck is the thickest/chunkiest in the production line.

If you want bigger neck than that, you got to get a custom stuff.

The SRV, Hot Rod 62, and John Mayer strats all have pretty big necks. I heard some of the early Robert Cray necks were chunky too

FWIW the MIM 50's and 60's Reissue strats have a very nice "V" shape to the back of the neck that I really like. Gives you a bit more to hang on to as you play up and down the neck.

I'm quite fond of these necks, they have a nice vintage tint, the spaghetti logo and a glossy finish.

The 60s reissue is a C shape NOT a V neck

I am under the impression that the 62 Hot Rod neck is the thickest followed by the SRV neck, at least with respect to non-CS USA production lines.

Others like the KWS and the CP 60s are supposed to be pretty thick, but not sure where the fit in on the overall "thickness" spectrum.

Sorry 'bout that. Thought I remembered seeing it described in an eBay auction. In any event the 50's definitely is a "V" shape and is a wonderful neck. . .

I forgot about the '62 Hot Rod, but like a couple other guys pointed out, it's got some lumber on it, too.

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Strat+Tweed=Tone

I don't know if it makes a difference, but the 70's necks are "U" shaped and it does feel big for my hands. I perfer the soft "V". Althougn, when I refretted to taller jumbo frets on the 70s neck, I could feel it being larger than with original thin frets.