Anyone ever filed their neck down so it's thinner?

andrew00

Hey,

I came to buying a Mustang (from a Jag and before that a LesP) b/c I has small feminine hands hehe. The short scale of the Mustang is good although the neck is still a bit too thick for me to properly get my thumb over/it gives me cramps.

Has anyone ever filed their neck down so it's a lot thinner? Is this a bad idea/does it hurt tone? It'd prob help me a lot!

Earth

Its common (not among fender players though) but its not filed, its sanded, and mostly done by professional Luthiers. Which I advise in this case. You do it yourself you can risk fvcking it right up.

Guitar teachers (of which I've never been to one 😁 ) will say "you shouldn't have your thumb over it" anyways. But I'm guilty of this all the time myself, I cant get out of it and really dont care.

HNB

Earth said:
Its common (not among fender players though) but its not filed, its sanded, and mostly done by professional Luthiers. Which I advise in this case. You do it yourself you can risk fvcking it right up.
Guitar teachers (of which I've never been to one 😁 ) will say "you shouldn't have your thumb over it" anyways. But I'm guilty of this all the time myself, I cant get out of it and really dont care.

LOL I do the same, but my hands are monsters. Only my fatneck tele is big enough for me not to. 😀

Earth

I do it on guitar necks as thick as Les Paul customs, vintage mustangs, they are .900" at 1st fret. So I dunno how big that makes my hands. 😁

Japanese Jags are around .830" and american around .850". The 61 SG is .800".

My thinest neck is .767" and thickest .900". So long as it has big frets I dont care much but do kinda prefer thinner like around .800"-.850"

robertoriginal

def don't do it yourself unless you are a skilled wood worker, it won't change the tone unless you are eric johnson

andrew00

Yeah I picked up my gibson copy recently and the thin neck is super lovely heh.

I spoke to a luthier who said he'd be nervous to do the job due to the truss rod placement - anyone have any info about that and mustang necks?

Doug

Necks can be vulnerable to breaking, especially near the nut. With that immense string tension...someone compared it to standing the guitar on end with a small adult balanced on the top edge of the headstock...whew! I'd learn to live with the Mustang neck.

Doug