Les Paul Neck Confusion

pmbomb

I won't be the first to ask ...

I have a '97 Classic, the brochure says it has a '60s' neck which I understand to be slim and C shaped, feels right to me, and my lickle hands can get around it.

I also have a '07 BFG. The '06 dated brochure here http://archive.gibson.com/Files/USA_PDFs/BFG_LP.pdf says the neck is "1960s slim taper".

The BFG neck feels much more chunky to me. It's D shaped and more chunky towards the body. It's quite a difference to the Classic, not just a bit. Night and day for (difficulty of!) playability.

I can't find any reference to an 07 brochure anywhere.

Is this really a "50s" neck? Or is a "60s slim taper" very different to the 60s neck on my Classic?

Ta.

pmbomb

Supplementary question - I like the BFG, is a neck shave viable or shall I just move it on and get something else?

jeztone2

There is more than one slim taper neck design.

I had a 2001 LP Classic, the neck is called slim taper. But my 2017 LP Classic has an asymmetrical slim taper, which has more meat on the bass end. My friends 2000 LP Custom has a similar sized neck. 

Somewhere along the line Gibson beefed up the dimensions. 

chrisj1602

I guess there’s also the hand sanding to take into account.

sweepy

IIRC the BFG is between the classic 50's and 60's carve

Kittyfrisk

pmbomb said:

I won't be the first to ask ...

I have a '97 Classic, the brochure says it has a '60s' neck which I understand to be slim and C shaped, feels right to me, and my lickle hands can get around it.

I also have a '07 BFG. The '06 dated brochure here http://archive.gibson.com/Files/USA_PDFs/BFG_LP.pdf says the neck is "1960s slim taper".

The BFG neck feels much more chunky to me. It's D shaped and more chunky towards the body. It's quite a difference to the Classic, not just a bit. Night and day for (difficulty of!) playability.

I can't find any reference to an 07 brochure anywhere.

Is this really a "50s" neck? Or is a "60s slim taper" very different to the 60s neck on my Classic?

Ta.

I have an original copy of the UK Rosetti Gibson catalogue publication dated September 2006.

There is no mention of the BFG, but I know it exists   
The neck profile descriptions for the LP's are erm... all over the place.
1960 slim profile; Classic 50's ; '59 rounded; '59 round; Rounded.

Hope this helps someone, it confused me, but that's usually where I live these days...

timmypix

jeztone2 said:

There is more than one slim taper neck design.

I had a 2001 LP Classic, the neck is called slim taper. But my 2017 LP Classic has an asymmetrical slim taper, which has more meat on the bass end. My friends 2000 LP Custom has a similar sized neck. 

Somewhere along the line Gibson beefed up the dimensions. 

Huh, my 2017 Classic just has a regular slim taper. Maybe yours got a neck from a Standard?

jeztone2

timmypix said:

jeztone2 said:

There is more than one slim taper neck design.

I had a 2001 LP Classic, the neck is called slim taper. But my 2017 LP Classic has an asymmetrical slim taper, which has more meat on the bass end. My friends 2000 LP Custom has a similar sized neck. 

Somewhere along the line Gibson beefed up the dimensions. 

Huh, my 2017 Classic just has a regular slim taper. Maybe yours got a neck from a Standard?

Maybe. It wouldn’t surprise me. 

Rabs

Yes.. I think BFGs have always had more 50s style necks than 60s..  I had a Gary Moore BFG and sold it cos the neck was too fat for me..  I

Cols

The cynic in me suspects that ‘50s profile, 60s profile, slim taper etc etc etc’ is all just marketing bumpf, and at best broad guidelines rather than a rigid specification.  

I’m sure Feline would do neck reprofiling, but I guess it’s not a pocket money job.

Fortheloveofguitar

BFG’s are and we’re always 50’s profile. 

Fortheloveofguitar

What I don’t understand is that my R8 is classed as a 59’ profile yet so is my Joe Perry blackburst yet the JP is baseball bat chunky and the R8 very slim. Doesn't make sense 

pmbomb

Fortheloveofguitar said:

BFG’s are and we’re always 50’s profile. 

yeah seems that mine is.

but the brochure clearly says 60s. http://archive.gibson.com/Files/USA_PDFs/BFG_LP.pdf

tripped me up back when I was figuring this stuff out in beginnerland.

ArchtopDave

Cols said:

The cynic in me suspects that ‘50s profile, 60s profile, slim taper etc etc etc’ is all just marketing bumpf, and at best broad guidelines rather than a rigid specification.  

I’m sure Feline would do neck reprofiling, but I guess it’s not a pocket money job.

You’re quite right. There’s a nice little book “The Beauty Of The Burst”, which has a section at the end of the book listing detailed measurements of 50 Les Pauls from 1958, 1959, and 1960. This shows that there was a slight tendency for 1960 necks to be a little slimmer than the earlier 2 years, but there was considerable overlap overall. This really isn’t surprising given that this was an era when guitars were handmade.

ICBM

ArchtopDave said:

Cols said:

The cynic in me suspects that ‘50s profile, 60s profile, slim taper etc etc etc’ is all just marketing bumpf, and at best broad guidelines rather than a rigid specification.

You’re quite right. There’s a nice little book “The Beauty Of The Burst”, which has a section at the end of the book listing detailed measurements of 50 Les Pauls from 1958, 1959, and 1960. This shows that there was a slight tendency for 1960 necks to be a little slimmer than the earlier 2 years, but there was considerable overlap overall. This really isn’t surprising given that this was an era when guitars were handmade.

This. Gibson don’t do accuracy, and they never did.

Your hand is actually very sensitive to small changes in neck size and profile that don’t look like much of a difference on paper.

But in terms of the modern 'specs', I've never played any original 50s Gibson with a neck as big as most of the baseball bats they call "50s" now, or as far as I can remember any original 60s one with a neck as thin as most of the "60s" ones. I think they've taken a grain of truth - that 50s necks were generally fatter than 60s ones - and exaggerated it out of all proportion to the real differences.

It is true that later in the 60s they did get very skinny - in width as well as depth - and that is a genuine manufacturing spec change.

springhead

I've played maybe 20 Gibson guitars from '53 to late 60's. Only one was baseball bat size, a '55 junior.  It was properly chunky but still nicely shaped and very good. Gibson definitely did make skinnier necks from around mid 1960 for a few years.  My own from mid-late '60 is very slim with not much taper.  Measures just under 22mm at the 12th fret.  I've played 3 or 4 others from 60-62 that are the same.  I guess what Gibson make now are generalisations around '58 and earlier being large, '60 being slim and '59 being in the middle.