Fender MIM Strat neck thickness question

midiman1962

I have a MIM Telecaster (2011 i think) and i love it , the feel sound and action are all great, BUT the neck is too 'thick' for me.

I'm looking for a MIM Strat as i prefer the contoured body.

What sort of Fender Stratocaster has a thinner neck , or is it just a MIM thing?

What determines Fender neck thickness in general or is it just random?

HAL9000

I've got a 2005 MIM Strat, and a 2016 MIM Tele. The necks are pretty much identical. The necks on the Squier CV guitars are slightly thinner and many folks prefer them to the MIM Fenders.

The Classic 50s and Classic Player 50s Strats both have soft V profile necks. Not sure if they're actually any thinner, but they do feel slightly less of a handful.

Also, could be worth checking out something like the Yamaha Pacifica instruments which really do have skinny necks. I've got a Pacifica 611HFM which cost me £470 new last year - it's got Seymour Duncan pickups, Grover locking tuners, Graphtech nut and saddles, etc, all as standard. It also has one of those necks that, for me anyway, is so 'right' that I'm not even aware of it. Oh, and it's got body contours.

Branshen

I play a MIM standard (well actually a special edition, but the only changes are cosmetic), and the neck on my bandmate's Squier 60's classic vibe felt a fair bit thinner. It was also a lot lighter, if you like that..

I believe the neck shape determines the fender neck thickness. C-shaped, v-shaped, u shaped. and of course there is further variability within a "shape". have a read of this article:
https://www.fender.com/articles/tech-talk/c-u-v-which-neck-shape-is-for-you/

midiman1962

@HAL9000 i have a yamaha pacifica and an yamaha ERG 121 and both of these are great for playing and as you say feel "right "
@Branshen thanks for sharing the shape info - very helpful

eog

I have a 2018 MiM Strat (modern C) and an American Professional.

The MiM one has a slightly but noticeably thinner neck. In terms of playability, I prefer the heft of the Pro, but it may be a challenging transition for eg thumb over playing

midiman1962

midiman1962 said:

@HAL9000 i have a yamaha pacifica and an yamaha ERG 121 and both of these are great for playing and as you say feel "right "
@Branshen thanks for sharing the shape info - very helpful

FYI - My Telecaster is definitely the U Shape

HAL9000

midiman1962 said:

midiman1962 said:

@HAL9000 i have a yamaha pacifica and an yamaha ERG 121 and both of these are great for playing and as you say feel "right "
@Branshen thanks for sharing the shape info - very helpful

FYI - My Telecaster is definitely the U Shape

So is it a MIM Std? Or something else (like a Classic series for instance)?

midiman1962

HAL9000 said:

midiman1962 said:

midiman1962 said:

@HAL9000 i have a yamaha pacifica and an yamaha ERG 121 and both of these are great for playing and as you say feel "right "
@Branshen thanks for sharing the shape info - very helpful

FYI - My Telecaster is definitely the U Shape

So is it a MIM Std? Or something else (like a Classic series for instance)?

I'll double check when i get home from work later - maybe post a couple of photos

thermionic

I have a Classic 60s Lacquer Strat (MIM) which has a considerably thinner neck than it's predecessor (an early 2000s Classic 60s MIM Strat) and also much thinner than my Classic 60s Lacquer Jaguar (they're within a year of each other in production). When I bought my Classic 50s Tele (again, early 2000s) I played two examples in two shops in the same street, and there was a big difference in the feel of the necks (I went for the fattest one). So, I suspect that there is a lot of variation in the feel of the neck (the actual measured difference is probably a millimetre) between MIM Strats of the same model - so my advice is, try as many as you can.

midiman1962

@thermionic thanks for that - i will indeed need to go to a shop and try some by the sounds of it