Neck Profiles...

[Rexfordbridge]

About six months ago I bought a Collings OM3 because it was the best guitar that I had ever heard when I played. I was a little hesitant because it had the V neck which I don't usually bond with but because of the tone I bought it.

Flash forward six months and I find myself not playing this beautiful guitar because I find it uncomfortable.

So, long story short is I'm looking for guitar builders that have thinner, rounded neck profiles and are not larger guitars like dreads/jumbos and rather smaller guitars like OM’s.

Martin, Gibson and Taylor all fall into this category and are great guitars, but I'm thinking something a little more boutique.

Recommendations?

[Kenny B]

Not all Collings have that soft V you speak of. My advice is to do some research and maybe stick with the Collings brand. My Collings SJs all have that rounder neck profile but not necessarily "thin" from fretboard to back of neck.

[Rexfordbridge]

You make a valid point. I forgot to specify that I want a smaller sized guitar (OM) size or the approximate.

[KevinH]

The necks on my Larrivee and Breedlove 00s are comparable to the low profile neck on my Taylor. You might consider one of those.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Rexfordbridge

About six months ago I bought a Collings OM3 because it was the best guitar that I had ever heard when I played. I was a little hesitant because it had the V neck which I don't usually bond with but because of the tone I bought it.

Flash forward six months and I find myself not playing this beautiful guitar because I find it uncomfortable.

So, long story short is I'm looking for guitar builders that have thinner, rounded neck profiles and are not larger guitars like dreads/jumbos and rather smaller guitars like OM’s.

Martin, Gibson and Taylor all fall into this category and are great guitars, but I'm thinking something a little more boutique.

Recommendations?

I have four Collings and some experience with them.
Just check that the profile on your OM3 is exactly as the specs on their website.

"that's all I have to say on that!"

[s2y]

I briefly had a Taylor BTO DN with an Adirondack top and hard v neck. Normally, my right hand hates this cut. Played it for 20-30 minutes at the shop and took it home. The problem was at the 31 minute mark when my left hand had enough. Sold it at a big loss. I could have had a local luthier reshape the neck.

This lead me to Bob Thompson. I have mahogany and rosewood DNs, but my favorite is my Englemann/Brazilian "oversized" OM. Very versatile, being plenty loud and very responsive for finger style. It could easily be my only acoustic.if I had the money and space, I'd consider a simpler version of mine so I wouldn't have to worry about lugging an instrument that could be hard to replace.

[boombox]

Hi Rex. First off, you are not alone. I understand totally where you are coming from: I bought an OM2H because it was the best sounding guitar I'd ever played. However, I never totally bonded with the profile, so after three years, during which time, I agonised on whether to sell or not, I moved it on.

Now if you want Collings quality, all I will say to you is C10. C10s and SJs, as mentioned above, have a completely different profile which really works for me. Collings make them in all flavours - mine is a standard scale sitka/mahogany deep body and it's a lifetime guitar.

[EllenGtrGrl]

Rex and others - I feel your pain. For about 30 years of my 42 years of playing guitar, I kind of blew off neck profiles. I always told myself, to just "get used to it/play through the pain". Also as a lead guitar player in bands, I bought into the fallacy, that a "thin neck is a 'fast playing' neck." About 10 years ago out of curiosity, I tried out a guitar with a chunkier neck, and realized that it was more comfortable for me, and I seemed to play better. As a result, I started to gravitate towards thicker/chunkier necks, but like you Rex, I found out that V-necks are very much NOT my thing. For me, I'm a happy camper if it's thick C, or thick U neck. In short, the guitar's neck profile can make or break the deal for me.

Still, it's hard to tell what kind of neck a lot of guitars have. Some manufacturers (Fender, Ibanez, Guild, and D'Angelico) graciously state what the nut width, and neck thicknesses (typically at the 1st and 12th frets) are. Others (like Epiphone, Gibson, and Yamaha), will list the nut width, and at least state something like "slim tapered", "traditional C", "soft V", etc. But many of them don't give any neck dimension information (and I've had more than a few instances, where I've sent e-mails to those manufacturers asking about neck dimensions, that did not received a reply). This has resulted in what were for me, some expensive failed experiments, due to not having the opportunity to try out locally, guitars I've been interested in, having to buy them online, finding the necks to be on the thin side, and persisting with keeping the guitars, only to sell them later at a significant loss, once I realized that it just wasn't happening.

As a result, I've gotten kind of leery about buying guitars online, that I have no decent information about, when it comes to their neck profiles, and if at all possible, I prefer to try before I buy (trying out my Epiphone Inspired by Gibson J-45, and finding that it's neck was sufficiently chunky for me [I wasn't sure how to interpret the "Rounded C" neck profile description on Epiphone's website], helped to seal the deal).

[Graylocks]

Have you looked at the specs for the necks on Collings' Traditional Series? It's more C shaped and thinner than the regular series and the edges are rounded. I have been doing a neck crawl through guitars for a number of years because the V neck on my beloved Santa Cruz OM Grand was not right for me. The neck on the OM2HT was golden for me but I still longed for the sound of the OMG. I have a custom OMG due in October that essentially has the Collings Traditional neck.

Collings OM2HT Specs (scroll down)