How to Fix That Dreaded Baseball-Bat Neck on Your Electric Guitar!
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- #glarryguitars #guitarrepair #telecaster - A viewer on my channel recently expressed concern for the "baseball bat" neck on his affordable Glarry Thinline Semi-Hollow Telecaster-style guitar. In this video, I experiment with sanding several millimeters of wood from neck of my personal Glarry Thinline. It wasn't much work, it doesn't seem to impact the strength of the neck, and it is far cheaper and easier to fix that it would be to change out the neck. Hope you enjoy watching me sand that wretched baseball-bat neck!!
I have been playing for over 50 years, and over 40 years professionally, and as I have gotten older, I can no longer play thick necks. Thinner are MUCH easier to grip for me and reduces hand fatigue a great deal, and those thick necks like that Glarry definitely feel exactly like a baseball bat. I've played a lot of baseball, and that was the first thing I thought of when I played my new Harley Benton. Not everybody likes or can play those fat necks, but thanks to your video, I going to sand mine down like you just did. I also prefer a bare wood feel to a glossy feel, so I'll gain that as well as a thinner neck. Thank you for the video.
I hate the fat necks
Hi sir, out of curiosity which Harley Benton did you buy that felt like a baseball neck? Was it the telecaster models?
@@AbyanAdhi mine was a beautiful black paisley Telecaster model, but yeah...the neck was too big. I also have an HB SG copy and a Strat copy, and I got those 2 out and played them yesterday, and those necks are okay for me. I guess from now on when I buy a guitar, I'll have to play one in person first, to make sure I can handle the neck profile.
I'm watching this video because I bought a HB too 😂. Gonna sand it down
Do you not find as you get older that you need a fatter neck so you don’t have to bend your left hand knuckles quite as much? My fingers are getting stiffer in my fifties and I’m leaning more towards fatter necks for this reason. Especially for cowboy chords in the first position
The most thoughtful UA-camr and the best channel of all time! Another great video.
Ha - thanks Lee. Can't believe people will watch me sand a guitar neck! It was kind of theraputic though!
I have cut 1 1/4 inch pvc and 1 1/2 inch pvc then slit them in half. Then use adhesive sandpaper on the inside to make the tools to emulate a modern C shape. They help with keeping the shape consistent.....
great idea
I bought a P.R.S. se from ebay . It had a wide fat neck. I hated it at first and was going to thin it down,but I played it for a few days and now I love it. would never go back to C shaped or thin necks ever again.
Yeah, I'm starting to agree with you. I'm finding that if I just hang in there a little longer I begin to prefer the thick necks and even the rounder radius of a 7.25.
I have thinned necks in half, such as imports by Kramer, Monoprice, Glarry and DiPinto. There was so much wood to remove that my first step was using a rotary electric tool (such as a Moto-Tool) with a wood grinding bit on it. There is so much sawdust I have taken to doing this procedure either outdoors or with the guitar neck inside a large clear plastic bag. I try to slide the rotary electric tool on an adjacent table top with some sort of spacer underneath it, such as thick cardboard or thin plywood to get the back of the neck as even and flat as possible. Then comes the sandpaper elbowgrease such as you illustrated, and plenty of it, but the bulk of the wood was removed with the rotary electric tool
The neck wood varied enormously among the guitar necks. The Glarry neck wood was by far the weakest and easiest to remove, but then the entire guitar was the lightest. The Monoprice neck wood was very hard and strong--and this neck was the thickest--and this guitar was by far the heaviest and the highest quality although it cost me only $100. The other major fix was epoxy gluing very thick lead wire (or bendable lead rod) to the vibrato plate, which enormously added sustain to the Kramer, Monoprice and Glarry guitars.
Great video Tony! I sanded mine a little also and then took some fine steel wool to it which made it very slick! Take care brother!
I'll have to try the steel wool and see how that feels. Good suggestions Brian!
Hey, Tony This is the second video in a row where you mentioned installing locking tuners on a guitar. I would definitely love to see a video where you installed locking tuners on a guitar. You said it was pretty quick and easy, so it might be worth looking into as an upgrade. God bless!
I've done one about locking tuners a while back. I'll see if I can improve on that one. Don't think I've ever done one with the Fender brand. Was thinking about putting some on my G&L S500. Many thanks for this suggestion. I'll make that video happen Jim!
the best way to do something like this is to leave the very center back alone and shave the sides rendering it a V neck-- if you did into the center you are more likely to funnel through to the truss rod.. The V neck makes a world of difference
yes i have rolled edges so i,ll stick to the sides. leave the middle alone
Thanks for this. I'm wanting to get a Glarry GIB bass to mod and was wondering about shaving down the neck.
I came here for advice, and listening to you talk about how the size really isn't that different, got me thinking about my neck. I'm thinking I probably just don't like the profile it came in. However it does seem noticably thicker than my other guitar from the same manufacturer. Anyways, thanks for uploading this
I have a number of guitars with very different feeling necks. When I measured them I was surprised the find that the thickness measurements had less to do with how “big” a neck feels in the hand than the shape does. I have one 60s guitar with what I thought was a baseball bat neck, and a 70s guitar with the most comfortable, perfect size neck I ever played. When I measured them, it turns out that the comfortable, smaller “feeling” neck is one inch thick and the baseball bat feeling neck is about 7/8ths of an inch thick. The difference is that the big feeling one has a D shape, with wide shoulders, and the small feeling neck is a soft V shape with rolled edges. If you put them in your hands, you would swear that the D neck is the thicker of the two. How the shoulders of a neck are shaped makes all the difference in the world. And another benefit of the V shape is that it still feels rock solid, unlike most guitars that are thin all the way across.
Excellent Comment and addition to this thread. Many thanks for chiming in.
So true
I took an orbital sander to the back of mine. Which is fine flat against the back of the neck, up and down.....just don't try to contour with it too far around the sides, because you'll shave the curve right off. On mine, when turned sideways, you could see where the back got visibly fatter around between the 2nd and 15th frets (or so), so I just mainly took the bulge off the back so the middle matches the ends. I marked the 2 acceptable ends with masking tape, to make sure I didn't go too far. Plus it's a gift for a friend who's learning so hopefully it'll make it easier. Also, make sure to adjust the truss rod tighter so the neck is dead straight (maybe a half turn, mine came out of the box pretty slack). At least until you start to feel a little tension and it's not just spinning loose in there. That way you're not looking at a bowed neck bulge, thinking you need to shave off more than actually necessary. It's easy to finish the rest with your hand, as you can feel the neck as you're shaping it, and get it just the way you want it to feel. I'm going to give it a light dusting of minwax satin spray poly, so it doesn't get grungy on my friend. I've used it on headstock decals (as well as gloss) and it's great.
Excellent comment. Thanks so much.
Very nice job .There is a big difference in the thickness but like you I have very big hands so not an issue but could see how a player with small hand may find it uncomfortable .I dont go below 320 myself but I just like to take the gloss off and not going for bare wood let alone taking a mm or 2 .
For those not yet familiar with the metric system three millimeters is a bit more than a tenth of an inch. If reading this on a normal size phone, look at the letter ‘n’ as the difference. Tony is one of the most talented Tubers I watch.
You are way too kind my friend.
From an old metric dog, you can also measure how wide your fingers are in mm. You'll get a good feel foer them. Once you have a feel for mm it's very intuitive. I can almost always say if it's 1 - 5 mm even 1.5, that's a coin. Measure a coin you use regularly that's easy to remember you always handle those. So two coins think, 2.85 mm. Obviously haha!!! I'm gonna have a heart attack when my imperial luthier tools arrive... I see 3/32 and my mind goes blank and I want to lie on the floor in the fetal position.
Nearly an 8th actually
What grit did you use for this?
Hey, if there's a will there's a way. Cool video Tony. Practical and easy mod. Maybe I'll do this to my Firefly Tele. It's got a little bit of a fat neck...
Very nice video Tony, thank you. I never did understand the term baseball bat neck. They are round and skinny where you hold them lol. Recently I took ES-135 clone in on trade, yup it has a 50s style fat C neck (thicker than my 76 Hummingbird 12 string). How many mm or 100ths inch can I shave it down without any damage or weakness?
Good question. It depends I guess on the construction. I'm not sure of a spot-on way of knowing how deeply the truss rod is within the neck. I've sanded mayby 4 guitar necks down, an find that I can remove about 2mm of material depth without impacting neck strength. I don't do much more than that ever though - usually because (even though it doesn't seem like much) it still makes a significant difference in playability. Just be careful and don't overdo it. Many thanks for your comment!
@@tonyleeglenn Well, I took down quite a bit on this neck, it had a very thick finish and some weird sealer. At the nut I took off .09" and .18" at the heel and of course I tapered the cut from one end to the other. I think it will be alright. This is not something that I would want to do all of the time. But everything else on a guitar I will continue to work on. Thanks for the tips.
I'm fairly certain that most any guitarist would agree that a bit over an inch thick at the 1st fret would be considered baseball bat territory. The current Strats call their necks "deep C", and they're .83" at the first fret. My 1994 G&L is .78" at the first fret. 1.02" at the first fret is a thick neck.
I've got a Glarry jazz bass and the neck is huge. It's definitely a bit uncomfortable to play. Thanks for this vid and you've just got yourself a new subscriber :)
and then...oops there's the truss rod 😮😂
If your truss rod is 1mm deep you’ve already got problems!
Do you think thats is possible on a Les Paul Model ?
Yes! I can't stand thick necks. I have my les paul more jackson style neck after sanding it. Put true stock oil and wax back on it as a finish.
Going to try this with a Warmoth tele I built. I ordered the boatneck but have since changed my mind. The headstock has Bill Kirchen’s autograph so I don’t want to give that up!
My tip is 40 grit aluminum oxide automotive sandpaper removes wood much faster and you can reshape it if you want.
Then I sand the edges and where the neck meets the head with finer grits but leave the neck itself at 40grit . Then lightly brushbthe neck with some 1500 grit to remove any burrs.
Then I will coat with a single layer of tru oil.
It feels grainy primitive but plays super fast.
I like the fat neck it also keeps your neck straight and accurate if you shave it your going to constantly have to get it set up more often because of a less stable fretboard neck, plus it adds tone and sus to the guitar.
I used a cabinet file and got amazing results
Nice video , thank you it's pretty cool ! Next time take those tuners off ... all that saw dust is getting in the gears and lube openings . Spoken from experience lol
I carved a vintage "V" shape with a large kitchen knife used as a draw knife.
I sanded a compound shape into my Ibanez neck, using sandpaper, and it turned out great.
I’ll bet it did turn out great!
How hard is it? Trying to do to my strat
Ibanez necks are thin. Mosrite necks are super thin. ..some 60s and 70s guitars coming out of Japan also had really thin narrow necks too.
Did the Fender tuners have the 2 lil guide pins on it? ty
It doesn't take much to make a big difference. Those of us with short sausage fingers struggle with fatter necks. It's not always about the thickness in the middle, it can be the thickness at the shoulders. I've never been able to play a LP because I can't cleanly play with a neck that fat. (Not even the so-called 60's slim neck). I recently had the neck of a LP copy shaved down on the shoulders. To give an example, I had a hard time wrapping my thumb around the top to play a bass note on the low E. That part of the neck was too fat right where my thumb joint is. Now, it's my #1.
Amazing video thanks for sharing
That’s for the tips buddy. I love your accent man.. I wish I was born in the south😁
I had doubts about ruining my Alvarez acoustic, but what the heck! With my smallish hands, I couldn't put up with the pain of fingering that fat mahogany (?) neck. A few hours and $25 worth of sandpaper and Tru-Oil made it a pleasure to play.
You can usually take a good little bit off the neck without causing problems. I say go for it as long as you don't sand down to the truss rod. Often it doesn't take much to really improve the playability. Thanks for the awesome comment.
Hi Tony, what kind of oil did you end up putting on it? Just picked one of these up for a friend who is learning and will probably do the same thing for her! Thanks.
Ha! This may sound scandalous to people who put exotic oils on guitar necks, but I just put extra virgin olive oil on my guitar necks, and the wood seems to like it just fine.
@@tonyleeglenn ha awesome! And hey in this case we are talking about a sub $100 guitar and not some $5k custom shop, so whatever works!
Nice. extra virgin olive oil is also a lot healthier for the guitar. 😂
The thick necks are D shape necks the thinner necks are C shape, I have both types and i do prefer the C shape as i don't have huge hands. I have hands like Angus Young.
You have an ampworks?
you can take 0000 steel wool to smooth the texture after using 150-400 grint or go further with ultra fine sandpaper 600 to 2000 grit ... so smooth it will feel like silk
That's a waste of time. by the time you get to 400 grit wood is smooth.
use a sanding sponge people , to keep the radius equal ..otherwise there will be 20 flat spots
I have thought about this. And great video. This can save many alot of money. Also need some of those locking tuners. Hahah I need it all. Hahahhahahahah
You crack me up with your cool comments Robert!
If only it was as simple with a varnished 59' LP type neck.
Sanding a maple neck takes FOREVER. There are better more precise ways. I suggest cabinet scraper or even a very finely adjusted spokeshave.
I like the variety of fat to thin,I just sand out the finish to stop the stickiness of the glossy finish
Meanwhile I'm searching for ANY guitars with that "dreaded" baseball neck lol
Used fender squier neck $70. Ebay.
5'6" tall. I have to buy womens gloves & socks. Been playing 30 years & I used to be able to play any neck. But now that I'm old & have pretty bad arthritis, I can't play anything thicker than standard thin. Wizard necks feel glorious. 24" scale length & wizard thin is the holy grail for me now.
This man knows but doesn´t want to admit that 3mm is a lot in a neck width. A neck that is 3mm thinner than other can make a world of difference. I´m a big guy 1.8 meters (no imperial for me) tall but my hands are not like SRV so I can´t stand a neck that is 25-26mm thick at te 1st fret BUT i fell comfortable with a neck that is 22mm thick at de 1st fret like a Fender Standard Tele or Strat. 3mm is a lot, he makes fun of the word baseball bat, but it´s the best way to describe a neck that is unbarebly thick. SRV was short. I thnk. he measured 1.6m tall but his hands were huge, I bet this guy is tall with big hands, and dont want to admit that every person id diffferent, in fact I see a bit of intolerance in his way making fun of people that want confort when the play an instrument. Intolerane is a bad thing worst that having small hands. He refers to a lady that was short and play a Tele with a thick neck, same case as SRV she probably has huge hands and was short. botom lime I fell encoraged to sand the back off the neck of my SX strat that is a full inch thick at he first fret, a beautifull guitar that kills my hands. I set the action low, try everething till I measured the neck thicknes, OMG at first I search for a new neck the I discarded the idea, the guitar remains in the case form the moment i bought It 10 years ago, go figure I cam sand the neck, hope I don´t expose the truss rod and ruin the neck. At least It´s the cheapest guitar I have so no grat risk, still love guitars, don´t want to ruin the thing.
My hands are approximately 0.8 SRV and I like slim necks too. I have a 58 V and I love the guitar but man I prefer the 60s necks. Ibanez necks work great for big hands. They may be thin but the are wide. Comfortable to hold on but you have full movement on the fingers. A baseball neck can leave the first joint on the fingers behind the fretboard rather than in front and that severely restricts movement. I know it's sacrilege but I would love a 60s neck on my 58...
shoot man i can dig it send me a baseball neck itll fix all my issues with these lengthy fingers of mine if money wasnt an issue righht lol
hands are very fragile , at 71 years old and having nerve issues and arthritis in my left hand thumb the slightest change in neck profile can trigger an issue with my thumb and it's very depressing and having 72 guitars i can't reshape all to fit my needs
How thin can one go i wonder?
I would say Wizard iii is the limit
Thats not a thick neck! I build guitars and did a custom one for my son, he was 14 when i built it. He was with me when i shaped the neck, as i like to with any custom i do. I hardly took anything off and he said it was perfect 🤷🏻♂️ It’s like a big fat D profile and I’ve done him another one since and he had the same profile. I’ve had people that like big thick Gibson necks and say it’s way bigger! Strangely, if you play it for 5 mins it becomes super comfortable and really fast.
I know what you mean. I've honestly never had any problem with a chunkier neck. You're hands adapt really quickly, and honestly it doesn't make a huge difference in my mind when it comes to playability. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Not when you're old and have arthritis.
@@rangerdoc1029 You might be surprised, with a fat neck it sits into your hand better so you don’t have to use your thumb as much. It’s really hard to explain, just something worth trying out if you get chance.
A draw knife could speed this up
An orange pen?? Who even has an orange pen? Can I suggest you sell one of your Tele's and invest in a black pen.
That would be an expensive black pen!
@@tonyleeglenn Depends upon the pen he would purchase in order that people could make sense of his videos. Cheapskate. He could trade in a Chinese Squire and buy a half share in a Mont Blanq.
@@catabaticanabatic3800 Mont Blanq makes crazy overpriced pens for what you get.
Hope you are better , please practice meditation it will help your breathing 🙏🏼
I love fat necks
I like fatter necks….
Didn't even watch ... I LOVE the thicker, baseball bat ... chunky necks. I'm constantly looking for guitars with them, everyone wants shredder spaghetti thin necks, no thx. I can play plenty fast on my chunker ... no need for toothpicks