taylor necks before the NT developement-some questions

[darylcrisp]

looking at either a 1998 or 1999, i've oft heard the necks of this period are slimmer-what exactly is different?
is the depth of the center of the neck more slim or is it something else. trying to get an idea of all this.
i love the current NT neck, fits me perfect, not sure i would want anything smaller in either direction.

can anyone with both style necks post some photos so those of us uncanny to this design change can once and for all see the slimmer style taylor neck.

thank you
d

[Edward]

Hi Daryl,

I've heard both: that they are slimmer, and that they are not slimmer in a consistent way.
In other words some of the necks did "feel" like it because of the vagaries of hand-tooling each neck.  Clearly with the advent of CNC on the NT necks, consistency is in the thou-of-inches. so every neck felt identical.  I buy this second reason: that if each neck were rough-machine shaped then hand sanded, there could easily be noticible differences.  But a consistently thinner neck on all guitars pre-NT?  That I am unsure of (never owned an pre-NT).

That said, even with their so-called "slim carve" neck (that I have heard is supposed to emulate the "old feel"), I can barely tell a difference; and if I can it'd be only if I were looking for it.  Casually picking up a "regular" NT and a "slim carve NT" doesn't raise any glaring differences in my hands that gives me any pause ...for me anywho.

Edward

[darylcrisp]

thanks for that reply E
thats the kind of info i'm looking for.

d

[Herb Hunter]

If there is a difference in neck profiles between my 1996 Taylor and my 2003 Taylor, I haven't noticed it.


I agree with Edward. The necks Taylor made before the advent of the NT neck were supposed to have the same standard profile used today but because the they were hand sanded there was a greater degree of variability than the precision NT necks Taylor have. Some necks ended up slimmer than intended. This became evident when Doyle Dykes noticed that one of his older Taylors had a slimmer neck than the newer guitars and mentioned that he preferred the feel of the slimmer one. Measurements were taken and it was discovered that there was indeed a 0.05" inch difference so Bob Taylor decided to offer a slim profile neck patterned after the neck on Doyle's old guitar.

[Edward]

Man o man, leave it to Herb to deliver the hard goods ...thanks for the details!  And the tidbit about DD is interesting, as well ...never knew that!

Edward

[theguitarguru]

Thanks Herb for the useful info!

[darylcrisp]

thanks Herb!

thats also the stuff i was asking for

d

[Herb Hunter]

Y'all are welcome. I'm glad the information was useful.