Neck shape on XXX-MC

[billshoup]

Hi All,
Please forgive me, as I'm not a Taylor owner, but am hoping your can offer me your insight on a particular Taylor neck shape.  I'm actually considering having a small jumbo built by a local luthier.  One of those bucket list things.  I should probably make it easy for myself and just buy a nice Taylor, but so it goes.  Anyway, in playing this builder's guitars, I loved everything about them except the neck shape was not the ultimate for me personally.  I play with my thumb over the top of the neck quite a bit, and the edge of the fingerboard on some guitars (my Martin DC-Aura included) comes to too much of a point (if that makes sense) and digs into my thumb.  Anyway, after visiting his shop I happened to stop at a guitar shop and played an old 2004 XXX-MC (30th Anniversary Grand Concert) that had a great neck shape for me.  I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what the particular neck shape was on that guitar.  I actually remember playing one of those when they first came out and remember feeling the same way about that neck.  If you could point me in the right direction to possibly find out details of that particular neck, I'd appreciate it.  I realize that it was a 1 3/4" nut width, but that's about all I've been able to uncover so far. 
Thanks so much for any insight you are willing to give.

[DennisG]

Hi Bill,

You don't have to be a Taylor owner to either use or appreciate this forum.  We welcome everyone, no matter what kind of guitars they own -- and, in fact, many of us own guitars from other makers.

You may or may not know that Taylor is somewhat legendary for the comfort and playability of their necks.  I consider that quality so important that I actually sold off a couple of Goodalls, and now use my Taylor 814 DLX exclusively.  I'm also a thumb-hooker, and the Taylor neck is just perfect for my playing style.

Taylor makes two types of necks (on their acoustic guitars) that I'm aware of.  One is their standard neck, which you'll find on 99.9% of their guitars.  The other is what they call a slim-carve neck, which you will sometimes see on custom guitars, assuming they're specially ordered that way.

The difference in size is as follows:  standard necks at the first fret are 0.840 deep and 0.868 deep at the ninth fret; slim carve necks are 0.790 at the first and 0.831 at the ninth.

Hope this answers your question.

[billshoup]

Hi Dennis,
Thank you so much for your gracious response. I do appreciate Taylor's legendary playability.  Good to know that it appears there are only two sizes - I would bet that this neck was not the slim version.  You don't happen to know of any resources that would show the actual geometry of these necks, i.e. show the curve from the back of the neck to the edge of the fingerboard (specifically for a 1 3/4" nut)?  My builder has generally used a D shape neck and we're trying to figure out whether a C shape neck would be a better choice for me.  Unfortunately he's 4 hours away, so it makes these discussions more difficult.  I'm trying to talk him into stopping at the shop where I played the XXX-MC so he can examine the neck on it.
Again, thank you so much for your help - I really do appreciate it.

Bill

[DennisG]

Bill,

I don't have the additional info you asked for, but a call to Taylor customer service should provide all the answers.

[billshoup]

Thank you very much Sir!  I appreciate it!