Played an R8 today--are all of the reissue necks that fat?

[dnauhei]

Neck like a baseball bat. Not sure I could get used to that. Do all of the reissues have this neck profile? This is the first one I have played.

[Rotten]

Some vary, but most R8s have that big D shaped neck. Gibson has a '60 reissue with a thinner neck and my R7 has a big neck, but more of a C shape.

[Jahn]

my R8 indeed has a huge neck, the second biggest in my stable. The D-28S is the biggest.

[diagrammatiks]

r8s have the biggest neck. that's how they were that year. the 59, 60 have thinner necks.

[Bruce Bennett]

the R9 has the smaller neck and the 60 Classic is the profile that seems to have the largest appeal.

[voodoovox]

Necks vary on the R8. Mine has a neck similiar to an R9. Play a few.

[AaeCee]

For me the R9 neck, which is like a slightly tapered version of the R8, is damn near perfect, and I find the R0 way too thin. But as was said, they all vary a lot even within the same models. A good LP site that notes all the specs including neck dimensions is Mark's Guitar Loft. Mark is as persnickity about those details as any of us, and the only one I've ever seen that lists the neck dimensions for each LP.

[alexanderplatz]

How do the thicker R8's compare to Fender Nocaster necks? Nocasters have remarkably thick necks, yet playing them is actually comfortable.

[AaeCee]

Originally Posted by alexanderplatz

How do the thicker R8's compare to Fender Nocaster necks? Nocasters have remarkably thick necks, yet playing them is actually comfortable.

The fullest R8 I've played was one I owned for a while, and it rivaled my Nocaster which has an obscenely thick neck. Others I've owned/tried were somewhat smaller, but as a rule the R7/R8's tend to have bigger necks than the R9. FWIW, I love thick necks, so none were much of a problem for me.

[XKnight]

Necks vary significantly on all the Historic/Reissue series and especially vary from year to year. I have an R8 from 2007 that has a neck more like a R9. I have an R7 that also has a R9 type neck. I've tried R7 and R8s with necks so large that I couldn't comfortably play them. You need to keep looking until you find the right neck that fits your hands. When you do it will be well worth it.

[lakehaus]

The R's are built like they were in the day. Makes sense. I had an R7, R8, & R9. I liked the R8 neck the best. It was big, but not uncomfortably so, to me.

My 82 30th Anniversary has a big neck, not quite like the 57 (later R7) - that I think it was designed kinda after, but more like the R8. I'm very happy with this 30th.

[Marcus71]

The answer is yes. The original necks supposedly got slimmer from 58-60, with the '58's being the biggest. But with everything else in the burst era, this wasn't universally true nor on an annual calendar. For instance, some of the guitars made in early 1960 had thicker necks on them before the 60's tapered necks appeared. Same with '58 necks rolling in to 1959.

FWIW, my R9 has a bigger neck than my R8. And of course, my R0's neck is much slimmer. Not too many people mention this, but I hear some tone loss with thinner necks. To my ears, the thinner necks are brighter guitars. YMMV, however.

[sahhas]

could you measure this and tell us how big, thick this neck is at the 1st fret, 12th fret? just curious.

[Drew68]

Originally Posted by dnauhei

Neck like a baseball bat. Not sure I could get used to that. Do all of the reissues have this neck profile? This is the first one I have played.

What year R8? Sometime around '09 Gibson changed the shape slightly, particularly at the shoulder, and this change continues today --though you'll probably not find two R8s that are exactly the same (just as with real 'bursts). I have a '10 R8 and, to me, the neck is perfect. I'm not a big guy and when I traded my thin-necked Classic in on this particular Historic, it took some getting used to the additional girth. It really altered the whole way I played the instrument. But now I'm totally sold on the fatter necks. I just love it! In fact, I want to get rid of all my thin-necked guitars!

[OM Flyer]

Originally Posted by Marcus71

I hear some tone loss with thinner necks. To my ears, the thinner necks are brighter guitars.

I believe this is true. When I was buying my ES-339, I compared the '59 fat neck to the thinner 60s neck version. I don't claim to have golden ears or anything, but the baseball bat seemed to sustain longer and just had more tonal "girth." That's the one I bought, and it's probably my favorite neck profile ever.