wide-neck guitars?

[bassteban]

I've asked guitar players this, & they look at me like I'm nuts: Is there such a thing as an electric guitar w/wider-then-typical spacing? I have a difficult time getting my clumsy stubs in between, over, under & around all those skinny little strings to form decent chords. I can play classical/nylon-strings OK, but there doesn't seem to be a solid(or semi-hollow)bodied electric twanger made for me. I've considered building a Les Paul clone w/a classical-dimensioned neck, but seeing as how I've started 3 or 4 basses and not fully finished one, I'd prefer *off-the-rack*
Is there such a beast?

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

The only one that I've ever seen was an bastardized nylon string neck attached to a body. DIY as You can probably imagine.

I converted a nylon string acoustic to steel stringed one a loooong time ago as the headstock was missing and a 14 year old didn't want any effing plastic string guitar , so I made the headstock with steel string tuners. Obviously it came clear pretty quickly that it was a bit of a mistake (even gigged with it like that though) and now there's been nylon strings for about 20 years. Which obviously are hard as hell to keep in tune with the scrawny posts.

Other than a six string piccolo, custom order or DIY route, I suppose You'll have a hard time finding one.

OTOH if You lived here in Europe, some of the eastern block guitars had really wide necks.

Regards
Sam

 

[thumpbass1]

Have you tried any PRS guitars? They have a wide flat profile, but might not be wide enough for your personal needs. You may have to go custom order.

 

[RickenBoogie]

Rickenbacker makes a few 600 series guitars with a wider than your typical Ric necks, but typical Ric's are fairly skinny to begin with, so the wider ones are most likely more like a regular Fender.

 

[Stanley Design]

I heard Rickenbacker guitars have huge necks actually.

If you're looking for really wide you could get a 12 string and leave off the second set.

 

[AnchorHoy]

Easiest route, and maybe cheapest too, would be to build yourself one with a bolt-on neck

Warmoth, for example, has Strat-style necks available off the shelf that are 1¾" wide at the nut. That's considerably wider than the usual Strat neck. Same vendor also offers another off-the-shelf option that they call a Invalid Link Removed which is 1 7/8" at the nut

If you stick to plain maple for the neck proper and either a plain maple or rosewood fingerboard, you can bring the total price for the neck only (no tuners or guitar body etc.) down to under $200 including shipping

Of course, you still need to source a body plus pickups, hardware, etc. but with a bit of wheeling and dealing even that can be done relatively cheaply. Just buy a guitar with a Strat-sized neck pocket, that has everything you are looking for besides the neck width, and swap necks for the custom piece. OTOH you could always build up what you wanted from scratch for about the same (or less) money as a new MIA Fender

Something like a LP style guitar that has a set-in neck would be a Much more expensive proposition, no matter how you go about it. Essentially, you'd have to have a Very skilled luthier make up the neck from scratch. BIG $$$ there.......

 

[Godbody]

Agile guitars at rondomusic.com are available and three neck widths-narrow, standard and wide. Maybe one of their wide-neck models will suit your needs.

 

[xzzy]

Talk to the guy at krappy guitars and I bet you could get him to make you anything you can dream up.

 

[bassteban]

Thanks, guys- some very appealing options here.