Gibson Les Paul 50s vs 60s Neck

[ric232]

I have come across a good deal on a LP in the color I like, except that it has a 50s neck. I've never played a 50s and, since I have 2 Ibanez's, I suspect I would prefer the slimmer 60s neck. Does anyone know if one is generally preferred over the other? I don't have a problem getting used to the larger neck myself, but I'm concerned about resale. Is the 60s neck widely preferred over the 50s?

[ns9]

Have you checked out the Les Paul Forum?
Les Paul Forum

Good bunch, and tons and tons of info, opinions, experiences, etc.

I would say alot of LP fans would want the 50's neck first. But, it really comes down to what feels good. I would not want ot buy an LP without playing it...been there, done that, not again...

The year of build plays a good part in things- if you care about construction technique and such.

Me? I prefer late 60's, early 70's LP Customs only, and even then it has to have had lots of playing, but with TLC. I just do not care for new instruments...even these "aged" ones...

nikki

[vaijem777]

I tend to prefer the 50's necks. They're big n' chunky, but they're definitely NOT for everyone.

[red5]

The 58 or earlier neck is too extremely fat. The '59 neck, which is what they refer to as the 50s neck in LP standards is fat but not overly fat that you won't be able to solo on it. The 60s neck is the slim taper neck which I don't have much of a preferance between that or a '59 personally. The '60 is geared more towards fast leads obviously but the '59 neck is very comfortable for rhythm to me.

[vaijem777]

The '57 LP Custom Historic Reissue is probably my favorite Paul neck to date. Never had a problem with it being "too extremely fat" and it's done me just fine in terms of soloing.

It's not the guitar, it's the player and that players personal preferences. The smartest thing to do would be to try out as many different neck types as possible and see what best fits YOU. That'd be much wiser than basing a purchase decision on rash generalizations or other people's opinions.

[Flight]

Prefer the 50's neck myself.

Just feels more 'right' to me. I do know of a few players who swear by 60's necks though.

As has been said it's just more about you than the instrument.

Cheers

Dave

[ric232]

Originally Posted by vaijem777

The smartest thing to do would be to try out as many different neck types as possible and see what best fits YOU. That'd be much wiser than basing a purchase decision on rash generalizations or other people's opinions.

The whole point of my question was to get the opinions of others. If you read my original post, you'll see that I'm not terribly concerned whether I have a 50s or 60s neck from the standpoint of my personal playing preferences. I was just trying to determine whether the market for the 50s neck is as broad as the 60s for resale purposes. If there is a signficant preference in the overall market of one neck vs the other, that's the neck I'll be buying. I would have thought that the 60s neck would be widely preferred, but not I'm not so sure.

[red5]

Actually I feel that I should add, the best Les Paul necks IMO were the thinlines. I think they were labeled as a Custom and had no real defining features other than the lowest profile neck ever available from Gibson but what made them was those thin, wide flat frets.