CURRENT NECK CARVES
Neck shapes have always been a high priority for PRS and a hallmark of PRS quality. A guitar should feel comfortable, like “home,” as soon as you pick it up, and the neck is paramount to that connection. These new neck shapes reflect modern tooling and programming that allows us to even more preciously shape and consistently reproduce their necks.
Perfected after years of prototyping, the new “Pattern” neck is an updated Wide Fat PRS neck style based on Paul’s pre-factory design. These necks were found on the instruments built for Carlos Santana, Peter Frampton and Howard Leese from the late 70’s to the mid 80’s.
The new “Pattern Regular” neck shape is similar to the traditional PRS regular neck found on guitars made in the late 80’s at PRS’s former Virginia Avenue location. The “Pattern Thin” neck is an updated version of PRS’s traditional Wide Thin neck.
The Pattern Vintage neck has the same width measurements as PRS’s Pattern neck but is slightly thicker front to back and features an asymmetrical carve with a little less meat on the bass side of the neck toward the nut end and a little less meat on the treble side of the neck from the twelfth fret to the heel.
The “JM” neck carve is reminiscent of the neck carves found on vintage, bolt-on instruments. The carve was designed to feel somewhere in between the vintage C & D neck shapes. It is flat on the back and wide at the shoulders.
NECK SPECS
WIDTH OF THE FRETBOARD AT THE NUT:
Pattern, Wide Fat - 1 11/16”
Pattern Thin, Wide Thin - 1 11/16”
Pattern Regular, Regular - 1 21/32”
Pattern Vintage - 1 11/16”
JM – 1 21/32”
12 String - 1 47/64”
WIDTH AT THE BODY
Pattern, Wide Fat - 2 1/4”
Pattern Thin, Wide Thin - 2 1/4”
Pattern Regular, Regular - 2 1/4”
Pattern Vintage - 2 1/4”
JM – 2 7/32”
12 String - 2 19/64”
NECK DEPTH AT THE NUT
Pattern, Wide Fat - 28/32”
Pattern Thin, Wide Thin - 26/32”
Pattern Regular, Regular - 27/32”
Pattern Vintage - 57/64”
JM – 53/64”
12 String - 27/32”
FINGERBOARD RADIUS
10” on all guitars except when otherwise stated
11.5” on the Santana models and 12 strings
7.25” on Silver Sky
SCALE LENGTH
25” on most models except when otherwise specified
24.594” on McCarty 594 models
25.5” on Silver Sky, 305
24.5” on the SC 58, Santana, Starla, Starla X, Mira X and 245 models
25.25” on 513, 509, DC3, and NF3
2018 CORE MODEL RUNDOWN VIDEO
All the specs for the current year PRS CORE MODEL GUITARS
SE NECK CARVES
WIDTH OF THE FRETBOARD AT THE NUT:
Wide Fat - 1 11/16” Wide Thin - 1 11/16”
WIDTH AT THE BODY Wide Fat - 2 1/4” Wide Thin - 2 1/4”
NECK DEPTH AT THE NUT Wide Fat - 27/32” Wide Thin - 25/32”
FINGERBOARD RADIUS 10” on all guitars except when otherwise stated. Mark Holcomb: 20”, Torero: 14”
SCALE LENGTH 25” on most models except when otherwise specified. SE245: 24.5”, Mark Holcomb: 25.5” Torero: 25.5”, Baritone: 27.7”
SE ACOUSTIC NECK SPECS
WIDTH AT THE NUT:
Wide - 1 3/4”
Standard - 1 11/16”
Martin Simpson - 1 53/64”
WIDTH AT THE BODY
Wide - 2 3/16”
Standard - 2 1/8”
NECK DEPTH AT THE NUT
Wide and Standard - 55/64”
FINGERBOARD RADIUS
12”
SCALE LENGTH
25 1/4”
FORMER NECK PROFILES
The Regular (sometimes called Standard) neck is a round neck shape that is 1/32 narrower and not quite as thick front to back as our Wide Fat neck. The Wide Fat neck has the same nut width as the Wide Thin neck, but it has a deeper profile. Because of its strength and longer “heel”, the Wide Fat neck produces warm tones with lots of sustain. The Wide Thin neck has a thinner profile front to back than the Wide Fat. It is a favorite of fast players and lead guitar players.