Neck depth - please measure and post

[Novosel]

I really hate metric. Even though my country, Canada, switched to metric years ago, I'm an Imperial holdout. And even though I make my living as a carpenter and use a tape measure everyday, I don't own a metric one. But with a borrowed one, here's my best attempt:

Fret 5 : 69 mm (47 across)
Fret 12: 76 mm (51.5 across)
Guitar : 1984 Tokai Loverock ALS60

 

[Anonymous]

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[Novosel]

Yeah, I think I got lucky with the neck on that one. When I tried it out at the shop where I bought it in 1988, the neck felt very much like my friends Gibson ES335 - a touch wide but shallow. I really like thin necks and I wonder if it would have turned me off at the time if it was a baseball bat (Loverocker, that's our version of cricket , only better :wink: ). I'd love to get a Les Paul Historic someday, but the first one I tried a couple of years ago, I put my hand around the neck and promptly put it back on the wall! Too big for my liking, although many people, especially at the LPF, swear by the beefy necks.

 

[Roadrunner 451]

I'm with Novosel, you can keep the metric system.It's evil and obviously the work of Satan.I work in a machine shop and I think we have some metric reamers and maybe a couple of taps but thats it, no metric measuring tools of any kind. Anytime we get a drawing from Scarebus , er uhm, I mean Airbus we have to convert from the evil metric system to Imperial measure . Oh, ah , sorry, this is about measuring guitar necks not the evil metric system. This is what I came up with.

Fret 5 : 73mm (48.8 across)
Fret 12 : 82.5mm (51 across)
Guitar : 02' Tokai Love Rock NLS75S "57' Gold top")


Fret 5 : 73mm (47.2 across)
Fret 12 : 78.8mm (51.6 across)
Guitar : 82' Gibson Les Paul Standard


Fret 5 : 74mm (47.4 across)
Fret 12 : 77.9 mm (52.2 across)
Guitar : 03' MIM Fender Standard Stratocaster

Regards,
Bill

 

[Novosel]

WAIT A MINUTE! HOLD EVERYTHING!

I just remembered something - something horrible that I've blocked from my mind!

Last year I had my LR refretted because I wanted to try out a bigger fret since I do a lot a string bending and heard thats the way to go. Now, when I took it in to the repair guy, he checked the neck and said there was a slight "hump" of the fretboard around the third to fifth fret on the bass side. Not to worry, he said, he could sand and level the fretboard.

Here's where it gets ugly.

The refret was done excellently, but that must have been some "hump", because the fretboard was planed down so much that the binding was taken down almost to the dot side markers. In fact, he took it down so much, that he had to remove the neck pickup surround and shave some off so the strings could clear! I just about **** myself!!

Now, to be honest , it really isn't a total butcher job, and I don't think anyone besides myself would really have noticed, but I've always appreciated the detail of Tokai's taller, historically accurate pickup surrounds. And I guess I've been disqualified from the running for the thinnest Tokai neck. Insult to injury. But let me say that it was always the shallowest Loverock neck I'd ever tried. That's what impressed me about it when I first bought it.

I'm just sorry, thats all.

 

[Bluesbrush]

First impressions of a neck are always (for me anyway) at the first fret...so I couldn't help but throw that extra measurement in. The table below shows circumference/width at the first, fifth then twelth frets. I put them in order from thinnest to baseball.

BURNS 1964 MARVIN 63/44 68/47 76/52
IBANEZ 1976 PRO 65/44 70/47 76/52
FENDER 1982 57 worn 64/42 67/47 71/51
GIBSON 1964 ES345 64/42 69/46 77/51
TOKAI 1986 200 C 65/42 71/46 75/51
TOKAI 1983 TALBO 65/43 69/47 73/51
TOKAI 1985 TALBO 66/43 69/47 74/51
TOKAI 1985 MAT 66/43 71/47 75/52
TOKAI 1985 STRAT 66/44 71/47 75/52
FENDER 1962 STRAT 67/43 73/47 79/52
MINE 1996 TELE 71/43 73/47 73/52
GIBSON 1968 LES PAUL 70/44 74/47 84/52
FENDER 1991 JEFF BECK 72/44 77/48 81/52
GIBSON 2003 LP 54 HIS 72/44 77/48 83/52
GIBSON 2000 LP 59 HIS 72/44 77/48 84/52

The Burns and Ibanez necks are thin as...but rock stable.
No surprises with the 91 JB strat. That is one great feeling baseball bat neck. Definitely the thickest of the bolt on neck guitars.
The surprise was the two Historic Les Pauls. The 59 neck feels huge (everyone says it is the biggest neck they have ever played), yet the dimensions are basically the same as the 54 which feels much smaller. The 59 neck is very rounded whereas the 54 is has less at the shoulders. I am going to have to look into this some more.

It appears the circumference gives you an idea of size but not shape. My home made tele changes from a sharp vee at the first fret to a round neck at the twelth but the dimensions dont show it. The home made tele has a consistent depth neck shaped after a 38 kalamazoo. There is only two mm difference between the first and fifth frets but the neck changes from a sharp vee to a rounded vee. They feel like chalk and cheese.

OK guys....get the scales out next. I'd love to see how much those love rocks weigh in at!!

Cheers
BB

 

[Paladin2019]

OK guys....get the scales out next. I'd love to see how much those love rocks weigh in at!!

Cheers
BB

I reckon this one deserves a thread of its own, after all it's generally accepted that Tokais weigh on average less than their competition... until someone starts the thread I'll say my love rock weighs about 9 1/4 lb. I used kitchen scales as my bathroom scales turned out to be a bit inaccurate. :wink:

 

[Cybercat]

Hi Gang, Merry Christmas from Hong Kong.

Fret 5: 72 (47)mm
Fret 12: 79 (53)mm
Guitar: 1981 Tokai LS-60 Cherry Top
Weight : 8.36 pounds (exactly)

Fret 5: 74 (48)mm
Fret 12: 80 (53)mm
Guitar: 1980 Tokai LS-50 Reborn Old Gold Top
Weight : 8.6 pounds approx (sorry - no accurate scales handy for this one, will weigh when I get a chance.)

Cheers!

Bill.

(Tokai pics here:- )
http://homepage.mac.com/cybercat/PhotoAlbum7.html

 

[supernout]

hi there,

most of the tokais i listed in this thread weigh around 8.4lb and 9.3lb, the reborns are usually heavier than the loverocks.

a special mention to the '99 LS-320vf (7.9lb) and the '81 LS-50os (7.7lb). i've never understood why they'd used such a lightweight wood for an LS-50.

merry christmas to you all
supernout

 

[Novosel]

1984 Tokai Love Rock ALS-60 :

Weighing in at an incredible 7.66 lbs.!!


Just try to beat that!




Of course, it was 8.6 before the refret

 

[Anonymous]

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[Bluesbrush]

The 200 C is a carbon fibre 200 model. That data was originally in an excel spreadheet and when I copied it onto the email a couple of letters got moved around or deleted.

Absolute rubbish guitar. :wink: If you spot one anywhere drop me a line so I can turn a blind eye to it.

 

[ArthurS]

Here's the dimensions of my LS80, a bit delayed, but better late than never I guess

Fret 5: 74mm (48 across)
Fret 12: 79mm (52,5 across)
Guitar: 2003 Tokai LS80-F

It'd be interesting to see what Ian Harvey's LS80 is like, since he has the exact same model as I have, made in the same year.