Neck Profiles

Below is an explanation of the shapes of all current and many past PRS neck shapes.

US Model Neck Shapes

PATTERN NECK SHAPES - CURRENT

Neck shapes have always been a high priority for PRS and a hallmark of our 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 our 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 and D neck shapes. It is flat on the back and wide at the shoulders.

FORMER NECK SHAPES

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.

Neck Shape	Neck Width at Nut	Neck width at Body	Neck Depth at 1/2 Fret	Neck Depth at 12 1/2 Fret
635 JM	1 20/32" [41.275]	2 7/32" [56.337]	53/64" [21.03]	31/32" [24.58]
635 JM-R	1 21/32" [42.06]	2 15/64" [56.74]	55/64" [21.81]	63/64" [24.99]
DGT	1 21/32" [42.06]	2 7/32" [56.337]	27/32" [21.41]	61/64" [24.20]
Dustie Waring	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	13/16" [20.62]	7/8" [22.22]
Fiore	1 21/32" [42.06]	2 1/4" [57.15]	27/32" [21.41]	31/32" [24.58]
GG 4	1 19/32" [40.487]	2 9/16" [65.07]	27/32" [21.41]	61/64" [24.20]
GG 5	1 23/32" [43.637]	2 31/32" [75.387]	53/64" [21.03]	29/32" [23.01]
Pattern	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	7/8" [22.22]	61/64" [24.20]
Pattern Regular	1 21/32" [42.06]	2 1/4" [57.15]	27/32" [21.41]	59/64" [23.39]
Pattern Thin	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	53/64" [21.03]	57/64" [22.60]
Pattern Vintage	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	7/8" [22.22]	63/64" [24.99]
Santana Retro	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	7/8" [22.22]	31/32" [24.58]
SE Kingfisher Bass	1 19/32" [40.487]	2 33/64" [63.88]	51/64" [20.21]	61/64" [24.20]
SE Kestrel Bass	1 19/32" [40.487]	2 31/32" [75.387]	51/64" [20.21]	61/64" [24.20]
SE Wide Thin	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	13/16" [20.62]	57/64" [22.60]
SE Wide Fat	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	7/8" [22.22]	61/64" [24.20]
SE Mark Holcomb 7 Wide Thin	1 57/64" [48]	2 5/8" [66.67]	13/16" [20.62]	57/64" [22.60]
SE Tremonti Wide Thin	1 11/16" [42.85]	2 1/4" [57.15]	51/64" [20.21]	29/32" [23.01]

ACOUSTIC NECK MEASUREMENTS

WIDTH AT THE NUT:

Wide - 1 3/4"

Standard - 1 11/16"

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"

PRIVATE STOCK ACOUSTIC NECK MEASUREMENTS