Generally, I think you’re right, cornflakes, I don’t think they’ve actually become standardized (scale certainly isn’t), but they’ve become closer. Gibson has seemed to favor a chunkier neck recently than they did in the 70’s/80’s, and Fender is using a flatter fret board radius than they normally used in the 60’s. But both manufacturers put out guitars that have several different neck profiles on essentially the same guitar. Sometimes the ones with the old neck profiles are the more expensive models, sometimes they’re not.
So I finally broke down and got a new recording interface.
I was using an MBox, two mic/line inputs. From 2004or thereabouts. I actually like the MBox but it is so old it isn’t supported and is running on an ancient XP box. My fear was that the XP machine was gonna die.
So I picked up a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. It has 8 mic/line inputs which means I can mic a reasonably sized drum kit. The two downsides, it comes wih Pro Tools First which is a limited version of Pro Tools. Second, I have to buy a bunch of plugins again. Specifically, Sample Tank and Steven Slate drums. ST is kinda pricey, Slate has some cheaper options. For drums I want a nice metal kit and a nice jazz kit. Sample Tank has some amazing instrument samples, really impressive. But with twins buying it is gonna take a bit.
The Focusrite has some plugins but I haven’t gotten everything installed yet. The latency seems low, I didn’t notice a lag when recording a test track but it only had one track and one mic.
One nice thing is that I will be a le to leave my amp mic in place, have a line for my little amp sim and still have inputs for recording vocals, acoustic, etc.
I may upgrade Pro Tools or check out some free stuff. I have used Audacity at work (recording phone prompts) and the package I have comes with Ableton Live Lite, which I believe I can use as the main recording software.
The big downside to PT First is that the line sample rate and bit depth are limited and the number of simultaneous tracks is as well. Bastards.
Anyway, I hope to get more stuff recorded. My twins are old enough that I might get to play…
Slee
Thanks, scabpicker; the search continues…
I agree with this. With CNC routers, you can dial up a profile and make it uniform. Neck profiles go through distinct eras. PreWW2 necks were much bigger to handle heavy gauges and often very V shaped. The 80’s was all about Eddie Van Halen; he favored almost classical wide-flat profiles for thumb-on-back speed runs and an easier tapping surface. One legacy of his rise is flatter radiused necks. With locking trems, much more high fret work and such, the old 9" or so Fender radius is less common. Again with CNC, you have the increase in compound radiuses. 12" near the nut and up to 20" at the high frets. I don’t shred but apparently having that flatness helps with fretting up there.
With acoustics, you have the Taylor influence. Their innovations with CNC routing and, to my hands and ears, pursuing a strategy of “make acoustics that feel like electrics” came with much smaller-profile narrower necks. I had a Taylor for over a decade. Now that I have realized how much I love big, chunky necks, I can’t even play a Taylor for an extended period.
Yeah, since Ricky’s have super narrow 1 5/8" nut widrpths as their standard - an dimension completely different from fretboard radius or neck profile, but still yielding a specific feel.
From what I can understand, your upgrade sounds cool, slee.
It may take some hunting, but as WordMan and scabpicker pointed out, there’s actually a lot more options out there than there used to be.
Gibson/Epiphone, for instance, make assorted necks that you might like, referred to as Slim Taper, 1960s SlimTaper D, and SpeedTaper D, seen here. All these, I think, should feature Gibson’s standard 12" radius:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/manufacturer/Gibson/buyingguide/lespaul.php
Fender makes a variety of shapes as well, including this Modern C with an old-school 9.5" radius:http://intl.fender.com/en-IN/guitars/telecaster/american-standard-telecaster-hh-rosewood-fingerboard-3-color-sunburst/
Then, for people who don’t mind bolting on a replacement neck (or building your own guitar!) there’s Warmoth, who sell you any kind of neck you can imagine, and a few that you can’t:
http://www.warmoth.com
With all the variety out there, it can be a challenge to find the one guitar that fits you perfectly. Which is why you always need more than one! 
I’d also like to add that Gibson is actually going back to their 50’s profile necks when they put out the heavier ones. My 2014 franken-SG has what was referred to as a 50’s slim profile neck when it was put on an SG in that year. It’s not a big, huge 50’s Les Paul baseball bat, but it’s not the extremely thin neck that I associated with SGs. I’ve had a few Gibsons with the slim taper necks, and more than one faithful copy of them. Gibson did me a favor by putting this neck on an SG. This medium neck is the most comfortable neck I’ve played, and it’s kind of become my favorite.
It’s also almost stopped smelling like perfume, or maybe I’ve just gotten used to it.
Two quick points:
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Agreed, the move back to bigger necks is present, but as EtFlagon points out, this is a Golden Age when most neck profiles can be found. But between guitars like the Les Paul Historic Reissues (see Point #2 below) and the Fender Custom Shop '51 Nocaster (a Tele based on the '51 models which were in the process of having the name changed from Broadcaster to Telecaster so the name was left off = nicknamed the “Nocaster”) which is known for having a huge neck - well, like the re-emergence of Tele’s in general, P-90 Soapbar pickups, etc., what goes around comes around.
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The actual 50’s neck were NOT necessarily as big as the Gibson Historic/VOS reissues have been for the past ~20 years. R8’s (Gibson 1958 Les Paul Historic Reissue) are a “brand” - you will get a high-end LP, with a plain-ish maple top (the R9 “brand” gets the tiger striped maple) and the neck on the R8 is especially chunky, whereas the R9 is a bit less chunky. I owned a '57 LP Special for years and have played many, many 50’s Gibsons - the necks are all different because they were hand carved, but the profiles are typically not as chunky as R8’s.
Like I said, growing up in the EVH era I had slim/fast necks. As I tried different bigger necks on new and older guitars, I was hooked and haven’t looked back. The ergonomic differences are huge - I can relax my (big, catcher’s mitt) hands and pivot bends more easily on a big neck.
I wasn’t meaning to imply that all 50’s Gibsons had baseball bats. There’s a lot of variance even in the 60’s. For example, I’ve played a 62 “Les Paul” SG that had neck like my 2014 (which is nowhere near an R8) ages ago. My wife’s 67 SG Jr has the narrowest fretboard I’ve seen on any Gibson. Coupled with a deep profile, it’s almost like playing the handle of a baseball bat. But Gibson did go for a decidedly slimmer neck profile after the introduction of the SG.
What’s funny is, I’ve got stubby little sausage fingers, and the same kind of neck profile works for me these days. Granted, I’m not really playing incredibly precise riffs these days, but the thicker neck gives me something to grab onto and work my fingers against.
Yes, when questions about bigger necks appear on guitar 'boards, folks chime in with all sorts of hand types and indicate that they like them.
Different strokes for different folks, but most cite comfort/less cramping and hand fatigue, etc. If it works for you that way, as with me, very cool - but the slim/fast players love their necks for their own reasons.
They key point is that some folks like a variety of neck profiles and others only want one. I am one of the latter, so figuring out I like big chunky necks and then getting electrics and acoustics that share a similar neck profile has been great for me.
This is the profile I’m planning on for my long delayed Les Paul Aloha guitar… TNP I’m still pondering whether I want to go headless like a Stienberger or stay a little more conventional.
You are really going exotic! That Trapezoidal Neck profile looks funky, let alone the other two non-standard profiles. I would be interested in trying, but would never commit until I lived with one for a few months to know. That’s how I figured out the profile I currently prefer.
Have fun - looks like you are testing a number of interesting design variations.
At some point in a few years, my next guitar will be an acoustic that incorporates all of my preferences. Same thing I did with my electrics - figured out what I liked, then built my own. I won’t build my own acoustic, but I will get my specs. If it ends up like my homebrew Tele, it will be the perfect fit for me. But that has nothing to do with experimenting - quite the opposites; it is getting all of my known preferences into the same guitar.
Well, I’m also going with a bolt-on neck so if I do end up hating it I can swap it out and put something with a more conventional profile on. I might actually build a single pickup prototype first to see what works for me and what doesn’t.
That sounds really smart. To be clear: I think it is very cool that you are thinking about experimenting. And, as you clearly know, f you can build something that allows you to do easy swap-outs like a bolt-on neck you can try more stuff.
Every guitarist explores in different ways. I was just pointing out that my way is a slow march towards a “Platonic ideal,” instead of a cool, different guitar with interesting features that stretch my hands, ears and eyes. Both are totally legit, since both involve playing and thinking about what and how you are playing it.
How does the input jack work on this amp:
http://henriksenamplifiers.com/product/jazzamp-310/
Do I just plug my 1/4" plug in? Or do I need some special interface box? I always thought phantom power was for mics with active circuitry. Never heard of this on a guitar. But then again there is a lot I’ve never heard of. :o
Looks like this is a combo plug so you can use either/or. Neat idea. 1/4direct or xlr mic is what it looks like to me.
I just got off an online chat session with Henriksen amps and they confirmed what sampspruce said. And it wasn’t just some customer service rep, it was Peter Henriksen. Those guys are up close and personal.
Went to a higher end guitar shop on Long Island, The Music Zoo. Man, I am just an old curmudgeon, set in my ways. I sampled maybe 10 electrics in the $4,000 - $8,000 range. Mostly Fender Custom Shops - so, each CS builder develops a rep, and therefore there is a price difference of several thousand dollars depending on whether your Custom Shop Fender was “Team Built” vs “Individual Built.” They’ve reduced a $4G CS guitar to somehow being more mass produced. Sigh.
And baking is all the rage. Baking means Torrefaction, i.e., heating the wood to a few hundred degrees. Cooks off moisture and encourages some chemical reactions. You end up with a more rigid, stable piece of wood. For electrics, baked maple necks are big, but I played one with a baked mahogany body, too. (Side note: since maple is not endangered, anything the makers can do to sell more maple-based guitars is good in their view). For acoustics, it is being sold as “accelerated aging,” i.e., you get more clarity and cut like an old guitar.
And big necks remain a big deal. I am used to finding 1-2 guitars out of dozens with my big-necked prefs. I’d say nearly 20% sported a bigger neck. Cool.
So - with the electrics, they were fine. Seriously, each delivered a great playing experience to different degrees (all unplugged; I don’t use an amp checking electrics unless I’m serious). I noticed a good playing experience, but nothing OMFG!! about baked this or Individual built that. More importantly, my homebrew Tele more than held up - as good a player and tweaked to my tastes. I have ~$1,200 into that guitar.
My point, which I have stated here is that to my mind, there is less difference between vintage / Custom Shop / Baked electrics and good ones you can acquire today. Sure, I’ve playing '59 Les Pauls and '56 Tele’s that were Fucking Amazing™, but you can build a guitar that gets really, really close. The Woo part of guitar wine-snobbery just seems to apply less to electrics.
With the acoustics, there were a few fine Martins and Gibsons. A small Martin 00-42 made with brick red Cocobolo (a hard, heavyish cousin to Brazilian rosewood ) and a great neck was the true standout. And a Taylor 12-fretter (I.e, 12 frets clear of the body, not 14; positions the bridge in a better spot on the top - richer tone) was great, but I wish it had more lows.
With acoustics, I got home and pulled out one of my old Martins. Huge, huge difference in tone. Just richer - harmonics, balanced across the strings, clarity - Adele after listening to Katy Perry. With acoustics, age matters - i.e., a guitar that is excellent will become excellenter with age ;). If the guitar is okay, it will benefit less, if at all.
Fun.
By the way, I hope that post doesn’t come across as “dropping the mic” - as in “ooo, I played pricey guitars and can talk wine-snobby about them!!”
I just like running the racks at guitar shops, whether it’s Guitar Center, a local Mom and Pop or a higher end shop like this. When you’ve done it enough - or don’t give a shit to begin with 
- pulling pricey guitars off the racks and giving them a run-through is no big deal and not something worth bragging about. Just collecting data.
If anyone has any questions about stuff, happy to discuss. I also tried 4-5 examples of Carbon Fiber guitars. They are impervious to weather and humidity, so having a CF beater could make a lot of sense. One has been getting some buzz - a “Kevin Michael by McPherson” - McPherson makes these ridiculously priced high end acoustics with offset soundholes. This guy KM apparently licensed his approach to making CF guitars to them. It goes for $2,400 but is 3/4 sized and meant to be a versatile travel guitar.
Meh. It was a bit less toy-like vs. the other CF’s I tried, but none of them was satisfying as a playing experience. If I was stuck for an extended period with no guitar, these would at least scratch my itch to play, but I would never invest in any of those guitars for a real travel guitar to take with me places. A Taylor GS Mini is far more satisfying; I just hate their narrow necks. I hear the Martin Dreadnaught Jr. is meant to be a GS-Mini beater with a 1 3/4" neck. Have to try one.
Note to self: field trip reports do not generate converstaion
Check this out: So what's the point of relief. - The Acoustic Guitar Forum
Interesting thread about the purpose of neck relief, the slight forward bow in a guitar neck that helps it play and fret easily up and down the neck. Lots of myths busted, e.g. the relief is there to allow for string travel, since it’s widest distance as it travels is in the middle. Not really. Pay attention to user Todd Yates, who is an expert on many guitar topics, and note the video in post #78 which shows how a plucked string actually travels.
Nah, it doesn’t come across that way, at least not to me. Even I, with my limited hearing, can hear big differences between the sounds of different acoustic guitars, and I usually learn something from detailed posts like yours. Anyhow, no true snob would ever play a Telecaster. 
One of my many cheap guitars is a '57 reissue Strat that was built in 1986 in the FujiGen plant for Fender. I’m sure I’ll never know the names of the Japanese dudes who assembled it - and I imagine many of them are no longer with us - but I really hope they took great satisfaction in what they were doing, because that guitar’s workmanship is the equal of any that was ever mass produced. If aging the wood truly benefits an electric, then this one has had 30 years of it - it sings like a 'roided up angel, and you can buy them all day for less than a grand.
I wonder if “roasting” the wood of an electric makes any difference in the end, or if it’s just another marketing gimmick? Back in '82 I wandered into Weinstein’s Pawnbrokers in DC, and $60 later was the proud owner of a gorgeous National Map Guitar with a Bigsby and a badly warped neck. I figured I’d take it home, pull the neck off, and gradually adjust the truss rod until it was straight. Then I’d have the awesomest punk rock guitar anybody ever saw, become famous and marry a beautiful move star, probably Geena Davis.
Well, when I got the strings off and screws out, I was in for a shock - no truss rod! No wonder the neck was all pretzel-shaped. Repairing it was beyond my ken, and as a result, Geena never called, obviously preferring to associate with men who knew what the **** they were doing.
That guitar, I’d guess, would’ve benefited from a roasted neck - the rest, of them, I’m not so sure about.
Were you able to tell the difference with the baked acoustics? If so, how?