fat yamaha neck,small hands

[alex johan]

hi frets friends, I recently bought a rusty yamaha acoustic at a yard sale. I straightened the neck and lowered the action but with my little hands the neck seems to thick. im spoiled by 63 j45. can I carefully modify this neck? if so how and how far? otherwise it sounds good and id rather do the rougher gigs with it.

[charley erck]

So,at these rough gigs, what sort of situations do you get into? If self defense is called for , you might want to change the neck to a solid steel version . These are much more break resistant and Frank can run one off in the machine shop.

If it's just a matter of flying bottles, then you could ask the management to install chicken wire or simply use a catcher's mask. 

 If you just slim down the existing neck, be sure and stop whittling when you hit metal!

[alex johan]

Like turning it up till it feeds back, then bring it down 1 notch?

[alex johan]

ive often thought about making my own personal size shield of chicken wire on a stick

[charley erck]

Yea,thanks , Alex, for taking my smart remarks in good humor.

Thinning a neck might be interesting,maybe someone has tried it?

[Kerry Krishna]

 I had this work done by a Luthier in Winnipeg in the 80s. He took a bit off the back of the neck, BUT he had to phone Jean personally to ask how much he could take off. It turned a definite 'C" shaped neck and turned it into more of a flattened "C", fat U. It worked amazingly well, and the axe never even needed a truss rod tweak! 

 

[charley erck]

Larivee' of course?

[alex johan]

Ah, the canadian built guitar.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

You can shave it with a rasp. Remove a millimeter and give it a try. If it's ok then go to sandpaper and the finish of your choice.

[alex johan]

im a simple man charley. obviously not as intelligent as you experts,however I do like smart comments as long as they are witty. good job

[alex johan]

success. most of the thickness was the 1/4 inch layer of japanese varnish. sanded the neck down till it felt good. now it looks like willie nelsons guitar. yamaha likes to stain the cheap wood the color of mohagany.