New guitar or new neck?

[Larry Diehl]

Due to arthritis and nerve damage in my hands I am considering selling my 2005 Taylor 914ce and purchasing a Martin with a 1 11/16 nut and possibly a short-scale neck. I was wondering if an alternative might be to simply have the neck changed on my 914. I know there is much more involved than simply swapping out necks, and would appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

[Jim Bancroft]

It would be simpler and less expensive to just sell the guitar and purchase one that is more suitable.

Jim

[Larry Diehl]

Thanks Jim -
This may indeed be the way I have to go. Any thoughts on the best way to market and sell a guitar like mine? It's about 3 years old and in pretty much pristine condition. I'm guessing I would list it somewhere in the low $3K's - not a great price point in a down market environment, but I believe a good relative value for anyone looking for such an instrument.
Larry

[Donald A. Fortune]

I agree with what jim said :)
Donald

[Larry Diehl]

Thank you, Donald. I should have included you in my response to Jim Bancroft regarding the best way to sell a guitar like mine, if it comes to that. I recognize the 914ce has a good deal of 'decoration' that does not add to it's sound or playability, but it is a quite versatile guitar that seems to hold up equally well for fingerstyle and light strumming in the studio and on stage. Still, the economy being what it is today, I'm not sure of the most effective ways to market such a guitar. Any thoughts?
Larry

[Ronnie Nichols]

I don't disagree with what these other fellows say, but, if you like the tone of the Taylor there is another alternative that hasn't been mentioned. The existing neck could be thinned to achieve the desired width at the nut. It's a relatively simple operation by a qualified luthier. If it is a bound neck it may complicate things somewhat but it can be done. I've cut down several guitars and converted them to 5 string (banjo like) necks with good results. Just another thought from a different perspective.
Ronnie Nichols

[Larry Diehl]

Thank you for your reply, Ronnie. I'm intrigued by the concept of making my existing neck more playable for me. A couple of questions: Once the existing neck is thinned, is the string spacing also changed/reduced at the bridge? Also, once thinned, would there be an increased risk of the E strings slipping off the edge of the fretboard during play? Lastly, you mentioned that binding could complicate things. The 914 neck is in fact bound. Is this simply a matter of cost of repair or are there other considerations?
Larry

[Ronnie Nichols]

You shouldn't need to change the spacing at the bridge end. A sixteenth inch or so change at the nut shouldn't cause any problems at the saddle end. The neck binding complicates the repair considerably. It would probably be necessary to remove the neck binding and the frets. If it were an unbound neck you would probably not have to remove the frets. After removing the binding and frets the neck can be rehaped and the binding ledge recut. Of course, you'd have to refinish the neck, too. This is a considerable amount of work but it still may be cheaper and more practical than trying to get a new neck.( I'm unsure whether Taylor sells replacement necks.) The nut would also need to be replaced with a narrower string spacing. You would still leave the same amount of space between the edge of the fingerboard and the outermost strings as you had before. This would insure that your strings don't slide off the edge when they are noted. This may not be practical for you and what the other guys said about getting another guitar may prove to be the best solution. I guess it depends on how attached you are to this particular guitar. I hope your repair goes well should you choose to go that route.
Ronnie Nichols

[Russell Vance]

Larry, I presume the neck is what Taylor call a 'new technology' neck (a bolt on) - I service Taylors and repair them for the major shops in the city and have replaced a number of necks with a factory provided replacement neck with absolutely no drama - Taylor are very responsive and professional with their service and support. A new neck is a lot cheaper than a new guitar and can be modified to you particular specifications.

I suggest you call and write them direct with your problem and ask for a replacement neck blank; shaped but not finished so it can be contour.thickness finished, radiused and and fretted to your specification. I cannot say they will accept this approach but they certainly have been helpful in the past and the bolt on solution is a good one. This way you can keep your exiting neck to replace should you ever wish to sell the instrument and you can also have a neck built to suit your particular requirements.

But, Should it all turn to worms and Taylor act busy or something, contact me via the forum here and I will send you, gratis except for shipping, a near new Taylor neck (removed under warranty due minor glitch) for your luthier to reconfigure to your spec.

Some things that are peripheral to this,and some that are left field are whether you are using a 'Thermoskin' or similar neopreme part glove to assist with your hands - these things work. And should you go ahead with a new neck profile might I suggest you change the radius of the fingerboard to a more rounded (say 12" versus the normal 16" inch) which will make chording more comfortable and depending on whether you are a finger picker of a chord player you might like to think about a back profile on the neck that conforms to your grip and maybe makes your reach a little shorter (soft V has less shoulders and makes the grip distance shorter for instance). Simply reconfiguring the back profile for a shorter reach often makes the neck feel skinny and the width becomes less a problem (and the string spacing can remain the same).
Other things to consider are whether you are playing with an amp - if you are not you may consider putting in a quality transducer system (Taylors come configured for quick install of Fishman transducers which I can recommend) and using a lighter gauge string amplified to get the volume while reducing the stress on your hands. Some will complain that this is not optimum but I suggest that playing comfortably is better than playing in pain or not at all. Similarly, Martin make a low tension string (called 'Fingerstyle' and another brand name I can't recall) which has a lighter feel than the standard tension for the same gauge. You might also consider changing your strap length a notch or two to get the guitar up a bit and change the angle of your wrist and fingers to the guitar which make help, or may not as, is the case.

I'm also sure there are many out there that have much more knowledge on this subject than I and invite their contributions to assist our colleague here.

Regards, Rusty

[Larry Diehl]

Thank you, Rusty for also addressing my small/ailing/aging hands in your response. I will certainly look into your recommendations. I will also contact you to accept your gracious offer to send me a Taylor neck should I decide to go that way - thank you!

FYI, I am 61 years old and have been playing pretty much all of my life beginning with the uke at 4 years old until I could hold and chord my Dad's old Kay guitar. Through the years I've played and performed (with a huge break in the middle when I went off to manage some operations for HP) various styles and have purchased - and in some cases - traded my share of instruments. It wasn't till the last couple of years that the condition of my hands began to heavily influence the kind of guitar/neck I can play without pain. I am primarily a fingerstyle player but I do use a pick from time to time as the situation suggests. When I bought the Taylor in '05, I also sort of bought into the notion that I had to have a wider (1 3/4) nut and string spacing to play effective fingerstyle. I have since learned that this is an individual thing based on numerous variables.

I purchased the Taylor new with the factory installed Expression System. I play it through a Fender Acoustasonic amp via a Baggs, Para Acoustic D. I. pre-amp with no real complaints - except for at times missing some of those signature 'Martin' tones.

To help me make my rebuild or buy decision I would appreciate a ballpark figure on what you might charge for such a neck transplant. As with most things, I'm sure it depends on its own set of variables, it's just that I have no feel for what something like this runs.

Thanks in advance, Rusty, and thanks for getting through my wordy response to your reply!
Larry

[Russell Vance]

Larry I'm out in Australia, I can send you a neck but suggest you hook up with a closer luthier who can do the hands on work. We're kind of low rent out here - a neck recontour around 100, Refinish a stripped neck in nitro (Taylor use a mat/satin UV cured poly) around 100, reradius, refret new nut around 350. Bear in mind that Taylor necks are mostly bound and anything other than a 1/32 off each side is going to require rebinding. Alternatively I guess you could remove the whole binding strip in width and take about an eight of an inch of the neck width which may be a bit drastic. Fit and install is next to nix as its v.simple to put a Taylor bolt-on in place (there are some propriety shims that Taylor use to fine tune the neck and you can get these from Taylor if necessary. Tell me how you go with Taylor and gis a call on forum for my contact details if you need the neck. Regards, Rusty.

[Alys and Simcha]

If I may offer my 0.02..... With the generous offer of a 'free' spare neck, maybe custom shaping it and fitting it to your existing body would be a useful way to go.
Also, from my own experience of playing guitar and mandolin with a slightly arthritic first finger joint, I find it helpful to continue the curve of the back of the neck slightly into the edge of the fingerboard ( so the widest part of the neck is roughly level with the bottom of the fret slots - this is a very small and subtle amount of shaping ).
Also I find it helpful to place the first string not too close to the edge of the fretboard. Even 1/64 shift here can make playing more comfortable on some instruments. Sometimes this change will require a new nut with slightly narrowed string spacing - but often there's more space than needed on the bass side, and it only needs the same nut shifted over slightly.
Also.... Newtone strings in England sent me a sample set of Heritage strings a few months ago, which somehow managed to feel softer and more flexible than their regular sets of the same gauge. I didn't change over to these because I found I couldn't push them quite so hard in the heat-of-the-moment onstage - I have grown accustomed to stiffer and heavier strings. But for a fingerstyle player with hand problems, or anyone who plays sensitively on a sensitive guitar, they could be just the thing...... http://www.newtonestrings.com/acoustic_page.htm. (scroll down)