Standard necks

[tommy p]

I'm jonesing for a Standard but wondering about the neck size. I'm primarily a LP player and am fine with 50's or 60's size necks. I have some other guitars with smaller necks that I'm OK with, but I have an 80's Special with what feels to be a noticeably smaller neck. I've seen comments about "pencil-neck" Hamers, and don't know if that's Hamer's norm for the 80's, for certain models like Specials, or what. Heck, mine might not even be that small - it may just be that it's not what I was used to.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

[cmatthes]

I've owned two '79 Standards, an '83, a '91, a '95 and an '08. Not a single neck in the bunch was what I'd consider to be small, or a "pencil neck". The three 4-digits were all pretty similar, but were slightly more narrow than the later ones. The '91 was wider, flatter and thinner (back to board), but was by no means an anemic neck. The later guitars were pretty much the "50s style" or "Vintage Carve".

The older the guitar, the more individual variation I'd expect. The guitars in the last 10 years or so are pretty darned consistent.