Reshaping a guitar neck?

[rabbit]

orri,

Congratulations and thanks for the report.
I have this in mind for an "unsuspecting victim."

[skykomishone]

...So I was wondering, is it a realistic option to have the neck reshaped? Is it something that is common to do to guitars after they are ready built?

I would preferably like to decrease both the neck's depth and the width (so I guess I'd also replace the nut for a narrower one), but only decreasing the depth would be nice too, I realize that decreasing the width would require narrowing the entire fretboard and shorten the frets. Would it perhaps affect the sound too much?

Orri,

Yes, it is realistic, and yes, it can be done after the guitar is built. It's your guitar, and you can do whatever you need or want to do to it. My own experience with this question arose a while back when I purchased a vintage guitar, knowing it would need a neck reset and new frets. The neck was also uncomfortably large in girth (thickness) so I decided to have the luthier make it the shape of a (more) modern jazz archtop. It is an old Gibson, and it felt like a baseball bat (Louisville Slugger), making my left hand hurt.

I measured the dimensions on the necks of other jazz archtops that I own and play that feel comfortable and enjoyable to play and wrote them down. I gave this information to the luthier and decided to go with the average (they were all very similar).

The neck was already going to be taken off to be reset, so this was the perfect time to do it. There was plenty of thickness to work with. The really old gibsons have a large 'D' profile.

The result was fabulous. As far as sound, it sounds fantastic. It was a small amount of wood taken off, and my old ears wouldn't know the difference hardly. All I know is that I love playing the guitar now.

So, congrats on the neck carve. Glad it worked out for you too!

Steve