jfine wrote:The early-'70's ones were fairly flat and thin near the nut, but wider compared to the '60's necks, which were extremely narrow and thin with very low frets--350's had bigger frets. I bought a 350 new in '74--I'd have liked a bit more depth on the back of the neck, but it was still quite playable; I have a hard time with the tiny '60's necks. I'm not sure when the changeover occurred--by '74 the whole line had the wider necks. I never saw a 350 until I got mine, but they probably came out a little earlier, maybe '73. I'm pretty sure they were gone by '76.
What color is the one in your pic? All I can see is a headstock pic. I'm not sure how common maple necks were on those--I have seen at least one. Mine had a mahogany neck and body, as did a 350 bass that a friend of mine had. My guitar was brown sunburst--his bass was natural mahogany. It seems that the 350's I've seen with maple necks had solid-color bodies, but I haven't seen many; maybe one or two.
Thanks for the wealth of information! Unfortunately I was only concerned with getting photos of the string guide, so I don't have any pics of the whole guitar. I think it was reddish brown in color and ugly. I think I repressed the memory. I was just handling it today. (terrible I know). I took tracings of the neck for reference and attempted to use a contour gauge on the neck...
I got my 1/4 round string guides in the mail today from Bob Shade and they match the dimensions of the tracings I took. Maybe Bob's String guides are more wide than the Ventures model versions. Then again, 1/4 rounds where made for Later models like the Johnny Ramone and were probably wider than the old 1/2 rounds. Just Guessing, never held any of them.
By the way- Anyone know I the scale on the Ventures model are exactly 24 3/4 legnth? Or if the Scale is Gibson 24.625 as I have read elsewhere? Would be nice to have just a top down Neck PDF to print out and make a template from, but that search has proved fruitless.
