Guitar necks can be slim or fat or anything in between, and it’s a matter of personal taste as to what’s best for you. With just about any Les Paul I’ve ever picked up and played, the neck is fine as it is. In other words, I haven’t really felt a Les Paul neck I didn’t like the feel of, so I don’t really have a preference for my fantasy signature model Les Paul’s neck. Just give me a stock neck and I’m good, as far as the feel is concerned.

When I was describing the body of the Les Paul I’d like, I expressed a preference for binding on the body. Aesthetically, it might be a good idea to carry that look down the neck with neck binding. Binding on the neck costs more money, I presume, and on that basis I could forego the neck binding. What I do insist on though, are large clear fret markers on the side of the neck, whether it’s sporting binding or not.
For the fretboard, ebony is lovely, but expensive, so rosewood or just about any substitute works fine for me. I like the look of small dot fret markers, but I actually find they can be very hard to see under some stage lighting conditions, and yes, sometimes I do need to see the frets. That means I want the big block inlays, please.

The nut doesn’t have to be anything special for me. Plastic is fine ,bone is nice, but really plastic works for me. For the tuning pegs, I like silver “kidney” Grovers. They’re reliable, they look good, and they’ll last a long time.

Fret wire can be whatever. I’ve played fretless wonders, I’ve played jumbo fretted Les Paul’s, it’s all good. I don’t really have a preference,
So far I’ve described the body and the neck for my imaginary signature model Les Paul. Actually, the specs described on this (exclusive to Guitar Center shops) Les Paul Studio Deluxe ’60s sound great. Actually, they sounded so good I went and checked out Guitar Center’s web site, but what I found, although it matches the specs, looks ugly compared to the beauty pictured on Gibson’s site. from Gibson’s site, the Les Paul Studio Deluxe ’60sWhat’s up with that?

Tomorrow I’ll fiddle around with the electronics and upset a few purists.