Neck shape, Tribute Asats vs USA

[NickHorne]

I just had the pleasure of trying some Tribute Asats, and they're great.

I would be grateful if anyone could advise whether the neck profile around the nut area is the same on the USA Asats; I have a Will Ray model Asat which is a lifetime keeper, and although I am now looking for a guitar with a wider neck, now that my hands are getting older along with the rest of me, I do generally like the shape of the WR neck quite well apart from needing more width. Wider and a bit thicker would be perfect!

Anyhow, these Tributes I was trying all had a substantially thicker section behind the nut than the WR, like they stepped back into quite a thick part before resolving into the headstock. Not quite a "volute", but a noticeable adjustment to thumb in first position.
Are the regular USA Asats like this? I know my WR has a relatively thin headstock, and also has what, I believe, is known as a "Comanche" neck. Its transition from neck to headstock is pretty smooth. Are the other USA necks similar?
What I'm after is an Asat with a wider (and, if it's possible, thicker) neck, but not necessarily the bigger nut-end chunk that's on the Tributes.

I understand that a dual-acting truss design may increase stress in this area; is this perhaps a necessary design factor that must be accepted?

I hasten to say that I don't mean that as a criticism of the Tributes in any way; I think they're absolutely great, and this is a minor matter. I'd just be grateful if I could fine-tune the minor matters of what is my "advancing years" custom order; opportunities for readjusting it diminish exponentially from here on out!!!

Best,
NH

[NickHorne]

Sorry! That was really unnecessarily complicated!
What I meant to ask can be boiled down to:

Are USA Asat necks thicker front-to-back where they meet the headstock than other G&L guitar neck patterns?
And if so, are they any less bulky there than the Tributes?

The main neck section being thick front-to-back never bothered me (love it, in fact).
It's just having to move my thumb off the centre-back when playing near the nut that I could do without if possible.
Not a deal-breaking issue, but it would help me put this custom order together if I could gather all the relevant knowledge so I can make informed decisions.
There's just so few G&L's here in England, to gather info from.

Best,
Nick

[NickHorne]

Very respectfully, Bump!?...

If anyone could contribute some info on this I'd really be grateful.
I'm about to commit a couple of thousand UK notes on a new order, from a country (remember England?) where there aren't many G&L reference points available.
I have a WR, and I love everything about it, apart from wishing for a slightly wider neck at the nut for my big paws. She has a home with me for life, though. Fantastically good guitar.

I want to make a "Classic" Tele type this time. A really first-go-to working Clarence-White-bendercaster-lovely-Tele with a B-Hipshot.
The Tributes I recently tried totally reassure me that a USA Classic is going to do do the feel and sounds of this brilliantly.

It's probably hard to believe USA-side, but when I ask this, we're so short of reference-points in the UK that it almost feels like my childhood when there weren't any Fenders or anything like them in England in the late 1950's; there's just not that many G&L's here. (But good to be reminded of making a ONE-PIECE-NECK-AND-BODY solid bass in school carpentry class, from an Afrormosia drainboard, with toy trainset rails for frets, because there was no other way to get my hands on one in 1962..)

Having said that, Tony at Gotoguitars here in UK has really been great with helping me with Tributes to try, to help with choosing the spec for my order; he's doing a good++ job over here for G&L's.

But for my order, I still don't know whether I'm going to just get a neck like my WR only wider (my number 4 neck spec), which would be perfect, or whether it will be thick behind the nut like the Tributes I've tried. I don't mind thick overall, I really like it, but just not like a volute-type bump behind the nut like those otherwise-great Tributes. Maybe G&L neck profiles for Asats have changed since my WR? Or Tribute neck shapes are different from USA's? Or the USA WR has always been unlike other Asats? I'm struggling a bit with this!

I love my WR to bits; I just want my new G&L Classic Tele axe to be wider.

The Tribute neck shape is perfectly sensible, but not my personal thing like the WR is.

I can't seem to find a USA G&L Asat Classic to try within spare-time driving range in a working week, so I'm still seeking USA-wise knowledge from this little CLF-free-zone of an island country!

Sincere gratitude for sound advice, anyone.

[Craig]

But for my order, I still don't know whether I'm going to just get a neck like my WR only wider (my number 4 neck spec), which would be perfect, or whether it will be thick behind the nut like the Tributes I've tried. I don't mind thick overall, I really like it, but just not like a volute-type bump behind the nut like those otherwise-great Tributes. Maybe G&L neck profiles for Asats have changed since my WR? Or Tribute neck shapes are different from USA's? Or the USA WR has always been unlike other Asats? I'm struggling a bit with this!

I love my WR to bits; I just want my new G&L Classic Tele axe to be wider.

The Tribute neck shape is perfectly sensible, but not my personal thing like the WR is.

Based upon these parts of your post, it sounds like you would want to order the USA ASAT Classic with the #4 neck.
The #4 neck should have the same shape and depth as your WR Signature which is a #1 neck.
There are no neck options on the Tribute models; they are all 1 5/8" width at the nut (except for the Jerry Cantrell
Tribute Rampage, which has a 1 3/4" width at the nut).

Hope this helps.

[NickHorne]

Brilliant, Craig, thank you!
Best,
Nick