Shredneck Practice Guitar Neck Review

Hello!

A lot of strange stuff comes through the Rex and the Bass studio, and today we are looking at one of the weirder ones – the Shredneck. This is a practice tool that is designed to help improve strength and dexterity in your playing hand, as well as helping to build or maintain calluses.

How weird is it? Just look at the pictures. It is a chunk of guitar neck with tuners on the end. You get seven frets to play with, so you can master the cowboy chords in no time flat. I got the electric style model, which has a 1 11/16-inch wide nut. I have no idea what it is made of, though the fretboard appears to be ebony or rosewood with no discernable grain. There are not really any specs on their website about what it is made of. It has a nice feel, with a C-profile that does not feel like any of my Strats, Teles or Les Pauls.

When you play it, it does not sound like a guitar, or even terribly musical. How could it? With such a short scale length the frets would have to be stupidly close together to make it sound like a guitar, so just tune it so the strings feel like the same tension as your regular guitar and go to town. The headstock acts as the body, and there is some felt stuck to the end so it does not slide off your knee. There are also strap pins, but I am not sure how you would ever use them. <p>And, you know what? It works pretty darned well. For my left had, it feels like a guitar, and I can sit there and noiseless fret chords while chatting on the phone or watching TV in the hotel room. It is pretty cool to keep my fingers in shape and my calluses nice and thick while on the road or when parking my butt in otherwise useless situations.

The one I got is relatively well built. The fret ends are good, and it is a solidly made piece of work from China. I would buy one of these things, but there are a couple of issues here. I know it is not terribly expensive, but I cannot forgive the fairly obvious finish flaws in the sparkly gold paint, the rough routing job and the bubbly felt on the end of the headstock. The quality of Squier and Epiphone beginner electric guitars is better, and you get a whole guitar for a few dollars more. The Shredneck folks either need to reduce their price point or up their production standards. Maybe both.

The Shredneck comes with a nice carry case, and it would certainly be easy enough to throw in a briefcase or carry-on bag for your next flight. One nice add-on is the tuner tips which fit over the ends of the tuner posts to cover up pointy string ends that could puncture your hand or snag on your sweater. All of this can be yours for the low price around 65 bucks from Amazon (MSRP $99.99).

If you like the concept of this tool, it is also available in models that approximate the feel of 7-string electrics, acoustics and basses, as well as a model that simulates playing in the upper registers. Also, if you have a hankering to get one that is inspired by your favorite artist (Zakk Wylde, etc.) they might be able to hook you up.

Try before you buy, and see what you think!

Mahalo!