Yeah, Hans... I was just thinking out loud, and you're right maple necks were nothing new. What you and WiW are saying makes sense; nut width is just variable due to sanding.
WiW, as for the wings, I didn't know that was true on all the models. Thanks. Also, that was an interesting comment about Martin. Their headstocks may not flare as widely as Guilds do at the crown, but they *do* indeed have wings on many of them. You should hear those guys bitch and moan about it over in the UMGF. Ridiculous. The amount of wood saved by using this technique is clearly a big win. You'd think they'd appreciate that kind of thinking (some do, I guess, others bemoan it). I think Guild did a pretty good job with the wings I've seen; clearly some care was taken to try to match things up.
Taylor chose a different route; they cut the headstock from a different piece of wood and join it to the neck. Needless to say, that joint has raised its share of eyebrows over the years. More nonsense. Although, I must say, this finger joint that I had on my maple neck is really quite visible in certain light (I guess in this case I'd go for wings over the finger joint if I had a choice). In mahogany, you almost can't spot it at all though... These days, Taylor uses a scarf joint which almost has the appearance of a volute. Most folks don't object to that.
