G-String Music Guitar Neck Rest Review

Search on Amazon for “guitar neck rest” and among the many results you’ll see these cork-style neck rests being sold by several different vendors.

Visually, they all seem to be about the same: a block of cork made into a semi-wedge shape that includes 2 cutouts to cradle an acoustic or electric guitar’s neck (or a ukulele neck, bass neck, banjo neck, etc.).

So, if they’re all about the same, how to choose which one to test? Well, the G-String neck rest made it a pretty simple decision:

• It was the cheapest cork-style neck rest on Amazon
• The price included 10 non-slip guitar pick grips
• The name (c’mon… G-String… heh)

So, let’s dive in and take a look at what I received and let’s use it to do a little acoustic and electric guitar work.

Alright, enough about pick grips and whatnot. Let’s get down to business and put the neck rest into actual use. I tested the neck rest by doing a few basic maintenance tasks like changing strings, cleaning the fretboard, and polishing frets. For this, I used my 6-string acoustic and one of my 7-string electric guitars.

First, I used the G-String neck rest in the “high” position, which is necessary if you’re working on an acoustic guitar or any guitar that is thicker than an electric guitar. First, I simply loosened all the strings and held them out of the way with a wooden skewer.

With the strings out of the way, I polished the frets with my Frine Fret Polishing Kit and then cleaned and conditioned the fretboard with F-One oil. I didn’t have any issues performing these tasks and the neck rest held the guitar securely in place while I worked.

Without going crazy and hitting it with a hammer or running over the thing with my car, I wanted to subject the G-String neck rest to at least a little extra abuse to see if I could expose any obvious weaknesses.

So, first thing I did was try to break the cork with brute force. I essentially tried to snap the neck rest in half–or at least bust off a piece of it–by bending and twisting it as hard as I could. I’m admittedly not the strongest guy in the world, but the neck rest held up.

Next, using a junker guitar neck, I leaned as much of my upper body weight as possible on the neck rest. You’d never put this much pressure on a neck rest while doing basic DIY, but I was curious what might happen.

To its credit, nothing happened.

Next, I figured I’d just whack the sucker with the blunt-end of the guitar neck. I wasn’t hitting it as hard as possible here–I kept it conservative. I’m sure that if I’d used a hammer or really whacked it hard for an extended period I could’ve busted off a chunk, but that’s what I’d expect to happen so I didn’t see the point.

Lastly, I decided to toss the neck rest down my hallway a few times. I have hard, faux-wood porcelain tile floors. Again, nothing terribly abusive–just a couple casual waist-level tosses to see how it held up.

It held up fine. Just bounced around awkwardly and there was no resulting damage that I could see.

The G-String neck rest was small enough to fit easily inside my acoustic guitar case’s rather large accessory compartment–with plenty of room to spare. It didn’t, however, fit inside my electric guitar case. It was thick enough that the accessory door would not close.

Here are the exact dimensions of the neck rest:

• Height: 3 5/16 in.
• Width: 2 5/8 in.
• Length: 4 3/8in.

Admittedly, I’m being a little harsh by deducting 1.5 stars, but hear me out. The G-String Music neck rest works fine for typical 6-string guitars and 4-string basses–which accounts for about 95% of you out there. However, for the 5% of us who play extended-range guitars and basses (guitars with 7+ strings or basses with 5+ strings), the neck cradle just isn’t quite wide enough. The neck rest will work for 7-string guitars and 5-string basses, but they’re held less securely because they don’t sink snugly down into the neck cutout. For even wider necks like 8-string guitars or 6-string basses, I wouldn’t recommend this neck rest and would recommend you instead check out the Music Nomad neck rest.

I could’ve easily destroyed this neck rest by doing something silly–like running over it with my car or smashing it with a big hammer. But, I didn’t see the point since most basic guitar DIY won’t subject the neck rest to that kind of torture. So, I instead just got a little rough with it… twisting it, leaning on it with an old spare guitar neck, and tossing it onto my hard tile floors a few times. It held up well, but I deducted a star because, after all, it’s just cork.

This neck rest will easily fit in a bag, backpack, etc. and it’s made of cork so it’s very lightweight. The neck rest is small enough to fit easily inside the large accessory compartment of my acoustic guitar case. However, it didn’t quite fit in my electric guitar case. With the neck rest inside, my compartment’s lid wouldn’t close. This isn’t a big drawback though, because there are few rests out there that would fit inside my electric guitar case.

Because it’s soft, natural cork, it’s not going to damage the hard wood that guitar necks are made of. Nor will it damage the lacquer, as long as you keep the contact surfaces clean. That’s the only reason I deducted 1/2 star here–but it’s something that would be true of any neck rest. If there’s grime and grit on your neck rest, that debris can damage the lacquer and/or wood on the back of your guitar’s neck, so keep the neck rest clean.

Of all the similar cork-style guitar neck rests available on Amazon, this one was the cheapest. The fact that it includes the added non-slip pick grips is a bonus that adds to the overall value. All-in, this neck rest is a great value for the price. I deducted 1/2 star because there’s a neck rest made by D’Addario available that’s ultra-cheap. So, to be fair, there technically is a cheaper option out there, but that other product a very light-duty neck rest intended only for string changes, not for heavier use. I’ll be reviewing that one in the near future.

If you’re a 6-string guitar or 4-string bass player looking for a neck rest for restringing and basic DIY work, the G-String Music guitar neck rest is a great option. It should also work well for banjos and ukuleles. It’s a single hunk of cork that’s fairly durable yet lightweight. It’s the cheapest of the cork-style guitar neck rests you’ll find on Amazon, and since they’re all basically the same (or very similar) design, this one from G-String Music wins my vote as the best option of the bunch.