Neck-thru/Bolt-on?

[~K~]

Neckthroughs have a ton of advantages over bolties IMHO:

I don't agree I think each has its own positives and negatives

1) less susceptible to "rising hump" on the fretboard

I've never noticed this in any of my boltons, so I'm not exactly sure or what you are referring to here. Are you talking about a bump arising due to a heel adjuster tross rod?

2) better sustain

This point has been argued to death and I'd have to say I've owned both and I've had clunkers with no sustian and great bolt ons with tons of tone and sustain. My Mahoagny MZ Charvel for instance has tons of sustain.

The fact is though it really doesn't matter a ton because of the high gain amps most players use now. Unless you are playing acoustically or drastically low I doubt seriously that you would notice THAT much ...

Lastly on this subject Neal Moser some time ago did a post stating he believed neck woods played a huge role in the tone of a guitar, more so than body wood. The theory was that most of the resonation comes from the vibration of the neck as is is much thinner. This is something I've noticed in varying guitars IE: Birdseye necks VS Quarter sawn or even the Eastern hard rock maple used in the old San Dimas Charvel VS the Maple used in the model series. imo the woods are each a very different density. I'd tend to believe that plays more of a role in sustain and tone than bolt vs neck thru

3) better access to high frets because of a slimmer heel

Not always true, guitar manufacturers have gone the route of doing recessed and taper heels to counter that. While you will never get the same transisition that a neck through has you can get a countoured heel that is much more comfortable than those of days past

4) neck never misaligned on body

Can't argue that point at all. But what I can tell you is that you have a better chance of aligning a misaligned neck on a bolton that a misaligned (Factory) neck on a neckthrough... I believe that would require a new guitar to be built... Yeah I know impossible right ...Jackson never makes a mistake

5) Cannot have bogus neckplate and S/N (ok so that doesn't really apply much in this case)

Yep another great point, I guess it would be really hard to buy a set of 1/8" metal stamps and change numbers or forge numbers on a fake neckthrough. While it isn't as likely it isn't as hard as you would think to do that ...


6) Can paint in a way that flows into the body

Not sure what you mean by this one .. What I can say is that it is much easier to send a bolton body for paint because you don't have to ship an entire guitar ..

7) Usually don't develop neck pocket cracks in finish

Nope you are 100% correct on this one but lets be fair here. It doesn't impede playabilty and usually it isn't very visible. Most boltons will usually deleop this problem but unless you are looking for it then it really don't stand out and doesn't normally hurt the guitar.

8) No neck plate to interfere with strap button placement

The only guitars I remember having a strap button placed on the neck plate were the old Stars. I'm sure there have been a few others and Jackson pros would know that more than I would. Warriors? Kelly's?

I've never had a problem with my neck plates interfering with my strap buttons placement on my strats that I know of ...


The bottom line is this age old argument comes down to preference and beyond that there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. I don't believe either option has it 100% over the other ...

You could make the case that if you have a neckthrough with a back bowed neck it is junk vs a replaced neck on a bolton. Or the fact that a lot of gear heads love to mod their guitar and can swap out dfferent styles of neck easily. If you prefer oil vs paint unless you are getting a custom shop neck through you either have to find it as a rare option or strip it yourself ... etc ...


Marty Friedman - neckthru Kelly
Steve Vai - Soloist
Randy Rhoads - Concorde
Jeff Loomis - neckthru Rhoads
Alexi Laiho & Roope Latvalla - neckthru Rhoads
Zakk Wylde - neckthru Rhoads
Vinnie Vincent - VVV
Troy Stetina - Soloist
Kirk Hammet - neckthru Rhoads
Buckethead - custom King V
Rusty Cooley - 7 string Soloist

Are Kurts esp's bolt or neck?

How bout

Steve Vai "Green Meanie or his Jems"
Warren Demartini
Jake E Lee
Paul Gilbert
Bruce Kulick
Satriani
Eric Johnson
Yngwie "unleash the fookin fury" Malmsteen
Nuno Bettencourt
EVH
George Lynch

etc ..

[VitaminG]

Kev, that list wasn't designed to illustrate any kind of superiority of neckthru guitars over the bolt-on. Not at all. As I said, I agree it's entirely a matter of preference.

I was just refuting the assertion that:

all the best players,all the best guitars have been bolt on users.

[~K~]

No worries G it wasn't a shot it was more about balance and preference. These arguments tend to be no different than the Jackson vs ESP vs Ibanez arguments ...

If I fell into those traps I'd miss out on plaiyng some pretty nice guitars over the years

[VitaminG]

No worries G it wasn't a shot it was more about balance and preference. These arguments tend to be no different than the Jackson vs ESP vs Ibanez arguments ...

cool. I didn't take it as one, but just wanted to clarify

If I fell into those traps I'd miss out on plaiyng some pretty nice guitars over the years

absolutely! Which reminds me.... I've got some research to do on a non-JC guitar

[Axewielder]

Great points on both sides! I don't look at it from a "which is better" perspective at all. I own both bolt-ons and neck-thrus, love them all, and I find the strengths and weaknesses of each quite interesting. Anyone designing a custom shop guitar would do well to read this thread.

[sl2lover]

Fuck you all! Neck-thrus rule! For metal anyway! But then again that's just my opinion!

[Zerberus]

For a First build I´d recommend Bolt on or getting a Setw-Mac / Carvin blank for a neckthru.

As a Player I prefer Neckthrus for the most part, but all of my best guitars save one are Bolt-on

[Newc]

a set-neck uses glue to combine different woods and some frequences (usually the upper and lower parts of the frequency curve) are absorbed by the glue.

How many people here have actually seen how a set-neck is put together? The neck tenon is not sloppy in the pocket and held in the middle by glue. It's a tight enough joint that all it needs is a little glue to keep the strings from pulling it out of the pocket (which are at a very high tension, if you've never noticed).

Of course this applies to high-quality guitars, not those Korean/Chinese jobbies.

And if glue is soooo bad, why aren't neckthroughs being slammed? You are aware that the head, neck, body tenon, and wings are all glued together?

[secks]

I'm sorry but can you tell me if there is a single word in my post that I have mentioned set-necks as inferior? I have several standard and reissue les pauls that I have paid several thousand US$ in the first place

In short, glue is not "sooooo bad" at all, it just has its own character.

[thetroy]

bolt-ons are cheaper that is why I play them - simple economics

[skarhead]

they all have pros and cons and I prefer to look at the sonic differences. a bolt-on lets you combine two (or more) different woods without loosing wood-to-wood contact, (...) a neck thru has many advantages ergonomically but doesn't let you to combine different woods (wings don't count btw)

3 or 5 piece neck through ? i.e. 3 pieces of maple and 2 of whatever would you like ?

Lastly on this subject Neal Moser some time ago did a post stating he believed neck woods played a huge role in the tone of a guitar, more so than body wood. The theory was that most of the resonation comes from the vibration of the neck as is is much thinner.

I can only agree with that - I've played some guitars with 11pc necks - no harmonics , very dead sounding - think too much glue killed the neck.

[secks]

3 or 5 piece neck through ? i.e. 3 pieces of maple and 2 of whatever would you like ?

If you consider a scarf neck or a sandwich neck made of thin stripes of whatever wood a combination ... well, litterally you may and as I have absolutely no experience with such a guitar, I can't make any comment on it. People keep saying its a major improvement for neck stability, etc but I simply see it as an effort to decrease the wood waste and hence decrease material costs. Plus it must have a significant effect on storage costs as well. What I think is, if it is good for the guitar company, it must be bad for me.

Basically what I was referring to is a solid combination such as a bubinga neck, mahogany body with a thick maple cap. And I said wings don't count because the neck wood will be so domimant tonewise that the wing wood's effect will be negligeable.

And please note that I never say "never" or "always" when talking about guitars.

[GodOfRhythm]

If you consider a scarf neck or a sandwich neck made of thin stripes of whatever wood a combination ... well, litterally you may and as I have absolutely no experience with such a guitar, I can't make any comment on it. People keep saying its a major improvement for neck stability, etc but I simply see it as an effort to decrease the wood waste and hence decrease material costs. Plus it must have a significant effect on storage costs as well. What I think is, if it is good for the guitar company, it must be bad for me.

Basically what I was referring to is a solid combination such as a bubinga neck, mahogany body with a thick maple cap. And I said wings don't count because the neck wood will be so domimant tonewise that the wing wood's effect will be negligeable.

And please note that I never say "never" or "always" when talking about guitars.

Multipieced necks are considered to be highly esthetic and usually find only on more expensive models or boutique customs. A 9 or 10pc neck with birdseye maple, mahogany, purpleheart, rosewood, etc etc is definitly not cheaper....but as said if you go overboard things aren't going to 'gell'.

[secks]

Why do you think it's more expensive to construct a sandwich neck? First of all you may use less stable wood because you will be decreasing your chance of a warped neck by increasing the number of pieces glued together and arranging the fiber grains such that they will create opposite forces if they tend to warp. Second, simply gluing the pieces and then sending the whole block to the cnc machine is not much labor intensive than carving a neck from a single piece of properly dried and decently stable wood and glue should be cheap anyway. Third, you will also be decreasing your raw material costs because finding/storing/drying a larger defect free piece of wood is harder than a thin board. These are my personal opinions, as I said I have no personal experience with such a neck.

Finally they may be aesthetic for some people (not me) but what may be the sonic characteristic of a 11 piece neck anyway?

[~K~]

Bottom line ..It takes more time and time = money