Pro-Mods, 1-piece neck

[jackson1]

About the Pro-Mods. All of them except the Wildcard has a 1-piece neck. 1-piece neck? No scarf joint or no separate fingerboard?

The Wildcard has a rosewood fingerboard as the only one in the series, so that might lead me to the answer, but I'd like your take on it.

[Grandturk]

Yes. They're built "one piece" style. The finger board is actually part of the neck. The truss rod is rear loaded and covered up with the skunk stripe. The rosewood board models are build the same way except the front is planed down and a slab fingerboard is added.

[jackson1]

Are there advantages to a 1-piece maple neck compared to a maple neck with a separate maple fingerboard glued on top? Advantages being for example cheaper to produce? Or is the reason for doing them as 1-piece more down to staying true to the old ways of making necks?

[Grandturk]

Well, Leo Fender pretty much invented the 1 piece construction method and it was a conscious engineering effort to save cost. Some of the benefits of multiple piece construction include using wood with opposing grain direction to help prevent warping. Further with a scarf joint for tilt back headstocks, you create a stronger construction than a single piece of wood that will help prevent breaks - a la Gibson necks.

This is less important with a strat style neck as they're pretty strogto begin with. The charvel upgrade is to use quarter sawn wood which is more stable than flatsawn.

[jackson1]

The benefits of multiple piece construction (or the absence of) was exactly why I started wondering about the Pro-Mods being 1-piece. Quartersawn... yes, I was delighted to see that being used on the series.

[Grandturk]

Lotsa tone-bean-counters will say thAt one piece necks have "more tone" because of "direct tone transfer" or some horse shit less glue = more tone gobblygook. yMmv