neck thru question?

[withmyshadow]

maybe someone asked this before:
if you look closely at the neck joint it seems the center piece is maple on alder? is that how they make neck thrus?
I am not complaining because this makes it sound more set-neck-ish since the neck pickup route.

[DenimBrigade]

Re: neck thru question?



I had wondering something similar. It always seemed to me a neckthru guitar should have a one peice neck. I understand they are different, but seems a little silly to me to glue together multiple peices of wood then make that neckthru, its practically a set neck. I feel like I could take a set neck guitar and shave down the heel for similar results. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[Carbophos]

Re: neck thru question?

First of all, it's virtually impossible to find straight, and tonally great piece of wood that is long AND wide enough to form a neck-through. Wood is not consistent that much. So there are two basic options - glue together long strips (most vendors go this way) or wide (and still pretty long) "blocks".

Wide strips are sliced at very sharp angles, so the surface of the joint between them is very big. And that's enough to transfer the lengthwise vibrations between them with minimum loss.

The set neck means that you use a sort of dove-tail joint and the surface of the joint is a kinda of "bottle-neck" compared to quartesawn neckthrough. And its connected to the body first and foremost with left and right sides of dove-tail.

Shaving out the heel affects the tone. Lesser overall mass of joint means worse vibrartions transfer. Q-sawn neckthru can afford "no-heel" joint because the transfer goes through a bigger joint. In case of set or bolted neck there's a limit. And that's why on many guitars there are still no sculpted/scalloped heels.

[HoWheels]

Re: neck thru question?

Just an observation.
I believe what we are looking at is a veneer on the rear of the guitar. This is done for cosmetic reasons so that the back appears as one, continuous piece of wood.

I'm not so sure I'd agree with the previous post about it being difficult to find a piece of wood that's wide enough and long enough to be used in a neck-thru guitar ... I've seen hundreds of neck-thru guitars with a single piece of wood for the neck [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

Heck I've even seen a few guitars where the entire guitar is carved out of a single piece of wood!

-a

[Zerberus]

Re: neck thru question?

[ QUOTE ]
Just an observation.
I believe what we are looking at is a veneer on the rear of the guitar. This is done for cosmetic reasons so that the back appears as one, continuous piece of wood....

[/ QUOTE ]

Can´t be a veneer, because the grain goes halfway up the heel. Also, you can clearly see the 3 pieces....

[Chrisb]

Re: neck thru question?

[ QUOTE ]
First of all, it's virtually impossible to find straight, and tonally great piece of wood that is long AND wide enough to form a neck-through.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is not really true, alot of guitars have straight neck thru's. Hell my BC Rich import neck thru is straight thru. I've seen quite a few jacksons that are as well. Some look like the one pictured though, alot in fact. I've always wondered why. If you look at the back of the two firebirds someone just sold here in the classifieds, I bet you would see a straight thru neck. Just a guess but most firebirds I've seen have that. This guitar pictured almosts looks like what McNaught and other guitar makers refer to as a "set thru" neck. Driskill does this as well. I don't know completely how its done but alot of guitar builders think its the best of both worlds.

But a point of note, there is nothing wrong with multiple piece neck thru's (laminated). 3-10 piece necks are actually extremely stable, in many cases thats why people pay the extra for them. Also it allows you to use stronger stiffer woods to reinforce what might be a weaker softer wood. For example in the GMW thread they showed a picture of a guitar lee was working on with a 9 piece neck. Purpleheart (extremely stiff, strong wood that is often use to reinforce multi laminate necks), Flamed Maple and Cocobolo, a soft rosewood that might be problematic with a single piece or even 3 piece neck thru. The flamed maple is an accent and the marriage of purpleheart and cocobolo would presumably give you incredible tone and outstanding stability. I plan to get a laminate neck on one of my neck thru customs some time down the road.

[withmyshadow]

Re: neck thru question?

this's pix of "set-thru" by you-know-whos. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
they do look similar.

[NextInLine]

Re: neck thru question?

If that wasn't a trans. finish noone would think about what it is. If I'm not blind that's a sl2h which is considered a neck-thru guitar. Everyone has some expectations from certain specifications, so when you play the guitar if it feels and sounds like a neck-thru one. It is a neck-thru one, or even if it isn't who cares [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[shredmonster]

Re: neck thru question?

[ QUOTE ]
Shaving out the heel affects the tone. Lesser overall mass of joint means worse vibrartions transfer. Q-sawn neckthru can afford "no-heel" joint because the transfer goes through a bigger joint. In case of set or bolted neck there's a limit. And that's why on many guitars there are still no sculpted/scalloped heels.

[/ QUOTE ]

DUDE WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I have been trying to find an answer to this question for a long time on this and several other forums and no one seems to know.

I have been wondering if an All Access Neck Joint style heel ie. Ibanez - transfers tone and sustains as well as the more traditional Fender or Charvel design. My logical suspiscion was that an AANJ would not transfer as well and reduce sustain.

But some guitar builders disagree. The said as long as you had a tight connection of the neck to the body it should make no difference. I was wondering this because it will determine what kind of neck joint I am going to get on my next custom.

I have a Jackson custom shop based on the PC1 - I also have a PC1. I got a Demon body style which is an archtop.
There are 2 differences between those guitars. 1) Demon has 3/8" Maple Top instead of 1/8" and 2) Neck Heel is much larger - not as scalloped and longer.
Everything else is almost identical - same Floyd, same neck and fingerboard, same body wood, etc... Both have the same bridge pick up.
There is a significant difference in clarity, tone and sustain. The Demon is much more focused and has better harmonics than the Ibanez Jem I use to have.
I'm sure some of it is because of the thicker maple top but I was thinking the neck heel might have something to do with it also.

[wilkinsi]

Re: neck thru question?

"In case of set or bolted neck there's a limit. And that's why on many guitars there are still no sculpted/scalloped heels."

ah, the WRMG missed out on a scalloped heel for a good reason. i wondered why it had more sustain than my DXMG. i thought that was only because it had a thicker neck. cheers for the info. makes me appreciate my WRMG more.

[Chrisb]

Re: neck thru question?

Thats probably why if you look at the Jackson sculpted heel and horn (custom option) its less about carving away the heel block but sculpting the pocket below the neck joint. I'll know for sure when I get my custom how the jackson sculpted heel affects the tone, I suspect it won't be any different from the neck thru usa's I've played. Ibanez AANJ is quite different from the Jackson sculpted heel though. Theirs is a very small joint designed to have less mass. The jackson one is contoured to allow fret access. Big difference.

[withmyshadow]

Re: neck thru question?

did you guys see these pix of their jackson/fender tour?
http://www.themusiczoo.com/music_zoo_visits_fmic.htm

[jimjones]

Re: neck thru question?

Its just a cost saving measure. They arent wasting as much wood and they dont have to spend time carving it out.

[DenimBrigade]

Re: neck thru question?

I think it would be alot nicer if they did a liminated style neck. 3 peices with opposing grain, it would be really strong, not require as much wood and would look pretty cool.

[Chrisb]

Re: neck thru question?

[ QUOTE ]
I think it would be alot nicer if they did a liminated style neck. 3 peices with opposing grain, it would be really strong, not require as much wood and would look pretty cool.


[/ QUOTE ]
They do. Their mahogany necks are almost always 3 piece. And you can get that with any neck wood from the customshop. Or multilaminate as well (ie 5+ pieces).