Necks...glued versus one-piece

[atilla]

So yesterday, I tried an Ibanez S Prestige. I asked the salesperson what seperates the Prestige line from the standard, and he answered that the Presitge has a neck glued together from 5 pieces of wood, where there's only three in the standard. He also said wood gets stronger from being glued, and that the more pieces, the more tuning stability.

True? False? Somewhere between?

[Newc]

Meh.

To an extent, yes on the whole thing being stronger, but that's simply a natural side-effect of using thinner strips with opposing grain patterns. Wood flexes more easily with the grain, but if you put two pieces or more together and separate the "north-south" grain pieces with an "east-west" grain piece, you interrupt the ability for each piece to flex.

As for tuning stability, that would only be a viable statement when comparing a neck made of pine or some other easily-bent wood, or if you're killing a mahogany neck with Nashville tuning (where every string is tuned an octave higher). Maple necks do not flex more than a 3 or 5 piece neck. While you can certainly flex them by hand more easily, it doesn't happen on its own or from tuning the strings.

[skorb]

so there!

[zeegler]

Yeah, Matt's right. The only real advantage is in the difference between a one piece maple neck and a multi piece. 5 is really not significantly better than 3. The main reason is that due to wood being a natural product, there is a possibility of a one piece neck twisting over time as it ages. A multi piece neck is more stable because if one of the 3 pieces tries to twist, the other two pieces help to prevent it. It's nothing to do with tuning stability, but long term structural stability.

[Return2Hanger]

So yesterday, I tried an Ibanez S Prestige. I asked the salesperson what seperates the Prestige line from the standard, and he answered that the Presitge has a neck glued together from 5 pieces of wood, where there's only three in the standard. He also said wood gets stronger from being glued, and that the more pieces, the more tuning stability.

True? False? Somewhere between?

I don't know about today, but a while back the Prestiges were all Japanese made and had impeccable fretwork/finish. I ordered an S2170 a while back and while it looked great, the guitar was very buzzy. The Japanese Prestige models are still nice. Not like a Jackson or ESP though

[delt]

So, the headstock (glued at the scarf joint) is one, the rest of the neck is another.... and the third is the fretboard?

> Nashville tuning (where every string is tuned an octave higher)

Holy shit... i'd expect either all the strings or the neck to break if i tried that!!