Bolt on neck or Set-in that is the question

[Axxis]

A friend of mine told me he prefers Bolt on necks so I figured I'd do a poll on the boogie board, which do you prefer and why?

 

[Rocky]

Depends on the sound and feel I want.


I have no preference...different tools with different sounds and feels.

 

[fatoni]

a good bolt on is always better than a set neck. bolting the neck on is cheaper so its more common in cheap guitars but a good bolt on will have the best contact without any glue to reduce the resonance. but thats all opinion...

 

[themisfit138]

I prefer neck-throughs

 

[carlsoti]

I'm a bolt-on guy. If you break the neck off, you can fix it with a screwdriver, etc. A glued in neck would need much more skill to fix. I've always wanted to try a neck-through, though.

 

[dmt]

Neck-through for the win.

1. neck through - its part of the body, it doesnt get better than this
2. set - its not quite part of the body, but its pretty **** close, good contact
3. Bolt on - this thing is just screwed on here? **** that.

think of it this way, the neck and body both vibrate and generate the tone that your pickups capture and transmit. what do you think is the best possible way for that vibration to transfer? do you want your neck to have a dead spot where it joins the body? i doubt it. of the three way to mount a neck on a guitar which do you think is going to have the most contact and transfer vibrations (tone) better?

When are you ever gonna need to swap the neck on a guitar? repairs? what do you happen to play hit the gopher with your guitar on stage? toss your guitar around? maybe set it on fire? if you **** up your neck, theres a bigger problem with the guitar. like stupidity. if you do need repairs, (cause you like smashing things) take it to a tech, one that knows how to deal with more than just screwing on a new neck. if he cant fix a guitar w/ a set neck you shouldnt be going to him at all. find a better tech.

 

[Rocky]

A properly fit bolt joint is allows as much transfer as a glued joint (which is actually stonger than a solid piece of wood and functions like one piece of wood) or a neck thru design.

Neck thru fans always oversimplify things and overlook (or ignore) the shortcomings of a neck thru guitar (there is more glue in a neck thru than a set neck or bold neck....you cant call glue joints dead wood on a set neck without ignoring the HUGE long dead spots on a neck t hru guitar....add that evil glue on the sides of the neck thru with the evil glue on the fingerboard and the glue that may be holding on your guitar top annd you have an intert piece of wood because of all that glue. Figure out the surfaces being glued....neck thru involves the most glue of all 3. using the oversimplified neck thru argument then all that glue will HAVE make for a pretty dead instrument. Of course that is not necessarily the case. In fact it is not since a proper glue or bolt joint transmits vibration as well as a solid piece of wood. In fact different but complimentary woods of different densities and masses jointed can produce tones that are richer and more complex than a huge, long piece of a hardwood.


All 3 are equal in terms of quality, there is no better. A person cannot simplify the 3 major joint systems into a paragraph. All have pluses and minuses. Bottom line is that they sound different.

In the end there is preference. Not superiority.

That is unless the person talking is an Ed Roman type in which case they should be ignored.

 

[camsna]

Depends. They sound different and are appropriate for different things.

I've NEVER played a neck-through guitar I've liked. Well. That's not quite true. Played an old Gibson Thunderbird that I dug a bunch. Lots of neck-through basses that I've dug, though.

Played a set-neck Strat type guitar. Played bolt-on Les Paul style guitars. Hated those.

So I guess it just depends, really. Can't say I 'prefer' one over the other in general.

 

[Axxis]

this has been quite insightful. I've just always prefered set-in necks because I associated bolt-on necks with cheaply made guitars. I've never played a bolt-on les paul, lol. (someone here said they had) Anyways, when I my friend told me he liked bolt-ons better I had to come here to get some input b/c he's the first person I've ever heard say that. I just always assumed that bolt on was to cut the cost of the guitar during production. I'm going to research this topic even more now b/c I really don't know jack about this topic, lol.

PS. I forgot all about solid piece guitars!

 

[dmt]

That is unless the person talking is an Ed Roman type in which case they should be ignored.

-1 for Ed Roman... that guy is a douche...

 

[fatoni]

That is unless the person talking is an Ed Roman type in which case they should be ignored.

-1 for Ed Roman... that guy is a douche...

while there may not be a definitave fave of the neck types i think its a well known fact roman is a douche

 

[carlsoti]

When are you ever gonna need to swap the neck on a guitar? repairs? what do you happen to play hit the gopher with your guitar on stage? toss your guitar around? maybe set it on fire?

Hows about leaping off a drum riser, pulling off a perfect townsend-esque windmill in mid-air to finish a song, landing on a pedal, twisting your ankle, and going down on a floor monitor, snapping the neck at the 15th fret. This was on a custom full maple necked gibson I picked up at a pawn shop in chicago for $600 in the early 90's. Gibson wanted $1000+ to fix it. The local luthier wanted $600+, but that wouldn't be a "genuine" gibson neck.

One thing to consider is the possibility of a bad glue joint is about the same as a bad playing bolt on neck, though much more difficult to fix. When built properly, a glue-in or bolt-on have the same potential.

 

[dmt]

Hows about leaping off a drum riser, pulling off a perfect townsend-esque windmill in mid-air to finish a song, landing on a pedal, twisting your ankle, and going down on a floor monitor, snapping the neck at the 15th fret.

Sweet. I always wanted to do that... with a cheap shitty guitar... theres no way i'd do that to my nice Silverburst...

 

[srf399]

Most of the best players I've ever seen played bolt-ons ... Most of the lousy players I've seen seemed to always be playing on set necks or neck through guitars... that is enough to convince me.... enough said LMAO

 

[coppa]

you can bolt on a neck so tight that you compress the woods together much tighter that you could with glue even tighter that the natural density of the woods.

A GOOD neck joint weather bolt or glue is the best. IMO (im kind of leaning towards bolt on, cos on a strat its usually cheaper to buy a new neck than to get one refretted think $100 vs $200)

neck through is iffy cos the body of the guitar are two wings that glue to ether side of the neck. dunno I dont like that. not to mention its expensive

A one piece guitar is a huge waste of wood when you think about how much of it gets cut away

 

[stadidas]

Of all the people that have said a bolt-on is better because it's easier to replace, seriously, how often do you snap the neck on a guitar?
Even if the sound is the same or better with a bolt on (which I doubt), I've never played a bolt-on with decent access to the 24th fret. And I use that fret a lot more often than I snap necks.

 

[camsna]

Really? I've never played a set-neck with 24th fret access. What are you playing with a set neck that offers that kind of access?

PS - Suhr Modern - 24 frets. Bolt-on. Freaking killer.

 

[Rocky]

Of all the people that have said a bolt-on is better because it's easier to replace, seriously, how often do you snap the neck on a guitar?
Even if the sound is the same or better with a bolt on (which I doubt), I've never played a bolt-on with decent access to the 24th fret. And I use that fret a lot more often than I snap necks.

Maybe you need to work on your hand positioning....

 

[Kaz]

They're both viable designs, and when executed well, have great results. A good example is the PRS Custom/Standards vs. PRS CE series. The customs/standards are set-necks while the CEs are bolt on. All of them are made to equal quality, though the CEs are somewhat less expensive than the Customs. Both have excellent fret access and tone, and sound quite different (but both sound great to my ears).

I think people dismiss bolt-ons too easily. I'm not a huge fan of them either but I recognize their merit and may own a boltie someday too. Bolt-on basses sound AMAZING too. Very bright and springy.

And what's this rubbish about seeing tons of 'lousy players' playing set necks vs. great players playing bolt-ons?

 

[carlsoti]

how often do you snap the neck on a guitar?

Once was enough to sway my opinion. That doesn't mean that I WON'T play a set neck guitar. It's just that, for what I'm willing to spend on a guitar, the bolts usually fare better.