Guitars: neck-thru vs bolt on?

[Brandon E.]

Agree with most of what has been said...Marcus nailed my thoughts about bolt-on vs set neck on the head. And I generally think neck-thru is silly.

Don't buy a custom guitar. Custom guitars aren't for people like us, they're for sevenstring.org kiddies. We need to know what guitars sound like BEFORE we buy them. It's all just pieces of wood man, some sound good, some don't, and it is NOT ALL in what's written down on paper either. If you are trying to buy a guitar that you REALLY love the way it sounds, well, you'd better know it sounds that way before you buy it, and there's really no other way than hearing it.

If you need some insane specs that don't exist, well take your gamble I guess, but your super anal audio engineer ear might not like what you get, and then you're shit out of luck.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

Agree with most of what has been said...Marcus nailed my thoughts about bolt-on vs set neck on the head. And I generally think neck-thru is silly.

Don't buy a custom guitar. Custom guitars aren't for people like us, they're for sevenstring.org kiddies. We need to know what guitars sound like BEFORE we buy them. It's all just pieces of wood man, some sound good, some don't, and it is NOT ALL in what's written down on paper either. If you are trying to buy a guitar that you REALLY love the way it sounds, well, you'd better know it sounds that way before you buy it, and there's really no other way than hearing it.

If you need some insane specs that don't exist, well take your gamble I guess, but your super anal audio engineer ear might not like what you get, and then you're shit out of luck.

this times thousand.

And forget all those "mahogany sounds like this and alder sounds like that" crap...the quality of the wood has a much bigger influence than the type...same goes for the type of neck joint.

 

[Ermz]

Trying factory models at stores has its own pitfalls. They're not all going to be set up well, nor have fresh strings, and you're not exactly in the most objective environment either.

As much as wood grade and pot luck might factor into all of this, there is a consistent build type and hardware selection that's consistently given me better results than the alternatives. That's generally been a mahogany body (no veneer), set mahogany neck & rosewood fretboard with SD passive pickups. Also had some moderate success with USA Jacksons using SDs.

 

[iekobrid]

 

[Mago]

Ahh, I forget, thanks for the correction.

Though I must say, that's even more disappointing. The 'awesome' tracking guitar I talk about is virtually all mahogany: http://ibanez.wikia.com/wiki/SZ320MH . It's also less than a quarter of the price of the neck-thru in question... just absolutely baffling. I don't understand what could be happening to create such a substantial difference in tone.

I have that one
http://ibanez.wikia.com/wiki/SZ520QM

different top, but close otherwise I guess.
Also an awesome guitar, especially for the price, as stef and gabriel said.
No idea why they only sold it for such a short time. Pretty much best bang for your buck I experienced so far.
Maybe also worth to mention that that is the only ibanez a local guitar dealer, who knows his shit (selected Gibsons and PRS) owns...seems there's something about that model were they got lucky during the production
Sounds cool and plays like a charm too.

Can't help with the bolt on question, but I also experienced that a great guitar is a great guitar, regardless of the neck construction.

 

[StefTD]

loving the nuno bettencourt sig! if you get the chance, try framus guitars, I dig them pretty much, they have
a special bolt on technique and use ovangkol for most of their necks, sounds a bit different but pretty nice.

 

[ballstix]

I have a S7 bolt-on. It's got a mahogany body and neck with an ebony cap and fretboard. The attack is almost overbearing, but that might be due to having a Painkiller in the bridge. Probably would switch it out for a different pickup if I had some extra cash lying around.

EDIT: I could make a DI of it if you want to hear it, but it'd be directly through a Saffire Pro 24, so it might not be of much use in the professional realm of things.

 

[FIXXXER]

neck thru looks and feels much better than bolt on MHO,
it also has more (actually too much sustain, especially in a high gain situation where every neck construction will have enough sustain)
the notes last longer and kind of overlap too much thats why it doesn't sound that snappy as a bolt on.

bolt on is more "damped" the notes fade out faster, that's why it is snapier.

 

[JeffTD]

bolt on is more "damped" the notes fade out faster, that's why it is snapier.

Sorry, but this is just flat-out wrong. As we've already established in this thread, a well made, tight fitting bolt-on will resonate and sustain just as well as a neck-thru, all else equal.

 

[FIXXXER]

just sharing what a luthier told me yesterday. he builds bass guitars mainly but i think that he doesn't talk bullshit at all.
on the other hand everyone sems to have his own opinion about this...

 

[guitarguru777]

Ermz

Having benn able to play all the Strictly 7 guitars at NAMM this year including a bolt on model I can tell you the difference is negligible at best as far as sustain.

If you want a guitar that's a bit more responsive and snappy go with the bolt, if you want something a bit warmer with more resonance then go with the next through.

Honestly with S7 you really cant go wrong

EVERYTHING I played at their booth was outstanding, including the 9 string prototype, the body wasn't even really "done" and it still played flawlessly and had a ton of sustain, and YES it was a bolt on.

My favorite of all of them was a bolt on Cobra they had. Fucking thing was AMAZING. Mahogany body with quilt top, 6 string, AMAZING guitar!

 

[abt]

I went through this once. At first I thought there was a big difference but after more testing and using like for like instruments, ie basically the same model with a bolt on and the same model a through neck, I found the difference was manly from using different instruments and not the neck. When I compared two almost identical bolt ons they sounded slightly different as well.

 

[Torgal]

I can confirm that the neck construction isn't allways going to influence the sound (attack and sustain) in a predictable way.
Comparing my (previously owned) Epishone LP Custom to my Gibson LP Std. Same wood, same neck construction but being built 15 years appart on opposite sides of the globe. They share the mahagony low-mids sound that I like, but apart from that they're completely different instruments.

Most probably the "bolt-on doesn't sustain" oppinion is merely based of the fact that most entry level guitars have bolt-on necks and aren't !mostly! built as well as higher priced instruments.

I personaly prefer set-necks and neck throughs to be honest. My personal favs in my collection right now: Gibson LP Std. 98, Ibanez RGA72TQM 2010 and LTD MHB-400. But thats most probably because the best bolt-on guitar I own is a Vester 1400 with a SD SH-6 in the bridge. Actualy I don't miss the pointy attack of a bolt on and don't consider my neck throughs "slow". Ah, and I play thrash metal and no stoner rock. As long as the instrument resonates well, is equipped with decent electronics that fit the wood and hardware that stays in tune you have a winner for a tracking guitar imo.

Yeah and thanks ERMZ for getting me GASing for an Ibanez SZ now. Well done!

 

[Ermz]

Thanks guys. After tracking a decent 7 string Agile with very similar specs to what I'm after, I reaffirmed my order for the neck-thru custom. Keen to get it going!

After this I'll probably opt for a more 'standard' set neck 6 string mahogany body/maple top/mahogany neck/rosewood or ebony board type guitar for the clients to use.