How much is the tone of an electric guitar affected by the wood the neck is made of? I have heard alot of conflicting views, and people tend to bullshit about it.

I've always been told that the pick-ups were, by far, the thing that contributes most to the sound. I'm no guitar tech... so I don't know how much stock to put into this. Sounds right. But I'm sure that everything affects the sound. I would imagine that the wood would (ha... wood would) have an impact on the sound.

It definitely has some effect, but how much I cannot say.

The type of wood affects the sustain a lot, though. But you probably already knew that.

The wood of the neck? not much. not enough to completely rely on 'good' wood in the neck as a purchasing point.
The wood of the body on the other hand is a completely different issue (assuming its wood, not aluminum or glass body)
The body has significant effect on the sound. Having an ash guitar with a maple top is completely different then say just ash, or rosewood.
Note: if you run you guitar through enough digital processors and effects modules (or even the newer Roland V series alone) Carlo Robelli acoustics sound the same as travis bean aluminum body guitars.

Chris

i think it's more of a personal preference really as far as neck wood goes. obviously aluminum is in a class by itself, but if you're just a playing a strat there isn't much difference between sold maple or maple with a mahogony fretboard.

it's all about the FEEL, man!




and with that, i have to stop smoking pot.

There really doesn't seem to be a wide variety of different neck materials. Maple or mahogany or in the rare case, alloy. same with fretboards, maple, mahogany, or rosewood. Some say a mahogany neck will add some sustain and warmth, while maple will be brighter with more attack. Alloy necks I do not know much about except the fact that you would have to beat the crap out of it to cause it to warp. Same thing goes for fretboards, maple bright, rosewood and mahogany warm. This is all debatable of coarse. True, the body will have a lot more affect to the tone and true, if your going through lots of proccessing and gobs of distortion, the woods will have a much smaller impact. Find something that feels right and looks sexy and if it sounds good to you, go with it.