piut_ wrote:Anyone with a coated neck? How different is it compared to the non coated necks?
Am planning to get one soon, but still tied between coated/non coated neck and p90/humbuckers.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Yes, the coated neck is cool. I believe that it does change the sound a little bit. To my ear, it has a little bit more jangly rhythm sound, a little bit less of the searing lead sound, but either way can do anything. It's hard to describe. Mine is the matte finish, not shiny, and there's definitely some texture under the palm, which is a little bit strange at all, but certainly not difficult to play or anything. One reason why I like the coated neck is that it's not obvious to people at first that it's aluminum. I've finally gotten annoyed with people in the audience talking more about my guitar than about the way I play. I guess I'm asking for it by playing such unusual instruments. I had originally actually wanted a white powder coated neck, but I guess these show dirt like crazy.
As for pickups, they're both great on these guitars. I now have two EGCs, and on my other one (with the regular uncoated neck), I have one of each. I did it the reverse of the tele deluxe, so the single coil is in the neck and the humbucker in the bridge. The humbucker splits, but doesn't sound so good when split, so you'll really never want to use it as a single. There's definitely an amazing sound to the humbucker in the neck pickup which I wish I had (I was reminded of this watching the Kadane Brothers play --- EGC and Travis Bean humbuckers are closely related to the Fender ones designed by Seth Lover in the early 70s).You really can't go wrong.