bent_christian wrote:Theoretically, yes you would think that resonance would be lost. There might be less high end frequency response. In reality, speaking from a luthier's point of view (I am not one, but have spoken in depth with a bunch about this topic) The neck joint has really no bearing on how resonant a guitar will be. A tight bolt-on neck can be just as resonant as a set neck. If the tone wood is of good quality, you will have good resonance. Teles and Strats are some of the brightest guitars out there, both have bolt-on necks. Bolt-on necks accually tend to have more articualtion than a set neck or a neck-through. This also lends them to an overall brighter tone. This is not iron clad, and it really depends in the wood.

Sorry, this just doesn't add up. While I would agree that the most important thing is the type of wood the body is made from, it's physically impossible for a bolt-on to be as resonant. The reason that Tele's and Strat's are bright has nothing to do with their necks...anyone who has thrown a new pickup and/or electronics into one can tell you that. And I'd have to bring up the same question that TMH brought up...how can a bolt-on give you more articulation?!? Just doesn't make sense.

SacredAndProfane wrote:Sorry, this just doesn't add up. While I would agree that the most important thing is the type of wood the body is made from, it's physically impossible for a bolt-on to be as resonant. The reason that Tele's and Strat's are bright has nothing to do with their necks...anyone who has thrown a new pickup and/or electronics into one can tell you that.

Chill bro, I'm just speaking form experience. My old Axis could stand up to any set necked guitar. You don't get out the "resonance-omiter" or anything, you feel resonance- preferably in the ribcage..and yes I've counted fading times on the notes. Strats and Teles are brighter/snappier because of their scale, maple neck, and the alder or ash they are made out of, as well as the bridge style/trem. It IS physically possibe for a bolt-on to be as resonant as a set neck, that I stand by.

I am waiting on an answer as to why there is the opinion that bolt-ons can be more articulate.

hey tipcat, another key player in the jangle equation that doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet is the action. lowering the action is gonna give you more fret buzz, which can sound cool when it works out right. i especially love the bright growl that a bass has when the frets buzz just so.

but i think the same holds true for both basses and guitars, that the fret buzz is gonna basically cause the string vibration to be lost as the string contacts the frets and its vibration is interrupted. fret buzz is essentially the conversion of some of the strings' vibration energy into high-freq noise. a clean guitar, set up with action that causes fret buzz, go ahead and play some bar chords on that and it will be what i understand to be the essence of "jangle".

raising the action so there's no fret buzz is gonna make them sustain better, and have a less bright-noise sound with a more powerful resonance. it can also sound kinda dull to me, and as the action gets higher, it requires more and more finger strength to fret stuff, especially more complex chords can become prohibitively difficult.

but string action is gonna be another way you can try and tune the jangle component of a given guitar, without even modifying anything at all.

bent_christian wrote:You don't get out the "resonance-omiter" or anything, you feel resonance- preferably in the ribcage..

i seriously doubt you're feeling high frequency or even upper midrange frequencies with your ribcage.

you can hear them if you press the body of the instrument against the bone immediately behind your pinna (earlobe). that's an interesting way to listen to the jangle of a guitar.

if you wanna bring your brightest bolt-on and put it up against my F1 i'd love to have a go. and your longest sustaining and put it up against my '78 musician, that too.

do you go to Wheaton College? my girlfriend's from Wheaton. i'd say we should meet up sometime when i'm out there, but i'm always out there with her, to go to her folks' place, so it wouldn't be good timing.

I was just talking about the overall resonace of the guitar, not any specific frequencies. I was taught early on to use that method to pick out the best axes. It seems to work for me. You just strum it- unplugged, and if you get that "feeling", you know it's a keeper. We all have our own ways.

No I don't go to Wheaton College, it used to be right next door though (President St.). I do not have the money, the inclination, or the patience for that place. I'm sure my morals would be too "loose" for them anyway. I'd probably get kicked out for dancing or something. Wheaton is the temporary hell I find myself in, not my residence of choice. I'd move back to Logan Square in heartbeat if I had the means. It's probably too expensive now anyway.

bent_christian wrote:I am waiting on an answer as to why there is the opinion that bolt-ons can be more articulate.

I'm not saying they are right, or you are wrong, just giving you some opinions from those who know/build guitars. Take it for what it is.


"My personal opinion is that glue dampens tone, more glue deadens tone more, and depending on how the neck is constructed this can or can´t be a good thing... Think of it like spraying that rubber stuff under a car, the more you spray the less you hear. Some is essential, but too much slows up the transfer of sound, deadening it. Same thing with paint, BTW, Less is more.

On a bolt on (a good one), there´s a solid wood-wood joint, no glue. The vibrations from the neck can travel unhindered through the joint into the body wood.

On a "classic" set neck, it´s a similar joint, surface-wise, but it´s smothered in glue. any which way the vibrations go, they have to travel through a thin laver of damening material (glue) before they reach the body. this also accounts for the slightly more sluggish response of a set-neck

On a Deep tenon (think PRS)/ set through or neck through, you have a much larger contact surface, and this counteracts the dampening effect a bit by allowing more of the vibration to travel through at the same time. On a neck thru you also have the advantage that the clamps used to fasten the body wings for drying generally give more pressure than the ones used for setting in necks, squeezíng out a bit more glue.
The neckthru has the disadvantage that it´s construction adds a strong low-mid spike to the sound because of the way the vibrations travel (they reach the end of the body much faster than the sides of the wings). The advantage is that the vibrations also reach the pickups faster, making the overall response seem a bit faster.

None are better than others, but I consider Bolt ons as "neutral", set necks as "slightly warmer and slower", and neck-thrus as even warmer still but somewhere in the middle, response-wise. Assuming , of course, that ALL other factors remain equal (admittedly making it hard to test for non-luthiers). I personally prefer neck-thrus and Bolt-ons."

...and another.



"I've had many of both bolt and neck thru's. bolt ons are brighter and the notes tend to be more shrill makeing it easy to get your guitar to squeel or chirp or articulate notes easy. Neck thru's tend to be more smooth and the notes more rounded and the sustain tends to last longer. after haveing both kinds for years I like bolt ons cuz they are brighter and to me more expressive and tend to sparkle on cleans and realy get pronounced gainy attack and yes- articulate the notes such as squeels and chirps but thats with a vintage humbucker. bolt ons can also become too trebley or bright with the wrong pickups or single 8 or 10 inch speaker. it realy depends on your gear and playing style. if your drop d tuneing alot or even lower- you may want to stay with a neck thru as I think it sounds better on a neck thru. I also dont like bolt ons thru any less than 2/12 inch speaker cabs cuz they do have alot of natural treble and need bigger and more speakers to give this style of guitar more base. 4/10 cabs are ok but again can sound too trebley at times. -I know, alot of info to think about-but I think you would want to hear all the facts from someone who's had both rather than just random opinions. Gear Joneser has both and I think Curly and Lew? you may want to ask them as well. Ive heard drop D tuned Les Pauls thru 4/12 cabs that have had great smooth basey thunk in punk or thrash metal bands. it all depends on the sound your after."

bent_christian wrote:I'm not saying they are right, or you are wrong, just giving you some opinions from those who know/build guitars. Take it for what it is.

Yeah...and I'm not saying that you're wrong either, it's just that I think it's near impossible to make a blanket statement saying that bolt-ons do or do not have more resonance, are brighter, etc. etc. I feel that there are so many factors to the equation that you'd have to look at it on a case by case basis. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a song, and then afterwards found out what kind of guitar was used and been blown away. "How in the hell did that guy get that 12-string Riviera to sound like that?!?" "That was done on a Jazzmaster?!? You're fucking kidding." Etc. etc. Each element that you add to the equation is what is going to determine what the overall tone is going to sound like, and to make a generalization, in my opinion, just isn't smart.

Unless someone can find us some actual results from someone's tests on the matter.