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Old 04-18-2009, 04:39 PM
Sordid Tales Sordid Tales is offline
do what huh?
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Lone Star State of Mind
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hambone View Post
People replace bridge pins and change saddle material and claim changes in tone/sustain etc. It's ridiculous to think that something as critical as the neck joint has no effect on tone.

Guitar Player did a huge article on set neck, versus neck through, versus bolt neck in electrics back in the 90s and the differences in string amplitude, attack and sustain were measured. The differences were dramatic.

Tonally,the differences between a set neck, versus bolt neck versus neck are equally as dramatic.

It's not to say that a builder can't compensate, but I've seen the demonstrated differences in the world of electrics. It's hard to believe that they don't exist in acoustics.
Exactly my point. It doesn't make sense to me that someone can claim that string type, pick type, pick attack, materials used, and everything down to the type of material of the tuners has an effect on tone but to think that something such as the neck joint has no effect on tone.

I'd noticed that the two main users of bolt on neck acoustics (Godin and Taylor) both of their guitars can be either bright or mellow, but all have an exceptional clarity. Some newer Martins I've noticed have this as well, and I attribute it to the HPL, Formica, etc. used.

So I've come to the conclusion that it is not unreasonable to assume that the bolt on neck joint has some sort of function in this.

I am not saying that the same sort of tones and overall sound cannot be had out of traditional dovetail set necks, and I'm not saying that bolt ons cannot be muddy and jumbled. This is an overall observation.
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