Opinions: "Bolt on necks favor the fundamental tones and brightness"

[Pheof]

Any time you add metal to the sound transfer equation you're going to end up with a different sound than if you used solid woods and glues. I know a lot of people in churches who use Taylors, and personally I just can't get into that sound because they do often sound bright and jangly, and that's not the tone I'm after. But one awesome thing about Taylor bolt-on necks is, of course, you can reset the neck yourself when the time comes.

I think metal bolts contribute to the sound, otherwise i don't know of any other contributing factors to the Taylor sound.

[justonwo]

In my experience, the type of neck joint has very little bearing on the sound of a guitar.

[Transylvania]

Originally Posted by AZLiberty

Breedlove uses bolt on necks, and nobody would call their tone "fundamental".

+1 Same with Goodall.

[tseliot]

My Walden has a bolt-on neck and a dark voice. I think it really depends on how a guitar is built. The neck is just one of the details.

[devellis]

As others have suggested, Goodall is the ultimate refutation to the notion that a bolt-on neck produces a guitar that is fundamental-heavy. Goodalls are famous for their rich overtone content. James describes his guitars as having more of an "ooo" sound whereas most guitars have have an "eee" sound. That's a bit abstract, to be sure, but I think he's referring to the warmth and lushness his guitars have. The notion that a metal bolt is incompatible with that kind of warm, rich tone is, again, refuted by the Goodall example. The correlation between overtone content and neck construction would approach zero, I suspect, if you examined across a wide enough diversity of examples.

[rmyAddison]

Regarding the original premise....

Horse...feathers !~!

[SOR]

Originally Posted by Pheof

I think metal bolts contribute to the sound, otherwise i don't know of any other contributing factors to the Taylor sound.

Elixirs are both bright and jangly, change them out and you have a very different tone from a Taylor.

[drplayer]

I believe everything contributes in a way--however small that may be; but the list of great and unique sounding guitars with bolt-on necks is large, and they certainly are not all Taylor-esque. So, I don't buy it...you've got to look at the whole package, not the individual components.

[SMan]

"Bolt on necks favor the fundamental tones and brightness"

After playing for well over 40 years, owning 30+ guitars of all types, going to lutherie school, building both acoustics and electrics, all I can say is "huh?".

[LouieAtienza]

Michael Greenfield uses a bolt-on neck joint.

[valleyguy]

An easy way to compare bolt on neck versus dove tail is to compare Martin's D16 line to their D18/D28s. My D16R sounds so very close to an HD28. I can't say in my limited experience that makes sense. Scalloped vs non-scalloped braces, I think, make a bigger difference.

[M Sarad]

Well, I have discovered that the bolt on neck in my Brondel makes the guitar sound really fine.

What was the original question ?

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

Originally Posted by M Sarad

Well, I have discovered that the bolt on neck in my Brondel makes the guitar sound really fine.

What was the original question ?

I believe it had to do with Ford vs Chevy.

[Earl49]

Sorry Harmonics101. I am only 6'-6" and these days I only own bolt-on necks.

As someone who works with vibration a LOT in my engineering work, I don't see how the neck joint really can affect the tone much. As long as the joint is secure enough to adequately hold the neck, there simply cannot be much difference in the vibration transfer function across that joint. If I measured the vibration spectrum on the neck block and on the neck at the 10th fret or so, there would not be much difference -- doubtfully no difference that I could actually hear.

As previously suggested the bracing, top thickness, and other build details have to be far more relevant.

[dneal]

Originally Posted by Pheof

Any time you add metal to the sound transfer equation you're going to end up with a different sound than if you used solid woods and glues. I know a lot of people in churches who use Taylors, and personally I just can't get into that sound because they do often sound bright and jangly, and that's not the tone I'm after. But one awesome thing about Taylor bolt-on necks is, of course, you can reset the neck yourself when the time comes.

I think metal bolts contribute to the sound, otherwise i don't know of any other contributing factors to the Taylor sound.

And your strings are made out of... ?