How Much Do you Think Neck Affect Sound?

[Nos402]

I have one of the original run of JTV-69. Over the years I had the body custom painted. I recently had to replace the entire PCB board/knob assembly to finally fix a volume pot with scratchyness and dead spots.

 

I also put a really nice $750 custom Warmoth neck on it. Tonight I was comparing to my Variax Limited Amethyst (basically a Variax Standard in a limited color) model and noticed that I thought that my Standard sounded better. Naturally this was disappointing. The new neck on my JTV is much thicker so I was surprised that my JTV sounded a little thinner. Of course it could also be many other things, thus why I'm asking the question. I have 2 piezo saddles on order because the tope two strings (the B string in particular) sound weaker and duller than they should compared to the rest and compared to the mags so that's kind of what I was troubleshooting when I noticed my Standard seemed to sound fuller and better.

 

Is the neck a likely culprit? It's a big beefy neck with an ebony fretboard and stainless frets and a compound radius, if any of that makes any difference.

[PierM]

In an electric guitar, the very first string points of contact are always much more important than body and neck.

 

Nut, bridge saddles and tailpiece (when present) can really make the difference. A bad nut, (either too soft or too hard, or cut too deep ) can really suck away a ton of energy from string vibration, making the tone thin and muffled (I did miracles on few of my guitars just working on that area). Same for bad saddles

 

Also quality of frets is important.

 

This is valid for both mag and piezo.

 

Said that, expecting a chunk neck or a chunk body, improving tone, is a very common mistake but I dont want to put my shoes into the tone wood can of worms...:)

 

[Nos402]

On 3/4/2023 at 2:55 AM, PierM said:

In an electric guitar, the very first string points of contact are always much more important than body and neck.

 

Nut, bridge saddles and tailpiece (when present) can really make the difference. A bad nut, (either too soft or too hard, or cut too deep ) can really suck away a ton of energy from string vibration, making the tone thin and muffled (I did miracles on few of my guitars just working on that area). Same for bad saddles

 

Also quality of frets is important.

 

This is valid for both mag and piezo.

 

Said that, expecting a chunk neck or a chunk body, improving tone, is a very common mistake but I dont want to put my shoes into the tone wood can of worms...:)

 

 

Yeah obviously, I was hoping that the new neck would NOT affect the tone! And maybe it's not, I'm just trying to figure out why my two Variaxes sound different and that was the biggest change I've made to my original!

[amsdenj]

I put a Warmoth neck on my JTV-69S too. It cost more than the guitar. But I was playing that guitar a lot and the stock neck didn't fit my hands well. I have noticed my 69S doesn't have as much sustain as my other guitars. Not sure if that's a neck issue. But I suspect it's the bridge/tailpiece. 

[psarkissian]

Neck wood density, head stock shape, string gauge and tension, all play apart in how the neck plays a

part in the sound.

 

Being a bolt-on neck, it by it nature does not have the same acoustical coupling as a set neck. The whole

bolt-on neck idea was about making manufacturing easier to mix and match necks and bodies, do quick

swap repairs, and had little to do with sound.

 

Bolt-on necks are a recent thing in the history of string instrument, introduced by Leo Fender as I recall. Set neck was

the standard way for almost a millennia until then.

 

Some like less sustain, because they can add to it with a sustain effect. Once resonance in it, it's hard to take it out. 

Yes, the tail piece and bridge being the other end of the guitar play their roles in the sound as well. Interaction of resonances

and tensions. Too stiff, it pinches and deadens to note. Too loose and it get floppy, droopy and dies away.

 

It's about finding that happy mid ground.

 

[codamedia]

Over the years I've learned that a neck can play a large role in shaping the tone for a guitar.... but it's not a predictable role. You can't just look at the composition of a neck and expect a certain tone.  There is too much interaction with every part of the guitar to know how something will sound until you try it. The only thing I know is that when I change a neck on a guitar, the tone of that guitar certainly changes and it's not just because of the nut.