What are the advantages (if there is any) of bolt-on construction over neck-thru construction? I know most of metal's guitar masters(Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King, Dave Mustaine...to name a few) use neck-thrus but i saw Kirk Hammett uses guitars with bolt-on necks (his ESP dinkys). Is there any reason?

Neck thru construction has better sustain. Not sure why Kirk was playing a bolt on.

He probably just sells them, most artists have a cheaper version of what they usually play live.

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The difference in sustain between a very good neck-thru and a very good bolt-on joint is highly subtle, the biggest difference is the playability on high frets and some differences in overall sound.

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I don't know if he has changed it but Kirk also uses neck thru's. On the Cunning stunts his gear tech goes through his guitars and only one of them is bolt-on and the reason the tech gives to this is because that guitar is the one Kirk uses to go berserk on so it is easier for the tech to change the neck when it breaks instead of replacing the entire guitar.

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^ What Slabbefusk said

Kick-ass sig Diabolus! You in Scandinavia?

IMO bolt on necks are alot better
because guitar necks can easily get bent damaged or broken
and if you break a neck on a bolt on you just replace it
where as you break damage bend a neck on a neck thru theres not much you can do and it might cost alot to get a new one fixed.

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Bingo, that's the only reason to get a bolt vs. a thru imo.

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neck thru! sustain,sustain, sustain. love your avatar too man

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Jason Becker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and John Petrucci ALL use Bolt-on. A properly fitted bolt on neck joint will sustain just fine, if a bolt on neck break you cna easily buy a replacement... neck through not so easy.

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And what about set necks? A set neck is pretty much the same as bolt on, I think. Only difference being glue/screws.

Word.

blizzard: They have different neck pockets.

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Yes, obviously! I was trying to reinforce my point, that they sound practically the same!

You guys are right about it being easier to fix on a bolt-on, but it's not like a neck-thru's gonna break easily or anything, unless you fuck it up.

If I blind folded one of you, and then lt the same note sustain on all 3 guitars (each with the same wood, pickups.. just a different neck joint) I doubt anyone would be able to tell me which guitar has which joint.

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Yerr but its still not the same sound, the set-neck has more wood in contact with the body and thus the neck wood affects the tone more than a bolt-on that has less wood touching the body.

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I guess it all depends on the build quality mostly, any three of those built nicely will sound good.

Hardly.. a set neck has GLUE between the neck and the wood... Glue dosen't transfer sound very well

A bolt on is ALL wood on wood contact.

The different tones results from the woods used in construction.

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A Set-Neck with a tight as fuck neck pocket will have an effect on the sound, plus that shit about glue not transfering sound very well is just nonsense since the wood swells when it gets in contact with the glue, and its not like theres a milimiter layer of glue transfering the sound its very very very thin and doesnt have a great effect on the sound.

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Same can be said about a bolt-on.

None of them are better than the others, but someone who plays alot of gigs, and does alot of maintnence on their guitar will much rather have the convienence of removing the neck.

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Yes the convenience factor of a bolt-on is appealing but still, as a set-neck has larger area of contact between between the neck and body the sound will be different from a bolt-on that has a smaller area of contact between neck/body.

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Again I say that the difference in tone is subtle.

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how much would it cost if you broke a neck thru guitar neck?

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I have never noticed a huge difference in tone and sustain between bolt-on, set neck, and neck-thru. I perfer neck-thou or set neck if I can have it because it just feels better on the upper frets. I don't like having to work around the bulky heel of a bolt-on.

Edit: If the neck brakes on a neck-thou then the whole guitar may be ruined. That is the biggest draw back of neck-thou.

Also has anyone ever heard of set-thou necks They seen to be the latest crazy if anyone wants to look into them, but it really don't make a huge differece either imo.

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whats your ran?

set neck
bolt on

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Neck-thou.

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Nowaday thats not a problem, the Ibanez AANJ makes the guitar feel practically heel-less.

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I have both bolt-on and a neck-thru Caparisons and they pretty much play and sound the same other than differences in the heels. I just hate that most neck-thru necks are painted, i like them shits natural and smooth.

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i can just imagine how much it would cost if (touch wood) one of you caparison's broke.

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This is a side cut picture of a Les paul USA made. You can check out any Ls paul forum for more info. The top pic is the changes they have made.

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Gibson-Les-paul-tenon.jpg (21.0 KB, 155 views)

Looks like 2 pics to me. Which one is the Gibson? Neither one isn't worth the price the of a Gibson to me. It is still a shame they are cutting guitars up just to show this though.

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Both are Gibsons the Top one is newer. This pic is just a comparision between the older style and the newer style.

But you have EMGs right.

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Yes, thats true. EMGs dont really let the tonal aspects of a guitar come through but as far as playability and sustain are concerned I dont think the 2 guitars are different.

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Yeah youre probably right.

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i dont care whether its neck-throu or bolt or set, its the whole package together that counts... if it sounds and feels good, il buy it... i just wont worp the neck... which isnt hard to stay away from...

i think most players who use bolts are just being smart with their money and sacrificing a little bit of sustain for a better price... besides, if its sustain you want, get a compresser or sustain pedal...

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That's like saying 'if you want a good sounding amp, get a POD and have hundreds of amps'

ya but what i said would work like i said it would... if you got the right one...

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If you got the right guitar in the first place, you wouldn't need to buy a sustain pedal

ah, touché.

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if you want endless sustain, get a sustainiac!
I'd like to try one of those out.. they sound cool.

Yeah, it seems as though people who really know guitars, seem to prefer bolt ons, or use bolt ons, or dont mind bolt ons.


I just hate how some dumbasses will say "OMG, ITS NOT3 NEKK - THRU, ITT IZ A CRPPY GUTTER DEN!!!"
yeah..

and BTW, i'm a bolt on man.
and, I'm back.

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Exactly.. A quality bolt on will serve anyone just fine.

Neck throughs just worry me too much.. and their's plenty neck throughs out their with huge heels, larger than the Ibanez AANJ.

I like to actually do maintnence on my guitar, and with a neckthrough not having the ability to add neck shims would piss me off.. And I like to do all fret polishing and cleaning with the neck off.

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Neck Thru all the way. Not only for tone but duarability, but when u start to shred the higher frets, especailly sweeps, a neck thru provides no heel obstruction and a smooth slide/ ascend descend of the hand. The heel will not get in the way at the higher frets

I know thats right. Polishing frets on a set neck or neck-thou guitar can be a pain. If you use extra fine steel wool, like I do, to polish frets and deep clean the fretboard then you have to put the body of the guitar in a plastic bag and tape it up to prevent the steel dust from getting into the electronics. Magnetic pickups, pots, and steel dust can mean shorting problems.

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Nothing worse then trying to get tiny steel bits of a pickup..

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... or out a pot...

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I know the KH-202 has a bolt-on neck but I'm pretty sure he doesn't use the lower model. . .The KH-602 has either a set neck or a neck-thru but it's definitely not a bolt-on. I've seen certain guitarists use bolt-on's and the only reason I could fathom. . . well for guitarists like kurt nobrain. . . erm. . . cobrainless. . . . erm. . . . cobain(yeah, cliche lame joke) it was because he broke the neck on his guitars every night instead of breaking the whole thing it was easier to replace a cheapo bolt-on neck, and we all know he wasn't much for tone. I've seen that Satriani and Vai use set necks(and neck thru's). Of course set neck's offer better sustain than a bolt-on but a neck-thru beats the set. . mainly because like the whole middle strip of wood on your guitar(the headstock, neck, butt) is all the same piece of wood. A set neck with the tonepro's bridge get's the sustain on a set at about the same place as the neck-thru's though. . . I can't thing of any reason than the simple fear of hurting your neck on your guitar. .. Personally I play Set with tonepro's and I hate bolt-on's but I have played them before.

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My Ibanez has the AANJ and I'm happy with it, gives me all the access I could want.

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All Access Neck Joint. . . Isn't that like the thing Schecter uses. . . I think its exclusive for like neck-thru guitars, they have pictures of it on schecters site if you look at their guitars.

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No that is the Ultra Acess heel that Schecter uses with set-necks. AANJ is a bolt-on heel which I reckon Ibanez invented.

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Thanks, I'd never heard of it.

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