How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

[UberMetalDood]

I'm convinced that guitars with thicker necks have the best tone. I recently began to realize this, so I sorted through all of my guitars and reflected on all the guitars that I used to own and realized that the ones I always thought had the best tone have the thickest necks. My absolute favorite sounding guitars are 50's neck Gibsons, Fender SRV strat, and even Ibanez's with thicker necks (they're all pretty thin except maybe the Satch models, but some have the super thin Wizard necks and others are a little thicker or have more mass), PRS, etc... Therefore, I have to ask, what is your take?

 

[Securb]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

My Les Paul Traditional with the 50's neck definitely has more sustain and body than any of my other guitars. Even when comparing it to other Gibsons with 60's necks the Traditional seems to have more depth. I am not saying that thinner neck guitars sound bad in any way, it is all about finding the perfect balance of speed, comfort and tone.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I like the thickness of the wizard II
which is super skinny
but I like the radius of an old strat about 9.5

havent played a gibson neck

might like that too

the c shape strat neck is what I have played for many many years

just in the last 5 or so started playing the Ibanezes

 

[Zerberus]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

Invalid Poll. Numerous members (myself included) cannot vote without "lying".

1: No Rob option.
2. No "Necks affect tone, but I still prefer X for comfort" options.

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

Poll options are bit too black and white with thin or thick only. I fall into the camp that prefers medium-slim to medium-thick necks, not particularly thin or thick necks. Don't really know if I can vote on it,
*Probably* a difference, but whether it's necessarily better or worse is another story.
Get a guitar body, then get two different necks with equivalent specs except the size and the bigger one could possibly make the guitar not sound as good, or sustain better as it does with the thinner neck, or vice versa.

Ultimately, tone isn't really a consideration for me when settling on a particular sized neck unless of course I found for whatever reason, a neck severely robbed sustain, but that's probably not super likely if you're buying a good aftermarket neck or quality Fender (or similar bolt-neck guitar) in the first place. Comfort trumps all for me. A major factor for me in playability is the fret work and fret size. I can't deal with small/vintage frets if I'm gonna be playing anything with lots of string bending, gotta be true 6105 sized (not the Warmoth sized, the 0.55' height) or bigger. Even fretboard radius for me isn't much of a big concern as long as the fret work is good, fret size is there and it's not the very round vintage Fender style radius (9.5/10 inches and upward is fine)

 

[AlexR]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I've had the luck (or misfortune) to swap a lot of necks between the strats and tele's I've bought. In all cases, certain necks were the best with certain bodies and pickups. The biggest difference came with a loaded MIM tele body I bought and put a Warmoth boatneck on to. Great fat tones and sustain with a Jerry Donahue/twisted tele pickup combo. I then moved the neck onto a new build and put a MIM neck on - guitar lost all its mojo and I sold it. The Warmoth neck will not be sold though.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

My entirely subjective experience is that, all other things being equal, bigger necks impart a "bigger" tone. e.g. Fender '51 Nocaster pickups in an AVRI '52 Tele versus the same types in a Relic Nocaster.

The only objective way to make comparisons is by standardising all test variables except one - the neck dimensions.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

Not enough for the audience to really give a care about it.


I think they affect tone but I'll sacrifice that small amount of tone difference for a comfortable playing neck.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

As far as Fender vintage necks; They all sound great; the larger 54's ash "baseball" style has noticable girth in sound. The old vintage Fender necks "BAT" necks are even marginally thinner than Warmoths Boat profile, and a lot thinner than their "fat" profile. The real deal vintage Fender '54 famous "bat" NECK has a beefy profile, and probably a thicker tone , but its on a Ash body, so hard to say. There isnt that much huge difference in Vintage Fender neck thickness'..maybe more in shape than thickness.
As far as new production necks...
I have one of the newer 'Fat' profile Warmoths, and it is gigantic, especially paired with a 1 and 3/4 inch nut . Its basically a bit big for me.
Going down to Warmoths Boatneck, its a LOT less thick/fat , and just about right for my less-than-bear-sized paws.

The Warmoth huge fat neck does have more sustain and fatter / thicker sound I believe( Again,though- paired with new and harder ash).
Overall, theres a difference, and its apparent, but its hard to quantify...a lot has to do with body wood.

 

[uOpt]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I don't think you can classify it into thickness.

A neck needs to be a certain about of floppyness to sound good, but not dampening floppy, swings/spring-back floppy.

Heavy truss rods ruin it. Denser wood needs thinner profile, thinner profile needs denser wood to sound right.

**** Im druck but im right

 

[Ascension]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I don't think you can classify it into thickness.

Heavy truss rods ruin it. Denser wood needs thinner profile, thinner profile needs denser wood to sound right.

Pretty much this in my experience and my vote was noticeable difference but no preference in size. Yes there is many times a slight tonal difference in thin vs thick necks all things being = but more of the tone is in the actual neck wood ( or graphite ,metal or whatever ) being used rather that just the thickness of the material itself.

 

[uOpt]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

This thickness much fit the stiffness of the wood. I bet you can un-suck a lot of boxy sounding guitars by taking off some neck wood as long at it doesn't have a truss rod like a F-14 landing gear.

 

[jtougas]

How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I've never done a scientific analysis (recording a guitar, swap out necks, then record again), but I have noticed differences in a guitar.
My Squier 20th Anniversary came with a rosewood fingerboard and two or three small spots of punky grey wood in the maple of the neck. With that neck on, it sounded good, but didn't have that high, trebly sheen a good Strat has. Swapped it out for a Mighty Mite Birdseye maple and rosewood neck, and it sounds phenomenal.

 

[J E C]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I think it all has to do with the combination and proportions of all the materials in the instrument, not just the neck. Changing one item can make a big difference some times. My friend Rossco has an old Yamaha acoustic. When he got it many years ago it sounded OK, but he didn't like how thick the neck was. It not being a great sounding guitar he decided it wouldn't hurt it if he shaved the neck down, so he did. Ever since then the damn thing has sounds great. When I worked at Moses years ago a customer bot and installed a graphite P-Bass neck. It sounded good but it had a dead spot on the neck. We had him send the bass to us and I installed a different neck free of charge. The same problem. So I installed another neck. Same problem. So I asked him if he changed anything else when he changed the neck. He said he had changed the stock bridge out for a new Badass bridge. I had him send me the old bridge and I reinstalled it. The problem disappeared and the bass sound phenomenal.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

I used to like the necks that didn't have a fretboard, the frets were inserted directly into the maple neck. That combined with a moderately bulky profile was a great combination for big tone.



(* waits for the usual "That never happened, you don't know what you're talking about" derision*)

 

[kramersteen]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

(* waits for the usual "That never happened, you don't know what you're talking about" derision*)

I believe you man!

 

[DTrane]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

so must maple fretboard necks, have maple fretboard glued on like rosewood?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

No noticeable tonal difference, but prefer thick necks for comfort

 

[jtougas]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

so must maple fretboard necks, have maple fretboard glued on like rosewood?

Depends. Look for the skunk stripe on the back.

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: How Much Do You Think Strat Necks Affect Tone?

Just to clarify, I used the term "mass" because I wanted to imply that I'm not necessarily stuck on the thickness. There are wide necks that have more mass and that too, in my opinion, affects tone. I just used the term thickness because it's the easiest way to indicate the mass of the neck.