Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

[Inflames626]

Hey guys,
Is it contradictory to go a neck-thru/OFR route?

Some guys say no matter what a Floyd will never have the tone/sustain of a tune-o-matic. So, it seems that getting a neck thru with a Floyd would be a waste since there isn't as much mass at the bridge for the sustain to travel to the neck.

Any tone compromises made by a bolt on neck would have already been there anyway because of the Floyd reducing the guitar's tone relative to a tune o matic/neck thru axe.

Thoughts?

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Too much worry about nothing... Its not contradictory at all. For that matter a proper bolt on will sustain as long as any other guitar. Tone is subjective. Sustain well i guess someone needs to tell that to all the shred guys from the 90's that their bolt on floyd guitars arent getting sustain.

Really your kidding right? Have you ever played a good jackson soloist with a floyd? This all sounds like a bunch of cool aid drinking internet tgp blather.

 

[Inflames626]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

My concern is really whether neck thru guitars are worth the price that is usually charged for them.

I have a set neck tune o matic that I usually use for rhythms, but I prefer using Floyds. I'm hesitant to go neck thru because of cost, risk of neck damage, and whether it may darken the tone (Floyds are usually on lead guitars, which tend to emphasize bright tones that cut through the mix).

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Sorry dude but i cant tell you how many solos ive seen played on non floyd guitars or even guitars that you would call "bright"

Not all neck throughs are expensive that just depends on the guitar. Ive seen strats for 6000 ive seen neck throughs for 600 just depends on the guitar your looking at.

What risk of neck damage is higher with a neck through? Broken head stocks are repaired just the same. And if your careful neckthrough shouldnt be an issue. Neckthroughs arent inherently darker most tend to be a bit brighter due to the extra maple content. But even that is on a guitar by guitar basis.

 

[Inflames626]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

A broken neck on a neckthru will forever alter the tone and mess with resale value, especially Gibsons, which are notorious for headstock breakage.

My point was that most people would say a bolt on sounds brighter than a neck thru (at least mahogany thru), and that a Floyd brightens it further because of less tone relative to a tune o matic bridge. Therefore, if a person wants a bright tone for a solo, one would be better off choosing a bolt on Floyd rather than a dark Les Paul. True, a lot of great solos have been done on Strats and other bolts, but my question is whether a Floyd married with a neck thru in general improves the tone enough to be worth the cost.

That bright/dark logic has encouraged me to separate my guitars into two camps--bolt Floyd stuff for soloing, and tune o matic tone wood stuff for rhythms.

I've never played a through body neck guitar, but my set necks do sound a little warmer and fuller to me than a bolt. In the used market, though, I tend to have a problem finding reasonably priced neck thrus with OFRs for less than $1200 or so. Some BC Riches might be the only ones I see, as well as some of the newer ESPs.

I agree totally on guitar prices being crazy. I'm just wondering if a neck thru mahogany specimen would be worth it if an OFR is going to counteract that tone due to wood being routed out for the bridge. It would be like getting a titanium sustain block for a cheap import bridge--I don't want to defeat my own purpose.

Also, unlike most people, I try not to offset a wood's tone with a certain kind of pickup. To me, if I'm going to be paying more for a mahogany guitar, it's a bit of a waste to water that down with a bright pickup. I'd rather put in something that accentuates the tone of the mahogany that's already in there.

Or, even easier would be to put a bassy pickup into a cheaper guitar (say alder or poplar) and EQ to taste so it sounds like mahogany.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Gibson are setneck not neck through hehe.

You're over thinking it man, Neck through floyds are awesome/

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

I agree totally on guitar prices being crazy. I'm just wondering if a neck thru mahogany specimen would be worth it if an OFR is going to counteract that tone due to wood being routed out for the bridge. It would be like getting a titanium sustain block for a cheap import bridge--I don't want to defeat my own purpose.

Man who told you that tall boy story?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Floyds are there for tuning stability during whammy use.

Neckthru primarily are there to allow unparalleled access to upper frets.

Can't for the life of me see where any contradiction is.

And if you have any number of guitars with varying construction and 'sustain' and added a floyd, this addition will change the tone by the same amount every time. You don't get to say 'hey this guitar has a poor neck contact and sustains less anyhow, therefore the floyd isn't allowed to make any tone changes on this one'

Myths -
if you break a neck/headstock and repair it the tone is gone - wrong
A bolt on is a poorer interface than thru or set - wrong....just different.
A TOM bridge automatically makes a guitar warmer - wrong

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

I am a neck-thru fan, and I do think it leads to better sustain and deeper tone, at least in my experience. The heel shape is an added bonus, but for me it isn't really about upper fret access. Some of my neck-thrus are fixed bridge, some have floyds on them. They all rock.

The thing to remember is that everything is additive. If you are worried that a floating bridge may take away some sustain or change your tone in one direction or another, the neck thru may add some of that back. So it's not so much a matter of cross purposes, as it is getting the sum of the parts to perform in a certain pocket.

Don't overthink it. If you like the feel of a neck-thru, you can find one with any other set of features you want.

And never, NEVER buy a guitar based on its potential resale value after you break it. Better to just not break it in the first place.

 

[greekdude]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

best thing traditionally about neckthrough is the smoothness of neck/body joining point and the fret accessibility, smth that current set-in necks, and some bolt on (AANJ) can achieve. Apart from that, good sustain is about good woods and good craftmanship, 90% and 10% is the hardware at least IMOE.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

If you throw on extra springs and block the Floyd, most of the sustain difference between it and a hard tail disappear.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

No contradiction. Bolt-on and set-neck and neck-thru are all personal preference. So is a FR. I've played a FR on all of those. I own bolt-on and neck-thru with FR.

Only issues I have ever heard about depends on the construction of the neck-thru, where some builders may not consider where they out the seam for the body wings and the bridge post could land in a seam, which has lead to issues in rare instances. That could apply to any type of bridge and issues would still be on the rare side.


Sent from my armored space station via iPad using Tapatalk

 

[jmh151]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

A Big Block on a Floyd restores all the perceived loss of sustain and low end.

As for the benefits of a neck through, a neck thru will have more sustain than a poorly made or constructed bolt on- but well made bolt on with a tight neck pockets will have just as much sustain as a neck thru.

The difference, having owned both, is attack. A neck through has a much more compressed sustain tone than a bolt on, whereas a bolt on has a quicker attack. With the guitars I have, bolt ons tend to have more character, neck thru is a little less expressive. It's not a bad thing, it's just personal preference.

The neck heel is nice on neck thrus, though these days with most manufacturers using some type on tapered neck joint on bolt ons, it tends to be a moot issue.

 

[Inflames626]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Would it be accurate to say that many of these myths came about when bolt ons were generally of poorer quality than they are now?

I can understand quibbling about wood and tone, etc., if someone is doing something with a semi hollow or hollow bodied guitar where the actual acoustic sound of the guitar comes through.

But for rock applications, especially using electronics that have a very specific voicing like EMGs, it seems the wood doesn't do all that much because the pickup sounds the same no matter what guitar it's in. I knew a guy who said an EMG would sound like an EMG whether it's in a boat oar or a nice guitar. In my experience, this has generally been true.

This is kind of veering into Scott Grove (YouTube) territory as far as wood and construction and whether that makes a difference, but I've been curious as to whether the jump to neck thru would be worth it.

Ultimately, though, it's going to come down to trying all these individually myself and personal taste. There's some variation just with my bolt ons.

It's just easy to pull a trigger on an online purchase since I don't live near any boutique guitar stores and I don't want to end up with a lemon.

 

[Inflames626]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

My logic is also cost. I can buy a $200 guitar + $250 FR Pro + $200 for pickups and have the same specs as a used USA made model for about half the cost.

The only real difference most of the time between USA and import seems to be neck thru, especially in the case of Jacksons.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

for starters, it is my opinion that Scott Grove and pixxylixx are two of the biggest purveyors of many misconceptions.

it is also my opinion that a properly built and properly setup/maintained bolt-on can compete or beat a set-neck or a neck-thru. then again, I am the original owner of a 1990 American standard strat with an alder body. over the years, it seemed to be more of a tone-sucker than many/most of my other guitars. I recently replaced it with a poplar body from Warmoth and you can tell from just playing it unplugged that it's more resonant and has more sustain.

so... you never know until you play it.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

for starters, it is my opinion that Scott Grove and pixxylixx are two of the biggest purveyors of many misconceptions.

.

If it was me i would deliberately misspell the names just so they get fewer google hits so they get less people pointed to them. All the haters that flock to them also line their pockets.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

My logic is also cost. I can buy a $200 guitar + $250 FR Pro + $200 for pickups and have the same specs as a used USA made model for about half the cost.

The only real difference most of the time between USA and import seems to be neck thru, especially in the case of Jacksons.

As someone who owns multiple Jacksons..both USA and import both both on and neck through some of the imports are even neck through I take something of an mild offense to this. A 200 dollar guitar with expensive hardware and pickups does not equal a USA made instrument. On paper it might be the same spec. To YOU it might be just as good. But it is NOT the same. This is really like saying my blow up doll is as good as a real woman if i put a wig and lipstick on her. Maybe for your purposes its the same maybe for you the extra cost isnt worth it. Maybe in specs they are the same (3 accessible orifices, curves in the right places etc) but at the end of the day its still just a dressed up simulation.

Oh and as an aside MANY of the import Jackson line are neck through including many much more affordable models.

Using your logic why would any one buy a diamond... for jewelery purposes cubic zirconia is just as good... its clear.. its shiney... Why buy a diamond?

 

[Inflames626]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Edgecrusher, good point. But dmoguitar's vids on cheap vs. expensive guitars on YouTube make a good point that quality control even on USA models can be all over the map.

In view of your analogy, a blow up doll might actually be worth more than a real woman if the woman bankrupts a fellow without any benefit in return for the cost.

Again, I think we've reached the conclusion that it's going to be a case by case basis.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Neck thru and Floyd Rose--cross purposes?

Edgecrusher, good point. But dmoguitar's vids on cheap vs. expensive guitars are YouTube make a good point that quality control even on USA models can be all over the map.

Yep here is a custom ordered usa jackson screw up. I really shouldn't post this again but anyway who cares i dont think it will ruin sales for them or anything.