neck thru project

[tone4days]

i might have a chance to attend a class (a couple of nights per week over a few weeks) where we get to build our own electric guitar from scratch

i could pick the shape and wood and just about everything else about it ... except for one thing - they only build neck-through

so i am considering it cus it would be a cool thing to learn and a chance to get a guitar that i probably couldnt get otherwise

so the guitar i am most jonesin' for is a double cut korina P90 guitar with rosewood fingerboard similar to Evan Skopp's custom hamer ...

so my question for the forum is: how much will a neck through design alter the tone (and in what ways) as compared to a set neck ?

 

[El CHupacabra]

Re: neck thru project

I don't notice a terrible different sound. Maybe a bit more sustain, but its marginal. Still Firebirds kick ass as it is, so go for it!

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: neck thru project

i might have a chance to attend a class (a couple of nights per week over a few weeks) where we get to build our own electric guitar from scratch

i could pick the shape and wood and just about everything else about it ... except for one thing - they only build neck-through

so i am considering it cus it would be a cool thing to learn and a chance to get a guitar that i probably couldnt get otherwise

so the guitar i am most jonesin' for is a double cut korina P90 guitar with rosewood fingerboard similar to Evan Skopp's custom hamer ...

so my question for the forum is: how much will a neck through design alter the tone (and in what ways) as compared to a set neck ?

The guitar will mostly have the characteristics of the wood you use for the neck... so if you use hard maple, it'll be bright... mahogany, it'll be mellower... etc.
The wings have some little bit of effect, but not like a set neck where the body wood really effects the tone.

Everything equal, you should have better sustain.

From what I understand korina is similar to mahogany in sound, maybe a little brighter, so what you might think about is a korina/mahogany/korina sandwich for the neckthru and mahogany wings with maybe a nice curly maple top (you can either cut the neckthru section down for a 2-piece top or cut it so it just fits over the wings... check out Carvin guitars for what I'm talking about if I didn't explain it adequately).
And then a rosewood board to balance it all out nicely.

*OR* for more awesomeness, make a full rosewood neckthru sandwich with a maple center and full maple wings with an ebony board!

Or for straight ahead rock goodness, a mahogany/maple/mahogany neckthru with mahogany wings.

Remember what Frank Falbo says:

Neck Through notes:
The neck through construction method produces excellent sustain. The neck wood strongly influences the tone of the guitar, because it occupies perhaps the most important part of the body: the center. There is a nasal, thinner quality to the sound, often augmented with a figured wood top. Your side woods make up far less of the tone than on a bolt on or set neck guitar. You first have to estimate what that neck wood’s tone is like as a body wood, and then accentuate or counteract that with your side woods. So a Hard Maple neck through will be very bright and cutting. If you want to warm it up you’d use Basswood or Spruce sides. But if you like that quality, you might use Ash or Soft Maple sides. The effect is very different than the laminated top sound. A maple top on Basswood is nothing like a Maple neck through with Basswood wings, which sounds more like a Maple body. Generally, the softer woods excel as sides because they add back some low end resonance missing in the construction method, while dampening the highs.

Good luck
MM

 

[El CHupacabra]

Re: neck thru project

Or if you're really into hardwoods, try Lignumvitae - also known as guayacan, palo santo, and ironwood. VERY dense. VERY long sustain I anticipate.

 

[tone4days]

Re: neck thru project

thanks guys

i'll let you know if i go for it

t4d

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: neck thru project

I have read (no personal experience) that combining too many woods is not a good idea. Instead of contributing to the tone their unique properties may tend to cancel each other out.

For a neck-through I would use korina neck and wings with a walnut cap and a pao ferro fingerboard.

The class sounds like a blast .... good luck!

 

[beandip]

Re: neck thru project

I'd be sticking with the classics for a neck through. Mahogany neck with mahogany wings, rosewood fretboard. It's such a simple combo but still allows for so much change and variation in tone.

 

[elscorcho]

Re: neck thru project

sounds like a cool experince....hope you go for it! ....I you do, of course, pix are expected!

 

[El CHupacabra]

Re: neck thru project

THe other nice thing about neck-thrus is that you can put on 24 frets and it will be much more stable than most others, because of this: the wings on a neck thru are cut to a certain size but they can be very small if you so choose. Compare that to an RG where the whole body is scooped out very far, leaving not a whole lot of wood for the neck to bolt-on to. I've seen some wobbly-neck RGs.