Pairing Necks and Bodies

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Pairing Necks and Bodies

I'll also say that I don't really know how important resonance is. All things equal I'd rather go for something that is louder unplugged, vs. more resonant; those criteria don't always go hand in hand either. Unplugged tone with greater volume = more dynamics to my ears, because you can have a more varied range of tone just by picking soft/harder (not to mention vintage output pickups come through better...)

There's another positive aspect to the louder-when-unplugged factor too: this quality indicates good transfer of vibration from the strings through the wood and to the surrounding air. But it works the other way too- a guitar with this quality will also have good transfer of ambient vibration from the surrounding air through the wood to the strings, so these are the ones that really come alive at volume.

As for tone & resonance vs weight & wood type, I think there are lively pieces and dead pieces in any wood you can name. And different wood typess have different characters, sure, but I feel there's a lot more variety within each type than we tend to imagine. We may talk about maple being generally brighter than mahogany, but that doesn't mean all maple is bright, or all mahogany warm. You can usually expect a maple neck to feel stiffer and snappier than a mahogany one, but even that isn't necessarily universal and there might be exceptions.

And while my personal preference is for lighter guitars, I have a few heavy ones that really sing, too. IMO it's all down to the particular piece of wood.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Pairing Necks and Bodies

There's also a flip-side I think: when you want a more even/compressed tone with less variation, a guitar with a Floyd (in general less loud unplugged so with less ability to modulate heavy/light picking as there's not so much difference between either) combined with hot pickups (to add more compression and back volume and sensitivity,) would work quite well.

It's a similar thing to getting a more compressed, even tone from an acoustic with light strings, but sacrificing volume.

 

[dave74]

Re: Pairing Necks and Bodies

I never realized quite how much difference the wood type makes until I gotst my Carvin dc125 full-hog.

It's my only guitar that isn't a maple or maple-based laminate neck,,,,,, and go figure it's also by far my most unique-toned guitar.

The lows are deep, rounded and spongy and the mids sit low and are a bit scooped in the uppers. Highs are crisp with the ebony/stainless board.

Every pickup I've tried sounds good in there,,,,,,,a great problem to have! (the stock c22b didn't "feel" like I wanted though,,,but I've tried the Dimebucker, the 81, and now an x2n, and they all satisfy me 100% in that thing.

I just like the fun of swapping to see what happens lol. I'm staying with the x2n though because it matches the best cosmetically with the natural tung-oiled hog ,,,,,a real "no bling" axe. lol

 

[Jeffblue]

Re: Pairing Necks and Bodies

I recently built two Warmoth telecaster partscasters and the this is what I experienced. 1.Quilted Maple on Swamp Ash body and roasted Maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. 2. Black Korina body with a solid roasted Maple neck. Guitar #1 sounded too dark for a tele ( SD vintage mini humbucker neck, vintage P90 middle and Five-Two tele in the bridge) and #2 wasn't dark enough (two P90s and a Dimebucker in the middle)

I decided that exchanging the necks between these two guitars would get me what I was looking for and it worked. Guitar #1 became brighter and #2 was more what a P90 based guitar should be. Differences in materials always has some impact in overall tone.