Do wings/sides on neckthru guitars matter?

[Stealthtastic]

I'm placing a custom order Bond soon and I really want a neckthru.

In your experience, does the wood used for the wings matter much? I can't decide between swamp ash or maple. I've owned a neckthru maple guitar with swamp ash wings before and I liked it a lot but i haven't had a chance to mess with too many neckthrus.

If it matters, the guitar will be a 7 string tuned to drop A or B standard and used for death metal.

 

[K-mark5]

i personally wouldn't go with maple for the wings.. of course you may find different sounding woods within one species which means, one bad sounding piece of mahogany will still sound worse then an amazing piece of swamp ash or any other finer wood, but that applies for the same species too - bad mahogany vs a great one..


I'd go - maple/mahogany neck with swamp ash wings
or mahogany neckthrough with alder wings

neck will have a more drastic impact on the final sound, it's always lottery though..

 

[rupe]

It's all guitar dependent although certain "formulas" will help alleviate certain issues a significant part of the time.
If weight is a concern, you're likelier to shave a bit off by going with swamp ash over maple for your wings. Tonally, both swamp ash and maple "should" lead to a tighter, brighter tone than say mahogany or alder, but you just never know until everything is in place.

 

[Ventura]

It's all guitar dependent although certain "formulas" will help alleviate certain issues a significant part of the time.

Nicely said.

Ya, wings matter, and no, I'm not talking about feminine hygiene products.

 

[rupe]

It's all guitar dependent although certain "formulas" will help alleviate certain issues a significant part of the time.

Nicely said.

Ya, wings matter, and no, I'm not talking about feminine hygiene products.

Apparently you don't do the laundry in your household

 

[Stealthtastic]

Sorry guys I meant to say mahogany VS swamp ash. Anyone have experience between the two? I would keep maple as the neck wood.

 

[shgshg]

In my experience the wings on a neck-through guitar have no discernible impact on the tone. They could be fibreglass.

 

[bhuard75]

I have two custom neck-throughs being built right now. One by Aaron from Black Water Guitars and one by Will Stinnett from Stinnett Guitars. Both have iterated that the species selected for the neck beam will be the prominent tone for the guitar. The wings will have less influence on the guitar's tone.

I'm sure some may believe otherwise. But I'll take their word on this.

 

[JeffHenneman]

What a good question. I wonder how you can't tell if it matters.
It is probably best to use the best quality of woods you can rather than species. Pickup selection would be a way to adjust the tone to your needs, just in case the finally product is a little to bright or dark.

 

[shgshg]

This is entirely subjective based on the guitars I've played, modified, and built over the years.

The things that influence the tone of an electric guitar, in order of importance:

1. The pickup, by a huge margin.
2. The neck wood.
3. The wood around, beneath, and directly behind the bridge.
4. (on a bolt-on) The fit of the butt end of the neck up against the back of the neck socket.

After these things it all starts getting a bit corksniffy.

 

[yngzaklynch]

I think everything matters.

 

[C1-ocaster]

Higher cost Schecters use Mahogany bodies with quilted or flame maple tops on the C-1 Extreme, which is a rare "neck through" design.
I have an '06-'07 C-1 Classic with humbuckers that is a neck-thru design.
Many Schecter models use ebony fretboards and 3 piece necks made of walnut and mahogany.

If what Schecter claims is true about their woods, then they use quite decent materials.
My C1 plays very well, but the electronics let the guitar down imo.
There is almost no control of "tone" using the tone control. At about 85% of it's rotation I can barely hear a difference.
And then for the last 15% everything happens but it's all wrong.
Same goes for the volume control.
Their guitars may as well be directly connected from the PUP's to the output.
They sound great when everything is set to 100%, but that's all you get, cause twiddling the knobs does nearly nothing for the source tone of the guitar.

That's why I'm now looking at a Gibson Les Paul to go with my Fender Strat Plus.
LP's are priced way too high for the given materials, but, the tone, the tone is undeniable and it's sweet, and the controls on the guitar actually do affect the tonal output.

Corrected:
Set necks 'are said and thought to offer' better sustain over bolt on, and neck-thru should offer a bit more sustain, but how much is in the ear of the beholder.

 

[Stealthtastic]

Interesting, thanks for the input.

BTW @C1, there was a study done a bit ago that showed bolt-ons actually have the most sustain and set-neck the least. That being said, I dont think the difference was very significant.

 

[C1-ocaster]

Interesting, thanks for the input.

BTW @C1, there was a study done a bit ago that showed bolt-ons actually have the most sustain and set-neck the least. That being said, I dont think the difference was very significant.

I'll take your word for, as I have no emperical data to counter that.
I've corrected my above post.

I've always like set necks and neck through since I bought my '82 Explorer 2 used in 1983.
That guitar had sustain for days.
But, there are other factors besides how the neck is integrated into the guitar.
It had a mahogany body with flame maple top, and the high output "velvet brick" PUP's, which I'm sure added to most of that sustain.

My Strat Plus has great sustain as well and it's bolt on.
It has Lace sensor PUP's.
The C1 are basic PAF style, nothing special but it sustains nicely too.

So it's best to try out a number of guitars and designs and find what YOU like.

 

[Stealthtastic]

Yup, I agree. I guess a tight pocket and well built bolt on will also make a huge difference compared to the cheaper stuff?

 

[glpg80]

I think everything matters.

^This

I took the 15 billion layers of lacquer off of my fender neck and swore the guitar sounded different. The lacquer made the wood so stiff that the factory did not even bother tightening the truss rod - it was loose inside the neck and the guitar tuned to A440 and the neck was straight as a board. Afterwards a setup + intonation + oiling + waxing + truss adjustment was needed.

Wood definitely matters. But if i were doing any drop tuning i would definitely do swamp ash. Neutral to the sound of the pickups you will plan to use and it isn't overly bright with a really solid low end.

 

[rupe]

This is entirely subjective based on the guitars I've played, modified, and built over the years.

The things that influence the tone of an electric guitar, in order of importance:

3. The wood around, beneath, and directly behind the bridge.

I used to think that as well until a certain guitar totally blew that theory apart. I had always assumed that the Ibanez Voyager would sound awful due to all of the wood missing behind the bridge. Several years ago I had the opportunity to score an RBM2 for a decent price so I went for it. To my surprise, it has more balls than any other Ibanez that I've ever played...in fact, it's bigger sounding than most other electrics period.

That said, it could still be a guiding factor. Essentially I'm simply pointing out that there are no hard, fast rules...just general guidelines that may or may not hold true on an individual basis.

 

[JeffHenneman]

This is entirely subjective based on the guitars I've played, modified, and built over the years.

The things that influence the tone of an electric guitar, in order of importance:

1. The pickup, by a huge margin.
2. The neck wood.
3. The wood around, beneath, and directly behind the bridge.
4. (on a bolt-on) The fit of the butt end of the neck up against the back of the neck socket.

After these things it all starts getting a bit corksniffy.

I totally agree with #1. At least for me, pickups have the biggest effect on my tone.

 

[cardinal]

No offense, but if the builder doesn't know or isn't giving you an answer to this question that makes sense to you, I'm not sure you want this builder to make you a neckthru guitar.

He should know how differences in construction and material impact his builds. Period. If he doesn't, he's not experienced enough to get my business.

 

[Stealthtastic]

No offense, but if the builder doesn't know or isn't giving you an answer to this question that makes sense to you, I'm not sure you want this builder to make you a neckthru guitar.

He should know how differences in construction and material impact his builds. Period. If he doesn't, he's not experienced enough to get my business.

I haven't talked to him about the build much yet. I always like getting input from the community and the builder.

Literally just sent him some specs though, waiting to hear back from him about what he thinks of them.