Not really "largely" when just jamming by your self at low volume. The sustain and the feel is the biggest difference for me personally but also like he mentioned the bolt on is more snappy and "hard" and the other is more smooth and "soft"
The problem with bolt on necks is that most guitars have the screws directly into the wood. Yngwie Malmsteen is a smart guy. On his signature Fender guitars the neckscrews don’t go into the wood but into copper insert that are in the wood. This way the neck is very stable. I wish more bolt ons were constructed like this
I wonder if the screws could cause the neck not to be levelled in its pocket if they were tightened using different amounts of torque (over an extended period of time).
There is no loss of sustain on bolt ons, The spapier attak , which you dont have on set necks makes you feel, that ists getting quieter after the attak. Bolt ons have actually more sustain.
Sustain relies on nut, strings and bridge...the better the quality the longer the sustain..I've played boltons with insane sustain vs crappy built neckthrough's...Tone relies on pickups only...no wood involved in tone shaping on electric instuments.
I strongly prefer set necks or neck through designs. This is partially because of the sonic characteristics mentioned (though a great deal of what the shown was because of single coil vs humbucker pickups), but mainly it's the ergonomics. Set necks and neck throughs can be made to have a seamless transition between the neck and body that makes playing higher on the neck way more comfortable than the hard transition of either a bolt on or Les Paul style set neck
Good stuff, Ryan. Bass players talk about the "trick" of loosening bolt-on neck screws a bit with the strings at pitch (then re-tightening them of course) to get a better coupling between the neck and body. Some say it moves the tone in the direction of a set/thru. I tried it and it definitely seemed to give the notes more low-end and less treble in the attack and what I perceived as LESS sustain, like swapping for a lower-mass bridge. Anyway I just swapped the neck on this bass for a maple fretboard and it sounds great as-is. I don't plan on trying the "trick," for now.
I once had a Yamaha BB405 bass , with bolt-on neck. Had glued the neck solidly to the body, and noticed significant more sustain (and less attack), and the low B string sounded better. It makes difference, is the conclusion.
I’ve owned guitars with all variations. Personally my favorite is the neck through design just because of the stability. But my strat also sounds amazing and it’s a bolt on.
Michigan here... Great video! Everyone has a preferred sound, sustain and tone. I have both set neck and bolt on so I can hear and feel the difference from each. However I must point out this one thing. David Gilmour's black Stratocaster is a bolt on neck and he can get a crazy amount of sustain out of it. So it shows that bolt on can get the job done in the right hands.
I owned nothing but bolt-on solid body electric guitars for many years, with one ill-fated acoustic as the lone major departure. I own 2 set necks, 1 neck through, 2 bolt-on basses, one bolt-on mini-guitar, and six regular bolt-on guitars. I took me many years to acquire these instruments, and many other bolt-ons came and went before them. I have notice that even with relatively humble bolt-on guitars, setup and fret condition are pivotal factors in sustain and tone. I have read opinions that say that bolt-ons and set necks can perform up to the standard of (and may outshine) neck through guitars. I have yet to experience that, but I remain glad that I now can experience all 3 type of neck to body joints.
They are both different and both awesome. Here’s what most people don’t get. Firstly: My 1# and #2 are a cs strat and a sg standard t. They both have their strengths. The bolt on neck isn’t as responsible for the snap as is the springs in the trem. I use 5 and never trem but you can hear those springs clearly ringing away adding that strat snap. What the bolt on neck does vs the set neck is creates some sonic dissonance. The bolt on neck doesn’t transfer energy as directly- it loses some sustain (esp down near the neck pickup when bending) compared to a set neck. But what it also seems to do is to cause a sort of dissonance where the vibrations don’t travel as smoothly thru to the body so they sort of insulate it a bit while bouncing back some subtle frequencies back thru the neck which seems to subtly add some killer sort of undertones back in. The best way I can describe it is: dissonance. Remember energy is never lost- it’s converted to one form or another. In this case it seems to lose some vibes but those vibes kind of hang out with the next set of vibes coming through and changes them a bit. I hope this makes sense. Where as the set neck gibson if set up properly (that’s key) will buzz your fret hand twice as hard and keep going for twice as long. This is why I always give the advice to people if they want humbuckers they may as well do the humbucker balls tone thing properly with a set neck. Remember tho guys, I said my number 1 is a strat, and it is. That dissonance thing I hear is what makes a properly dialed strat arguably the best most deeply emotional sounding of all guitars, but the set neck is what makes the good set neck stuff the rock god. Don’t get me wrong it’s easy to get a keef kind of tone with a fender- but there’s a reason you have to turn down your amp about 30% if you’re hot swapping a cable from a fender to a gibson (and it’s not humbuckers. You still have to turn down an amp when going from a HH tele to a HH LP or SG. Thats the reason for it. However i’ll trade some tone balls for some dissonance any day. It sounds interesting. Humbuckers always sound just like 20% less less emotional to me, but louder and more sterile.
Is the difference in tone between the Tele and Les Paul because of the *neck* or the pickups? A better comparison would be to use the same pickups in each guitar. And how can you *lose* tone? Like what does that even mean?
I have been playing guitar for 40 years now and own 30+ guitars. In my experience, bolt-on guitars are not necessarily inferior when it comes to sustain, but they do tend to have a less even response up and down the neck. I am not exactly sure why this is so, but they always seem to have areas on the neck where certain notes ring louder than on other areas of the neck and are definitely more prone to dead spots. Neck-through designs are superior to the other 2 for me. The neck heel can be shaped without affecting the strength (which is not necessarily true for set-neck designs). The most stable guitars I have are a old jackson soloist and a carvin dc400 from the 90s, both are neck-through designs with graphite reinforrcement. Can take those out of the case after 20 years and they didn't budge at all. They definitely do not sound warmer or have less snap per se either - while a les paul will never sound like a strat, this has more to do with the scale length, and the wood mass - hollow it out and it's a different beast altogether.
I think bolt on can achieve more playable low action, like super low action because you can compensate the neck angle by putting a shim inside the neck pocket, I do not own a neck thu guitar yet but I tried one and I don't know if neck thru guitars can achieve the super low action of a shimmed bolt on neck.
Night and day differences. Bit its not better or worse its just what you want. And for people who think its just the single coil vs humbuckers, its not at that low volume. Its only a small factor here
I have all three types: a bolt-on Warwick Corvette $$, a neck-thru Kiesel Icon, and 2 set neck Guitars (Kiesel CS6 and PRS Custom 24). I've never played a neck-thru guitar but would like to give one a try
Sorry, newbies, you may want them all. Bolts (actually screws, but no one wants a "screwed" instrument) have definition for each note. Set necks meld notes into chords well. As a bassist, gimme neck-thru sustain 'cause I can mute strings as needed. Just put StringJoys on them all. That's not a shameless plug. I can't afford the best car but it's easy to afford the strings that sound perfect, feel slinky, survive Midwest temperature changes best, and don't have to be changed as often. Sorry, Scott & the helpful crew. but the very little more I spend with you per set more than pays off & eliminates problems. Plus I've thrown some crazy questions at you (Bass VI, hot-rodded LPJr, drop D, etc.) and the staff quickly helps.
The comparison you said you were making in this video are not worth anything sadly. You have compared different pickups, different bridges, neck lengths, strings gauges but not different types of guitar construction methods. Because the changes in, for example, sustain is very subtil between bolt-on/neck through, you need to plug a bolt-on guitar into an oscilloscope and the exact same guitar with neck through, then pluck the string at same spot with the same force. With this method, you will have solid evidence to make a claim I believe
For sure. I would argue that this more resembles the real world choice players have to make with this. You don't get an option to buy the same strat with the same pickups in either a bolt-on, set neck, or neck thru manner. You can only access these different necks via jumping to whole different guitar designs with typically completely different pickups. So the question really is, how much does that matter alongside the other choices you're making when picking a guitar. For me personally, the answer is "not much."
@@Stringjoy I completely agree! I believe (not shure thought) scheter has these different guitars on certain models but they seem to be the only one. Hope your video can help people trying to find their instrument
Sorry, but this is BIG B.S All in all it is a regurgitation of wrong concepts that are not based on any scientific testing but on material taken from the PR department of certain companies.
Agreed, this is all complete nonsense. Pickups make noise by interacting with the strings moving through space. Everything else is an afterthought at best. Everyone should watch Jim Lill's videos on this instead: th-cam.com/video/n02tImce3AE/w-d-xo.html
@@Stringjoy nope, I can't. There's definitely a lot of variables that come into play between all of these guitars, and it's very-very hard to do a real scientific experiment on this topic. I just hoped to maybe see at least some non-ideal tests with plucking the string(s) with as identical strength as possible, and comparing the results afterwards. But, of course, that would be pretty much useless from the scientific point of view. This would be kinda like a "fun thing to check" and nothing more. I'm sorry that my comment came out that rude. U definitely did a great job explaining the concepts. I just came searching for some real-deal comparison tests and ur video was the first one of my search results 😅 I wish u a very good day. Sorry once again for my bad attitude.
This is an apples to oranges to bananas comparison. 3 completely different guitars with completely different pickups. The differences are either exacerbated by or completely a result of these differences. Warmoth does much better apples to apples comparisons when it comes to these things.
Dude the difference you hear between the bolt on and set neck is largely from going from single coils to humbuckers.
Exactly!! Apple and oranges. I have bolt on necks that sound as warm as set neck guitars. Obviously both using the exact same pickup configuration.
Not really "largely" when just jamming by your self at low volume. The sustain and the feel is the biggest difference for me personally but also like he mentioned the bolt on is more snappy and "hard" and the other is more smooth and "soft"
And different scale lengths
@@cobyup10 Yup. The other critical factor.
Hard to compare when all the pickup configurations and woods of the guitars are different.
Yes, it is
The problem with bolt on necks is that most guitars have the screws directly into the wood. Yngwie Malmsteen is a smart guy. On his signature Fender guitars the neckscrews don’t go into the wood but into copper insert that are in the wood. This way the neck is very stable. I wish more bolt ons were constructed like this
I wonder if the screws could cause the neck not to be levelled in its pocket if they were tightened using different amounts of torque (over an extended period of time).
@@smollande sorry, I don't know what you mean
@@chocolatecookie8571 that's ok I'm just rambling
@@smollande okay, ramble on
There is no loss of sustain on bolt ons, The spapier attak , which you dont have on set necks makes you feel, that ists getting quieter after the attak. Bolt ons have actually more sustain.
There have been a few comp vids and from what i gathered not much difference in sustain between Strat and Les Paul.
Sustain relies on nut, strings and bridge...the better the quality the longer the sustain..I've played boltons with insane sustain vs crappy built neckthrough's...Tone relies on pickups only...no wood involved in tone shaping on electric instuments.
I strongly prefer set necks or neck through designs. This is partially because of the sonic characteristics mentioned (though a great deal of what the shown was because of single coil vs humbucker pickups), but mainly it's the ergonomics. Set necks and neck throughs can be made to have a seamless transition between the neck and body that makes playing higher on the neck way more comfortable than the hard transition of either a bolt on or Les Paul style set neck
Good stuff, Ryan. Bass players talk about the "trick" of loosening bolt-on neck screws a bit with the strings at pitch (then re-tightening them of course) to get a better coupling between the neck and body. Some say it moves the tone in the direction of a set/thru. I tried it and it definitely seemed to give the notes more low-end and less treble in the attack and what I perceived as LESS sustain, like swapping for a lower-mass bridge. Anyway I just swapped the neck on this bass for a maple fretboard and it sounds great as-is. I don't plan on trying the "trick," for now.
I once had a Yamaha BB405 bass , with bolt-on neck. Had glued the neck solidly to the body, and noticed significant more sustain (and less attack), and the low B string sounded better. It makes difference, is the conclusion.
I’ve owned guitars with all variations. Personally my favorite is the neck through design just because of the stability. But my strat also sounds amazing and it’s a bolt on.
Humbucker and single coil pick up has difference
Michigan here... Great video! Everyone has a preferred sound, sustain and tone. I have both set neck and bolt on so I can hear and feel the difference from each. However I must point out this one thing. David Gilmour's black Stratocaster is a bolt on neck and he can get a crazy amount of sustain out of it. So it shows that bolt on can get the job done in the right hands.
I owned nothing but bolt-on solid body electric guitars for many years, with one ill-fated acoustic as the lone major departure. I own 2 set necks, 1 neck through, 2 bolt-on basses, one bolt-on mini-guitar, and six regular bolt-on guitars. I took me many years to acquire these instruments, and many other bolt-ons came and went before them. I have notice that even with relatively humble bolt-on guitars, setup and fret condition are pivotal factors in sustain and tone. I have read opinions that say that bolt-ons and set necks can perform up to the standard of (and may outshine) neck through guitars. I have yet to experience that, but I remain glad that I now can experience all 3 type of neck to body joints.
They are both different and both awesome. Here’s what most people don’t get.
Firstly: My 1# and #2 are a cs strat and a sg standard t.
They both have their strengths. The bolt on neck isn’t as responsible for the snap as is the springs in the trem. I use 5 and never trem but you can hear those springs clearly ringing away adding that strat snap. What the bolt on neck does vs the set neck is creates some sonic dissonance. The bolt on neck doesn’t transfer energy as directly- it loses some sustain (esp down near the neck pickup when bending) compared to a set neck. But what it also seems to do is to cause a sort of dissonance where the vibrations don’t travel as smoothly thru to the body so they sort of insulate it a bit while bouncing back some subtle frequencies back thru the neck which seems to subtly add some killer sort of undertones back in. The best way I can describe it is: dissonance. Remember energy is never lost- it’s converted to one form or another. In this case it seems to lose some vibes but those vibes kind of hang out with the next set of vibes coming through and changes them a bit. I hope this makes sense. Where as the set neck gibson if set up properly (that’s key) will buzz your fret hand twice as hard and keep going for twice as long. This is why I always give the advice to people if they want humbuckers they may as well do the humbucker balls tone thing properly with a set neck.
Remember tho guys, I said my number 1 is a strat, and it is. That dissonance thing I hear is what makes a properly dialed strat arguably the best most deeply emotional sounding of all guitars, but the set neck is what makes the good set neck stuff the rock god. Don’t get me wrong it’s easy to get a keef kind of tone with a fender- but there’s a reason you have to turn down your amp about 30% if you’re hot swapping a cable from a fender to a gibson (and it’s not humbuckers. You still have to turn down an amp when going from a HH tele to a HH LP or SG. Thats the reason for it. However i’ll trade some tone balls for some dissonance any day. It sounds interesting. Humbuckers always sound just like 20% less less emotional to me, but louder and more sterile.
Isn't it true though that one of the best things you can do if your limited by budget is to just have good quality strings.
Is the difference in tone between the Tele and Les Paul because of the *neck* or the pickups? A better comparison would be to use the same pickups in each guitar.
And how can you *lose* tone? Like what does that even mean?
they're all good for what theyre good for.
all guitars are different, and all guitars (all instruments) are great, because music is fn awesome!
Apart from the pickups, much of tone difference comes from the bridge as well as the bolt on being maple.
Definitely a bolt-on neck fan for this snapping and bright sound that i love but i like my set neck guitars too for their better sustain
I have been playing guitar for 40 years now and own 30+ guitars. In my experience, bolt-on guitars are not necessarily inferior when it comes to sustain, but they do tend to have a less even response up and down the neck. I am not exactly sure why this is so, but they always seem to have areas on the neck where certain notes ring louder than on other areas of the neck and are definitely more prone to dead spots. Neck-through designs are superior to the other 2 for me. The neck heel can be shaped without affecting the strength (which is not necessarily true for set-neck designs). The most stable guitars I have are a old jackson soloist and a carvin dc400 from the 90s, both are neck-through designs with graphite reinforrcement. Can take those out of the case after 20 years and they didn't budge at all. They definitely do not sound warmer or have less snap per se either - while a les paul will never sound like a strat, this has more to do with the scale length, and the wood mass - hollow it out and it's a different beast altogether.
I think bolt on can achieve more playable low action, like super low action because you can compensate the neck angle by putting a shim inside the neck pocket, I do not own a neck thu guitar yet but I tried one and I don't know if neck thru guitars can achieve the super low action of a shimmed bolt on neck.
Night and day differences. Bit its not better or worse its just what you want. And for people who think its just the single coil vs humbuckers, its not at that low volume. Its only a small factor here
I have all three types: a bolt-on Warwick Corvette $$, a neck-thru Kiesel Icon, and 2 set neck Guitars (Kiesel CS6 and PRS Custom 24). I've never played a neck-thru guitar but would like to give one a try
Then play that Kiesel Icon
It is nice that my Ibanez 7 string is bolt on and basswood body it it punchy. I don't mind set neck. My Neck-thru guitars sing.
This is one of the most informative videos I've ever watched! Seriously, great job Stringjoy! 🤘🤘🤘🤘
Good review. Thanks.
Sorry, newbies, you may want them all. Bolts (actually screws, but no one wants a "screwed" instrument) have definition for each note. Set necks meld notes into chords well. As a bassist, gimme neck-thru sustain 'cause I can mute strings as needed. Just put StringJoys on them all. That's not a shameless plug. I can't afford the best car but it's easy to afford the strings that sound perfect, feel slinky, survive Midwest temperature changes best, and don't have to be changed as often. Sorry, Scott & the helpful crew. but the very little more I spend with you per set more than pays off & eliminates problems. Plus I've thrown some crazy questions at you (Bass VI, hot-rodded LPJr, drop D, etc.) and the staff quickly helps.
all the sustains!
There have been a few shall we say more scientific tests and result was little to no difference in sustain between a Strat and Les Paul.
Unreasoned baloney
I think bolt ons typically sound the best.
The comparison you said you were making in this video are not worth anything sadly. You have compared different pickups, different bridges, neck lengths, strings gauges but not different types of guitar construction methods. Because the changes in, for example, sustain is very subtil between bolt-on/neck through, you need to plug a bolt-on guitar into an oscilloscope and the exact same guitar with neck through, then pluck the string at same spot with the same force. With this method, you will have solid evidence to make a claim I believe
For sure. I would argue that this more resembles the real world choice players have to make with this. You don't get an option to buy the same strat with the same pickups in either a bolt-on, set neck, or neck thru manner. You can only access these different necks via jumping to whole different guitar designs with typically completely different pickups. So the question really is, how much does that matter alongside the other choices you're making when picking a guitar. For me personally, the answer is "not much."
@@Stringjoy I completely agree! I believe (not shure thought) scheter has these different guitars on certain models but they seem to be the only one.
Hope your video can help people trying to find their instrument
Sorry, but this is BIG B.S
All in all it is a regurgitation of wrong concepts that are not based on any scientific testing but on material taken from the PR department of certain companies.
Agreed, this is all complete nonsense. Pickups make noise by interacting with the strings moving through space. Everything else is an afterthought at best. Everyone should watch Jim Lill's videos on this instead: th-cam.com/video/n02tImce3AE/w-d-xo.html
no tests, only talking. I don't believe in talking. I believe in objective test results
How would you test it? Can you think of a guitar model where you can buy otherwise identical copies that are bolt-on, set-neck, and thru-body?
@@Stringjoy nope, I can't. There's definitely a lot of variables that come into play between all of these guitars, and it's very-very hard to do a real scientific experiment on this topic.
I just hoped to maybe see at least some non-ideal tests with plucking the string(s) with as identical strength as possible, and comparing the results afterwards. But, of course, that would be pretty much useless from the scientific point of view. This would be kinda like a "fun thing to check" and nothing more.
I'm sorry that my comment came out that rude. U definitely did a great job explaining the concepts. I just came searching for some real-deal comparison tests and ur video was the first one of my search results
😅
I wish u a very good day. Sorry once again for my bad attitude.
@@StringjoySchecters C line of guitars. They have bolt one. Neck thru, and set neck versions
Worst selection of guitars for a neck construction comparison, not that it makes any difference in sound with an electric guitar
Here's another great comparison of the three.
Bolt on all the way 🤟
th-cam.com/video/VZg09dW6-yI/w-d-xo.html
This is an apples to oranges to bananas comparison. 3 completely different guitars with completely different pickups. The differences are either exacerbated by or completely a result of these differences.
Warmoth does much better apples to apples comparisons when it comes to these things.