If you own any Fender electric guitar, you’ll be familiar with a bolt-on neck. Example of a bolt-on neck joint | source: The bolts are attached through the neck block and go into sockets (then tightened) in the neck heel, but not glued, making it easier to undo bolts and switch it out should you need to. Then came the bolt-on joint, first introduced by Fender, which is a mortise and tenon cut into the area known as the neck block, which significantly helps with alignment and provides a bit of strength.
The biggest downside to set-thru necks is if you accidentally break the neck, you’re essentially rendering it useless. There’s also a slight benefit in terms of weight, too, thanks to the lack of bolts, which makes the guitar a bit lighter, but which doesn’t make much difference when it comes to the heavy Les Paul. Samick guitar neck plus#
Where the bolt-on sometimes comes under scrutiny for being uncomfortable, the shallower neck heel, in turn, makes the body depth shallower, which is a big plus for some players. It also provides more sustain and tonal transfer, which is ideal if you like a roaring low to midrange grunt (hello, metalheads). The set-neck sounds warmer and more well-rounded, too, versus the ‘snap and twang’ you find on a bolt-on necked Telecaster, for example. The set neck transfers resonance from neck to body with greater ease and quicker than a bolt-on. Later models (mid-70s onwards) moved to a short-tenon, which they amusingly called a ‘rocker joint,’ as a large portion of the underside wasn’t glued into the pocket. The most famous is the Gibson Les Paul, which has a mortise-and-tenon joint and is designed to allow more comfortable access to the upper frets on the neck.Įarly Les Pauls (like the 1959 Les Paul, or a Gibson Custom Shop reproduction of the same) started with what they called the ‘long-tenon,’ which has a long extension (the tenon) at the end of the neck sitting tightly in the long neck pocket (the mortise), then glued. Most acoustic guitar manufacturers use this style of joint, and many electric guitars adopt this style too. Interestingly, violin makers have been using this technique for years. As the vibrations can travel more freely, you get a thicker, punchier sound. The seamless connection provides a steadfast hold and gives you superior resonant transfer, far better than anything the bolt-on can offer. In other words, the tongue of the neck is glued into the groove of the body.Īs you can see in the picture below, there’s a flush, tight connection between neck and body that involves joining the neck and body with a tightly fitted dovetail joint (known as a mortise and tenon), then secured with strong glue. The first we’re going to look at is the set neck joint.īefore Leo Fender started making guitars (and way before the Fender Stratocaster timeline began), most guitars were built with set neck joints, which consists of a mortise and tenon (or dovetail joint). For example, sustain – i.e., how long a note rings out after being played – is greatly affected by the types of neck joint you have, as we’ll see below. The neck joint affects the transference from the vibrating strings to the pickups on the body, from high to low frequencies, including fundamentals and harmonics.Įvery little technique you play on the fretboard, from hammer-ons to bends, are passed via the joint to the pickups. It’s more than just a physical connection holding the instrument together. Its primary function is to hold the body and neck together, obviously, but there is more to it than that. The neck joint is the intersection between the neck and body of a guitar.
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