Bolt on necks

wrinkleygit

wrinkleygit said:

 So the question is, why & how often is the neck likely to require the neck angle to be adjusted on an expensive instrument ?

I don't have anything against bolt on necks, but anybody remember the original question ??

ICBM

wrinkleygit said:

wrinkleygit said:

 So the question is, why & how often is the neck likely to require the neck angle to be adjusted on an expensive instrument ?

I don't have anything against bolt on necks, but anybody remember the original question ??

Why - because the wood eventually changes shape under the string tension. How often - about once every forty years or more.

So although it is true that it makes a reset easier, it's certainly nothing that would make it a major selling point for most people.

CloudNine

Frequency of neck reset might depend on how lightly the guitar is built, but with wood nothing is really certain I suppose. I have seen a few Santa Cruz guitars needing neck resets at about 20 years old. Never seen a Collings needing one at any age, or even looking like there was any movement or change in geometry. Not saying it doesn't happen. I would say these 2 brands are fairly opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of approach to acoustic building.

I have owned quite a few (prob 6 or 7) of each brand, and mostly preferred the SCGC's for tone. I doubt that the preference was anything to do with dovetail vs bolt, and more to do with the overall build ethos.

And the seemingly greater stability of the Collings obviously would not be anything to do with bolt vs dovetail, just thicker wood almost everywhere on the guitar. You can visibly see that. Or just weigh them and that will tell you all you need to know. If I was going to take a guitar to a desert island and spend the rest of my life away from human contact and more importantly any access to a luthier, then I might take a Collings.

My current Bourgeois beats them all for me personally, and that's a bolt joint. I would say they are generally somewhere in between SCGC and Collings in terms of lightness of build. Not really seen any over about 10 year s old, so no idea about long term stability.

Bolt neck might not be a selling point as such, but it's quite nice to know it would be an easy fix if needed. I have seen some guitars that were never the same again after a full invasive neck reset. Also, if a new neck was ever needed due to damage, warping, whatever, that would be much easier. Quite unlikely though really.