Neckplate or ferrules?

[Mickey Mao]

So.....some basses use the neckplate at the body/neck junction, and some use ferrules instead.

What are the pros and cons of each? Any functional difference in the typical four-bolt example?

[testing1two]

Typically basses with neck plates use wood screws and basses without neck plates use machine screws with threaded inserts. It's debatable whether one has more clamping pressure than the other or whether that has any affect on tone but the threaded inserts seem to do a better job of preventing the neck from shifting if the bass gets dropped or abused during transit. They are also harder to strip out but much more difficult to fix if you do.

[pudge]

I've used the allparts ferrules without any problem.Iused them on a guitar that did'nt have room for a full sized neckplate.I used them with the regular neck attachment screws.Never found them to be better or worse than the neckplate just different.One plus was it recessed the screw head a bit.

[Mickey Mao]

Thanks for the replies. I've been using neckplates with metal screws/inserts on my parts basses, and was wondering if I were missing out on something.

Given that's there's extra work to countersink the ferrules, I guess I'll stick to neckplates with the plastic cushion.

[pudge]

If you want to split the difference i saw some neck plates on ebay that are somewhat oval shaped. onefor the 2 bass side screws and one for the 2 treble side screws

[SolarMan]

What is the advantage of the plastic cushion?

[michael_atw]

Originally Posted by SolarMan

What is the advantage of the plastic cushion?

The gasket is probably there just to prevent some power-drill dimmy from ruining the guitar finish. It does a good job of preventing plate 'over-screw' which is typical of lazy people who don't try a hand screw-driver