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Neck through or no neck through ?

neck throught or not neck throught


  • Total voters
    89
  • Poll closed .
top divided by neck trought block would look nice. But as far as what is the differences in tone regarding neck through and bolt on, there was a nice old article in bassplayer mag that featured that same question.
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or bassgear
 
The reasons someone would choose bolt-on are purely subjetive...

Neck through is stiffer in general. More solid construction. No question about it...

Nothing about neck through is inherently stiffer.

I've had 5 piece laminate bolt ons that are far stiffer than single piece neck through basses.

Of course laminate neck construction is more common on neck through instruments, so the two often get confused.
 
Nothing about neck through is inherently stiffer.

I've had 5 piece laminate bolt ons that are far stiffer than single piece neck through basses.

Of course laminate neck construction is more common on neck through instruments, so the two often get confused.

The body/neck attachment is stiffer by nature, its all the same piece of a hard wood.

In the other hand yo have two pieces. Neck (hard wood), body (softer), attached by bolts at the end of both.
 
The main reason I prefer a bolt on is the neck throughs are painted. If I could get a custom job with the neck and portion of the back of the body not painted, that would be different. I guess you could get Carvin or someone to do it. I've never seen one though. I'm not saying they don't exist but seem to be very hard to come by.
Neither of my set neck and neck thru basses have painted necks.

In any case, I have bolt ons, a set neck and neck thru basses. I really don't notice a huge difference in sustain but access to the upper register is easier with a neck thru.

Regarding a "full veneer" top vs a top with a different wood in the middle, that is ALL personal preference IMO. All about what look you like.
 
My Wal is a bolt-on. It's the most amazing sounding bass, and best playing bass I've ever had. And my Fenders, bolt-on and fantastic sounding, too. I have my neck thru Rickenbacker 4001 that has less sustain than either the Wal or my Jazz or Precisions and it feels stiffer. Not sure I can attribute that to neck-thru or not.
 
Neck through for slap, bolt on for funk. In my ears, the bolt on has a thicker sound than the neck through.

There is a difference but it's not so great to warrant much thought.

Either is good. Don't fret it.

Davo

When I watched the video, I turned my iPad away so that I wouldn't know up front which bass I was hearing. I liked the NT better for pick and for thump. I liked the BO better for finger.

Neck-through seems too risky, especially since they are mostly on more expensive instruments. Is the neck really going to stay straight over the years?
I have a 1987 Alembic and a 2000 Alembic. Both NT and both straight as an arrow.

Of my 6 basses, 3 are NT and 3 are BO. As far as I can tell, the differences between them are more difrences in brand and electronics than NT vs BO. My NTs are Alembic and Marchlewski, my BOs are Music Man and Fender.

For what it's worth, this is a good example of a hidden NT. You can see a lot of the lines the OP is looking for on the tail end in the in-progress photo.

Marchlewski5front.jpg

Marchlewski5back.jpg
TopwithPickuard.jpg
 
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You all realize he's not actually asking about neck through vs bolt on, right?

He's trying to ask if he will prefer the look of a doubleneck with a continuous top or one with laminate stripes from the neck pocket to heel on each side. He's going to use bolt on necks.

The answer to his question is that nobody else can tell him what he likes to look at.


you find the right point of my question , because they both nice but i can decide which have .
 
Tone wise, through necks sound warmer and have more sustain than bolt-ons.

1) Nobody has proven that neck-through construction has superior sustain. That's just another myth that's been repeated enough times over the years to be accepted as fact, whether it's true or not. In fact, every test that I've seen (and conducted myself) shows that bolt-on guitars and basses have more sustain than neck through and set neck construction. Seems counter-intuitive, but it appears to be true. IMO, the whole "sustain" issue is largely a red herring, anyway. How long do you really need a single note to sustain?

2) There are a lot of other factors that have a bigger influence on the warmth of tone than how the neck is attached. Using that line of logic a Rickenbacker should sound warmer than a P-bass.
 
You all realize he's not actually asking about neck through vs bolt on, right?

He's trying to ask if he will prefer the look of a doubleneck with a continuous top or one with laminate stripes from the neck pocket to heel on each side. He's going to use bolt on necks.

The answer to his question is that nobody else can tell him what he likes to look at.

You are correct sir! (on both counts).