Neck-Through-Body Pickup Recess Holes

[bbsailor]

When a guitar uses a neck-through-body design, does cutting pickup recess holes in the neck block affect the full potential of this single piece of wood design? Is there any effect on sustain or tone?

The typical pickup recess is only about .75" deep.

I would like to hear opinions from guitar makes, guitar technicians, pickup makers, players and other people who have an opinion.

Joseph Rogowski

[David Schwab]

Rickenbacker damn near cuts all the way through the body for the treble pickup on the 4003 bass.

My opinion is it makes no difference if it's a neck through or a set neck, except the neck through has the bridge sitting on what ever the neck is made from which is usually maple. That's assuming the set neck goes far enough into the body.

I've done set necks and neck throughs as well as bolt on basses. The set necks and neck throughs sound the same. The bolt on sounds little different.

I've also done bolt ons with the neck sitting on an inlayed maple block in an alder body, and the block improved the tone and made it sound more like a set neck.

[bbsailor]

Rickenbacker damn near cuts all the way through the body for the treble pickup on the 4003 bass.

My opinion is it makes no difference if it's a neck through or a set neck, except the neck through has the bridge sitting on what ever the neck is made from which is usually maple. That's assuming the set neck goes far enough into the body.

I've done set necks and neck throughs as well as bolt on basses. The set necks and neck throughs sound the same. The bolt on sounds little different.

I've also done bolt ons with the neck sitting on an inlayed maple block in an alder body, and the block improved the tone and made it sound more like a set neck.

David,

Thanks for your opinion.

Somehow, the deep pickup recesses being in line with the main vibration path, as shown in your bass photo, should seem to impede certain frequencies. However, your observation about neck-through-body and set necks sounding similar gives pause for some more thought about this matter. I would think that having a similar density between a set neck and the body for set neck would be an important consideration.

Joseph Rogowski

[David Schwab]

If you think about it, once the neck shaft of a neck through is glued to the body wings, they become part of the same neck shaft. Just think of it as a very wide laminated neck.

There is nothing that would make the vibration continue up the neck and not go out to the surrounding body. So that's probably why cutting a cavity into the neck shaft doesn't matter much. The vibrations can not propagate above or below the neck shaft, since there is nothing there, but they can go out the sides once they are glued to the body wings.

A good example of this is when I planed some purple heart down to 1/4" thick, and glued several pieces together into a wider plate. This was for laminating between the top and back of a solid body bass. When I held a corner of the plate and tapped it, it rang like a bell. So the fact that it was three pieces glued together made no different to it's ability to resonate as a single piece. So much for people worrying about glue lines!

I think the main focus has to be on the vibrating strings, and the neck/body are a means of supporting that string. The supporting structure will vibrate as one unit, although the neck will probably flex more than the body, especially with longer necks like a bass.

The biggest advantage to a neck through seem to be in the ease of carving the neck heel into the body. My set necks are inlayed into the top of the body and end under the neck pickup.