Polycarbonate neck bracket

[John_H]

Say man, drawing someone in with what appears as honest interest, only to reveal intent to ridicule strikes me as dark-hearted. Snark is quite poplar with the YT crowd, if that's what you're going for. I'm not proposing scientific theories here – just making some suggestions for cheap easy things to try with my own ideas about why/how. They can be taken with a grain of salt. All that matters is the results.

You're wrong here. All that matters is keeping it real. Your observations don't mean much if you can't accurately demonstrate them. I find that when you have things where there is no measurement of the magnitude people resort to using a whole bunch of descriptive adjectives that don't amount to anything more than absurdity. I made the post so that maybe you would realize that your nonsensical BS has no merit. Anytime I see more than three descriptors in the same sentence, I consider the source dubious. The quote below is laughable, and ridiculous.

...I will also be using more slinky Ni/Fe alloy strings for a sweeter/warmer/looser sound. The high end should still be glassy, but sweeter, and the bass warmer with a more relaxed midrange quality. I'll also use an Aluminum shield which softens the upper-mids a tad without reducing the highs...and the pickups are sweeter, more sensitive, and “bigger” sounding than the stock AlNiCo V pickups...

[Fluoroscope 5000]

I'm wrong that you are continually hurling mean-spirited remarks my way?

To simplify: Lighter weight same gauge strings do have less tension at pitch. Higher tension does produce sharper upper-harmonics. That's easily tested physics. The rest is my observations and/or extrapolations based on those principles – not scientific studies, broheimeisteramalamadingdongdoodlealla'day.

The affect of 0.015~0.030 Aluminum shielding is also easily tested. You could for instance try taping down a few of those GFS shields over a Strat pickguard and recording before and afters. I did it with layers of Al tape many years ago. The resulting effect is what BL claimed. Judge for yourself.

All pickups have different qualities. Some have better sensitivity, stronger fundamental response, and more consistent AC response across the spectrum – mainly from thinner wire coils, more of which being closer to the strings.

If you find me an incredible source, so be it. Maybe reserve the hatred for things that really matter in life? These tirades are unnecessary at the least. This is the last time I will respond to them. Hope you can relax and find some joy. Maybe fire up that coal powered guitar.

[big_teee]

I for one, have no problem with bolt on suggestions, as long as the results are not pawned as fact.
As long as you say, you might want to try this, it may or may not change anything, use IMO, and YMMV.
Guys love to experiment with things they think effect tone.
I have a few of my own ideas like that.
Have fun, that is the main thing.

T

[tedmich]

Fluoroscope 5k fret not, John_H tends to be in the hard core empiricist camp when it comes to reported experimentation. Please do not allow his brusque tone to dissuade you from some very useful followups: for example simple A/B testing clips of your PC process on a single guitar's neck pocket. (Too many descriptive adjectives tend to rile some people here, so throw some numbers in too

[g1]

Yes, less adspeak and more recorded data would be helpful.
Sweetness is not a pickup quality unless one is accustomed to licking their pickups.

[big_teee]

Also Posts that are short and too the point, will get read more than long lengthy post with too many superlatives.

T

[Jason Rodgers]

What you're observing might be massively biased by what you think you want to hear, or you might be hearing real changes, but you're going to need to give folks some solid evidence.

I'll leave that to you, but in the meantime, here is some possible corroboration. I remember reading this interview with Rick Turner years ago in American Lutherie. He's talking about his adjustable neck joint on his acoustic guitars...

"I was inspired by the Howe-Orme neck-attachment design, and I came across an August Larson patent that is almost the same thing, but we are modifying it in some key ways. They used two jack screws under the fingerboard, one on either side of the heel. I've added a third jack screw at the heel-cap position. The three adjustable jack screws have machined points that stick out of the heel, and I'll be putting metal sockets on the body to receive them. This point-contact system is very much like some of the vibration-control designs you see in high-end-stereo systems and aerospace gear. The conical points act as one-way-mechanical diodes, vibrations will be able to go from the neck into the body, but will be inhibited from coming back from the body into the neck because there is so little contact area. The idea is to drive as much energy into the body as possible, and have as little energy as possible going to areas which are not acoustically active." Turner Renaissance Guitars - Hand-Built Guitars, Basses & Ukuleles By Rick Turner.

Googling "Rick Turner guitar neck joint" gives you some pictures. I don't know if what he describes is actually happening, either, but here is someone else who has strong opinions about neck joints, their methods of attachment, and the resulting transfers of vibration (and he happens to be Rick Turner).

EDIT: Here's more reading on the audio cone feet he mentions http://www.symposiumusa.com/tech1.html

[Fluoroscope 5000]

I want to address all issues/questions thus far. This might all seem like more cork-sniffery, but everyone has specific preferences, and I always strive for cheap solutions. So, it's Boone's Farm cork-sniffery at best. First, none of the following can be relied on as “fact”. I don't have the means by which to present adequate tests for everything I have read and believe, but there may be ideas of interest herein...read on at your own peril.

I get that people want evidence, but it's just a piece of plastic in the neck pocket - - not rocket surgery. The results may be negligible depending on the wood, so there's really not much point in discussing the effectiveness. This mod is a prime candidate for the YMMV acronym. There is no reason to believe full neck heel contact improves sustain, and some may prefer a softer sound anyway. The thing is, I have found that the response character of a decently rigid guitar (preferably one without oily/resiny FB or neck wood that damps the highs), can be somewhat tuned with various neck bracket materials. The response can be made more punchy/crisp with increased bass and highs, and more compliant string materials can then be used to soften the response with better resulting sustain and dynamics, possibly with extended and more in tune higher harmonics.

The cone isolation neck mounting system is very groovy indeed. I'm also attempting to somewhat isolate the neck from the body, but in a cheap and easy manner. The increased coupling force and potentially better rigidity probably improves sustain as well. My brother uses 1mm Stainless washers, but I think they will cause the neck to contact the body. A ~1mm thick Stainless bracket might be better than Lexan, but very hard to cut. Trimming ~1mm Lexan is easy with good scissors. Considering the greater hardness and elasticity, Delrin might be a better choice. Here are 0.031” thick sheets which can be cut with scissors:
Delrin® Sheet | Acetal Homopolymer Sheets | Plastics International[2]=0.031&language=en

BTW, I made a few videos of the results with Lexan here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx...TZfbVpoVkg0cHM

Again, the higher frequency sustain improvement with the trem bridge up off the body makes it also worth doing - - in a word: more “open”. Maybe it's the combination of less string damping through the bridge plate, along with how the bridge surface area affects body resonance modes; in turn, neck induced string damping. Perhaps nothing a heavier body wouldn't solve, but heavier/harder wood bodies tend to produce a more midrangy sound. My guess is that lighter body woods tend to absorb more midrange. Higher frequencies are generally too low energy to significantly vibrate a hard heavy neck, but can be damped by neck oils/resins. My lighter weight Basswood SX Hawk body seemed to reduce bass more than the heavier body of the other SX I bought for comparison. The larger lower frequencies and stronger transients would then move the neck joint area more. How much would depend on the total guitar rigidity & resonant frequency. These factors might explain why guitars with a softer midrange quality may not lack highs, and heavier/more rigid guitars tend to have more midrange.

The other stuff I went into before is essentially OT, but very much part of the whole picture. If I could have done my initial testing over, I would have set up a falling rod picking system, and have recorded different notes on each string, but minor pickup height differences and string fatigue between tests might throw off the results anyway. From my experience and what little I know: small height adjustments make more difference when the pickup is closer to the string.

In the mean time, I uploaded some more samples of what I coined the 'MC Hulk' with Brass and PC washers, Wilde Microcoil S (Strat) pickups and Alloy 5109 #10-46 strings vs the unmodified 'SX Hawk' with Steel core #09-(check files) strings. It's still not quite fair though, because I use a fat thick V-Pick with sanded edges on the MC Hulk vs an old Ultem 1.14 mm pick on the SX Hawk. The fat upper-mid quality of the guitar makes for a great “Fat Strat” sound. Bass was not quite as strong as I wanted, but the washers improved it a bit, and the stronger lower harmonics of the Wilde Microcoils with the warmer sounding strings more than make up for it:
https://app.box.com/s/2rvkfet7gcueqvy6xxnemv5lynqc1ari

The obvious difference is the perceived upper-mid reduction in the MC Hulk, but you can hear the bigger bass, and possibly an extended high end. The SX Hawk Zinc/Steel washer samples have too much metallic quality for my taste. They don’t seem to have the fat glassy highs of the Ultem washer samples, but judge for yourself. I think I prefer the attack quality of my ST-625 EB without the bracket, but I expect the different pickups and strings to compensate. Not that it will end up the same as without the bracket, but it should have the following qualities: Stronger lower note harmonics, a “looser” attack response, greater dynamics & sensitivity with higher highs, less upper-mid emphasis, and more sustain.

For those interested in details of the other contributing factors, the pickups will be the Microcoils from the MC Hulk. I do have SA's of a few similar pickups. I simply ran line level white noise through them. The DiMarzio SC may be ~same inductance, but with typically high internal capacitance, considering the resulting peak with virtually no capacitance load. It's not necessarily a good way to test pickups, and certainly doesn't show the comparative lower harmonics strength or whatever else at a given distance from a string:
https://app.box.com/s/43btlfe3iazuag26wd6re1ax3kjatbgj

I am of the belief that pickups don't really have a “sound”. The sound produced in the preamp is mainly about: the attack quality & damping in the strings, how string distance affects the attack to sustain level & lower harmonic strength & sensitivity, and how the component load shapes the resonance. Subjective terms are unreliable anyway. “Tight bass” may be something other than what occurs within the pickup. Tight is a description of tension. Warm is a temperature. One human person's “warm” is another one’s “muddy”. Some refer to more even harmonics as warm, but it may also mean rolled off highs and/or more lower note harmonics. When I say “Sweet” with regard to pickups, I mean a lower Q resonance and stronger lower harmonics, particularly to mask the seventh harmonic.

The strings I referred to are Sfarzo 'Alloy 5109'. I've been using them for many years on a few guitars. They are only available on line and are low priced. I get a semi-dead wound string once in a while. The average is supposedly 1 in 7 sets for most string brands. That's seems about right. Wound strings can be taken from “reserve” sets. The low price makes it worth it. They have a micro-Teflon coating that feels smooth and doesn't flake off, but it may affect the highs a little. They are definitely more slinky than typical Steel strings, including the plain strings. I've compared directly with another same scale guitar with Steel strings. It's noticeably easier fretting, and easier on the frets. It occurred to me that the string material doesn't have to be lighter weight to be more slinky...doh! I think the key to the sound character and sustain is they are more compliant without being too malleable, so they also stay in tune better than any strings I've ever used, and just do not break. They don't have the aggressive “bite” of Steel, but more of a sweet fat brightness (three adjective minimum here...and please tip your bartenders). “Sweet” strings have a sound I'd describe as “relaxed”, as in: less rigid. I also use the brighter/tighter 'Nickelaniums' - - still more slinky than Steel. I'd think the rigidity vs compliance of a string should be optimized for sustain and the truest possible harmonics. Imagine what a diamond string would sound like, if it were possible. It might have odd initial resonances, then die out quickly as the extreme rigidity forces it back to shape. Not saying Steel does that, and not all Steel is the same, but I really like the properties of the these Ni/Fe alloys.