Changing necks, changing tone

[Andrew W]

A few weeks ago I tried a Fender Road Worn 50s Strat in a shop and whilst I really liked it I couldn't justify adding another guitar to the stable BUT I did feel that I liked the neck a lot more than I did the one on my existing Highway One. So having trawled eBay for a month or two I finally landed a maple Road Worn neck for a teeny bit over a hundred quid, which seemed good value to me.  Yesterday I swapped the necks over, which was a painless exercise (thank you Fender quality control). I also swapped the Klusons that I'd previously installed in the Highway One onto the new neck.

Upon plugging in I was quite surprised and how much louder the guitar was now. Granted there are a new strings on there but even so I really didn't think that there'd be so much difference in tone between necks made of the same material by the same manufacturer. There are plenty of variables as well as the inherent quality of the neck which might cause the difference: pickup height may not be the same as before and the connection between body and neck might be better/worse are obvious candidates but could they make such difference? Don't get me wrong, I still like the tone but I was surprised how different it was. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

[Tellboy]

I changed the neck on my 50th anniversary Tele last year. The original 'baseball bat' neck was starting to show some fret wear so I decided to try an Allparts rosewood with 22 jumbo frets (I've never been a fan of Fender small frets). The Allparts neck was well made and I spent a long time ensuring a good fit in the neck pocket. I was much happier with the rosewood board and jumbo frets but the guitar had definitely developed a different sound - it seemed to have lost some of it's Tele 'zing'. I know this was partly due to the maple vs rosewood board - I tried replacing the brass saddles with stainless steel ones which helped a little but I still prefer the original maple neck sound.
So .. yes I was surprised how much difference a neck makes to the overall sound .. then throw in pickups, strings, leads, amps etc. and you have got a lot of variables.

I seem to have got it right with this one  -  a Blackpoole Relic (no longer available as a kit) aged Tele with BKP Blackguard Flat 50 set - really like the sound and feel of it.

[AndyR]

I really like the necks on the roadworns.

Anyway, as to theories over why it's so different? Definitely "different lumps of wood etc" is almost enough for me to quit wondering :lol:

I've also read how one neck might seem "poor" tonally (to a specific individual) on one body, and then interracts with another body to create the tone... (and the left over neck/body can seem better when put together).

It could be mojo, snake-oil, anything! :lol:

However! Something VERY strange happened to me and my CIJ "62" strat. A few months ago, I finally decided to strip the back of the neck - I'm never going to sell it, and I want it to feel like I want it to feel, etc, etc, so off I went...

Anyway, I did it without taking the strings off (I was even playing it on and off while resting my sanding-arm) - that guitar got a little louder and definitely brighter... this was a lucky break as far as I was concerned, it was lacking a bit in comparison to my roadworns...

[Andrew W]

However! Something VERY strange happened to me and my CIJ "62" strat. A few months ago, I finally decided to strip the back of the neck - I'm never going to sell it, and I want it to feel like I want it to feel, etc, etc, so off I went...

Anyway, I did it without taking the strings off (I was even playing it on and off while resting my sanding-arm) - that guitar got a little louder and definitely brighter... this was a lucky break as far as I was concerned, it was lacking a bit in comparison to my roadworns...

This has set me wondering because the new Road Worn neck clearly has less finish compared with the Highway One so perhaps that's a large part of it too as well as the different lumps of wood argument which also makes a lot of sense.  This is all very interesting to me. I was expecting to hear some difference but I was really surprised at how much of a difference there was.  It's a dark art I tells ya.

[Philly Q]

I replaced the maple/rosewood neck on my Thinline with a one-piece maple one (both modern Fender necks with the bi-flex truss rod and the same tuners).

It made a huge difference to the tone.  With the rosewood board, the Thinline can be really bright and spanky when picked hard, but there's some nice underlying warmth when picked softer.  With the maple neck, the warmth totally disappeared.  I put the original neck back within a few days.

I've read theories on the Tele forum and elsewhere that the tone of a bolt-on comes almost entirely from the neck - the body wood is almost irrelevant.  I'm sure it's not quite that simple, but I think there may be some truth in it!