pickups and neck-thru construction

[mikep]

hi,

I've always played bolt-on guitars, but I'm about to venture into neck-thru territory with the purchase of a Jackson, Carvin, or B.C. Rich.

anyway, I had a question regarding pickups and neck-thru construction.  let's say a guitar has a maple neck thru alder wings.  does this mean that the pickups will be sitting on the maple block?

so I should be experimenting with pickups that sound good with maple?  ....or not???   how much will the alder sides affect the whole equation?

please help a newb...thanks!
mike

[WezV]

the maple will be your main tonal ingredient - the effect of the wings is small and depends on the size of them too.  some woods and construction methods (i.e hollow wings) will affect the sound more, alder wont have much of an effect though - just a slight softening of the tone

[yellowv]

Yep the pickups will get most of their tone from the maple. So even in neckthrough mahogany guitars with plae necks you tend to have a bright guitar. So you will want to stay away from brighter pickups. IMO

[Antag]

OK, I'm going to disagree with you both here, based on personal experience with my neck-thru guitars.

Yes, it's true that the pickups are mostly sitting on top of maple, however, the pickup bezels - & more importantly, the bridge pins (assuming either tunomatic or floyd) are screwed into the alder body wings.

Also, Jackson make the rear half of the centre-block from alder - in other words, where the maple runs "through" the body, only about ½ the wood is maple.  Look at a picture of the back of a trans or natural finished Jackson to see what I mean - this is the best one I can find from a quick search - look how the back of the body is 3 pieces of alder, the middle one the same width as the neck.

It's simply not true that alder has a "small" effect on the tone.  My maple/alder neck-thru guitars sound a LOT closer to my maple/alder bolt-on than to my mahogany/maple neck thru guitars.

Actually, my mahogany/maple neck-thru guitars sound a lot closer to my mahogany/mahogany neck-thru guitar.

JMO, YMMV etc...

[WezV]

hmm, i was going to post something else in here before as i thought what i said might be taken the wrong way... should have done sooner i suppose

anyway, most neck throughs i have dealt with have the bridge mounted on the neck section, its the way i tend to build them too although have occasionally had a narrower neck through section with a tom bridge mounted to the wings.. not had much dealings with the jackson ones, the bc riches seem to have the bridge mounted in the neck through section or bang on the join and the carvins vary too - at this point we are really taking about bridge choice since stuff like tune-o-matics are mounted on posts quite far apart whereas a hardtail or trem would usually be within the centre section.

I guess if jackon are making the back half of the neck through section from alder then that will minimise the mapleness of the tone somewhat - that, imho,  is not the way to make a neck through.  not saying its a bad way to make a guitar but calling that a neck through confuses the issue somewhat - its more like an extra long tenon to me

anyway, i underplayed the role of the wings on my last post, its common sense that they play a role in tone whether the bridge or pickups mount to them or not.  Its a simple fact that whatever is stuck onto the neck section will change the way the whole thing vibrates and that will change the way the string vibrates so change the tone.  I still go to great lengths to find great tonewood for the wings of my neckthroughs because i believe this to be true - if it wasnt i could use any old rubbish!!

which is why i said the alder would soften the maples tone a bit, but there are so many other factors in the final sound that it would be hard to predict by how much without knowing more

also, just for clarification most of my neck throughs have been 3/4's maple, usually laminated with other woods too for a little extra strength/stability... i dont think i have ever had one that was too bright or even close to the tone of an all maple guitar (which i dont personally like)

forget about pickup mounting location in this unless you are direct mounting them... if you are screwing the actual pickup direct to the wood  with no springs or sponges in between then it will vibrate more with the wood it is mounted to and the woods tonal input will be greater - whether its on a wing or in the neck :?

[Antag]

Yeah, I saw some of your pictures - particularly the fanned fret thing you did for Roo (lovely looking guitar BTW)

I was talking specifically about the Jackson way of doing things seeing as I have several of them & the original post mentioned Jackson :)

FWIW I didn't mention my Charvel model 5 which is poplar/maple - there's nothing bright about that thing.  Thickest sounding guitar I've ever owned, sounds like the crack of doom :twisted:

As you say, whatever is glued to the centreblock is going to affect the way it vibrates - otherwise we might as well all play steinbergers :)

[Denim n Leather]

CWP!

Actually, I don't know. But since no one typed that yet, I thought I'd start the pickup slinging with the usual. PDT_008

[gwEm]

certainly something ceramic anyway...

i have 2 maple neck through guitars, got advice from tim and denim'n'leather there, i doubted them, but they were right - no doubt a ceramic pickup will 'deliver the goods'

[WezV]

otherwise we might as well all play steinbergers

how did gwem let that one slip past :)