Question About Neck-thrus

[Fowl2338]

Ok, so assume one had a Maple Neck thru, with an ebony fretboard.

The pickups are sitting on the neck itself. It seems as though the maple

is going to have the most emphasis on the tone than the choice of "wings'" wood....catch my drift?

In other words, does it matter near as much what wood choice the "wings"

are on neck-thru guitars as compared to a bolt-on or set neck?

[WezV]

it still has an affect but the neck determines your core tone from the wood... maple is quite common for neck throughs, but they dont sound anything like solid maple guitars when paired with suitable wings

look at it this way, if you attached to large blocks of rubber to a guitar it would change the sound... the same thing happens with the body wings to a lesser degree... they can affect the way the neck section vibrates

so suitable neck woods come first, but still think about the affect the rest will have

[Prostheta]

I always think of it in terms of the propogation of sound through the entire system. Not perfect, but a reasonable model. Every neck through i have done has had laminations of tonally complimentary woods. Wenge works really nicely. Body woods have always been a secondary decision, generally with more emphasis on weight, practicality and aesthetic. In fact, i am experimenting with laminating a tonally powerful wood on the underside of a neck through, where the pickups mount, and string through ferrules emerge.

[B. Aaron]

In other words, does it matter near as much what wood choice the "wings"

are on neck-thru guitars as compared to a bolt-on or set neck?

The short answer: on a neck-through where the BRIDGE is mounted in the neck rather than the wings, the body "wing" wood probably has less of an effect on tone than it would with a bolt-on/bolt-in/set-neck guitar, but it will still have some effect.

On a related note (but not the answer to the original question), I think the wood that the bridge is mounted in will have much more impact on the sound than the wood the pickups are mounted in (which is the way the question was originally phrased). The body & neck woods talk to the strings (because they are physically connected to each other through the bridge, nut, and frets) and the strings talk to the pickups (by creating disturbances in the magnetic fields of the pickups). The pickups do not talk directly to the wood because wood is not ferrous, and magnetism is the only language pickup speaks.

[Fowl2338]

In other words, does it matter near as much what wood choice the "wings"

are on neck-thru guitars as compared to a bolt-on or set neck?

The short answer: on a neck-through where the BRIDGE is mounted in the neck rather than the wings, the body "wing" wood probably has less of an effect on tone than it would with a bolt-on/bolt-in/set-neck guitar, but it will still have some effect.

On a related note (but not the answer to the original question), I think the wood that the bridge is mounted in will have much more impact on the sound than the wood the pickups are mounted in (which is the way the question was originally phrased). The body & neck woods talk to the strings (because they are physically connected to each other through the bridge, nut, and frets) and the strings talk to the pickups (by creating disturbances in the magnetic fields of the pickups). The pickups do not talk directly to the wood because wood is not ferrous, and magnetism is the only language pickup speaks.

Very interesting.

The bridge will be mounted onto the maple.

So, with regard to what you said, it's most like going to be on the brighter side due to that.