Tune-O-Matic on a neck thru

[adrock1740]

I just found this website tonight and it is the has been the biggest help. I just have a couple of questions. I plan on making a neck thru guitar and would like to use a TOM bridge on it. I know the bridge requires an angle on the neck to get the string height right. I read you can recess the bridge into the body to compensate, but how deep would the recess have to be? Also i am not real familiar with the TOM (i've been cursed with a floyd rose on all my guitars) but is it possible to get low action with one? And lastly, is there a noticible difference in sustain and tone in using a stop tail piece or running it string thru body? Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Southpa]

Howdy, welcome to the board. There were some very recent threads posted with info about neckthru angles, TOM's and recessing. Just dig around a bit by putting some keywords in the search utility and you will find some answers. Definitely possible to get low action, you can choose to angle the neck, recess the bridge, raise the fretboard or a combination of any of those.

[adrock1740]

Sorry but the search function didn't come up with anything for me. I did find most of the information i needed and thanks for your reply southpa. My only question still is is there a noticible difference between using a stop tailpiece or going the string thru body route.

[GregP]

People claim that string-through provides better sustain and tone.

Personally, I have my doubts that the human ear would notice a huge difference, so a lot of it will come down to aesthetics, IMO, provided you've gone with an angled neck. I've chosen to go the string-through route myself, though that may change yet.

If you've chosen to recess the TOM instead of making a neck angle, you'll likely need to go with a string-through just to get enough of an angle over the bridge, otherwise I don't imagine there will be enough downward pressure.

Greg

[Jivin]

If you've chosen to recess the TOM instead of making a neck angle, you'll likely need to go with a string-through just to get enough of an angle over the bridge, otherwise I don't imagine there will be enough downward pressure.

Could you just recess the tailpeice as well?

[GregP]

If it was only a minor recess, I don't see why not. But remember that while the strings go OVER a TOM, they go THROUGH a stop tailpiece, which is pretty low in profile to begin with. I imagine recessing too much would be a pain in the ass in terms of putting the strings through it. Also, while a TOM easily goes on over top of its posts, the tailpiece slides laterally into its posts, which poses another problem for recessing.

Greg

[Jivin]

Always nice to have someone do the thinking for me when I have a brainfart like that

cheers greg

[westhemann]

i recessed my t.o.m. on my v,but did not recess my tailpiece...it still gets plenty low enough...i still don't have it all the way down

in other words...those problems discussed are not an issue

[adrock1740]

Thanks for all the replys guys. I pretty much got the idea of where i am going. I probably will go a non angled neck with recessed TOM, with string thru just for looks. Hey westheman, how much did you recess your TOM?