Tension Free Neck

[lmmr]

Here's something i stumbled upon, thought i'd share

The Tension Free Neck

Is this new? does it work? have you guys tried it?

[Hotrock]

mmmm. Seems possible, might work well, might not. I'll have to break out the pen and paper and do some force diagrams, unfortunately I'm at work and have loads of pen and paper sums to be doing.

PS. Duck, because I should imagine theres about to be some Ed Roman bashing like usual.

[Scott Rosenberger]

Bunker Guitars

Tension Free Info. This guy makes the necks for E R

[GregP]

Sure, it's not a stretch to imagine that the neck resists (or if you want to be bold enough to say "prevents") warpage. The problem is all the rest of the voodoo claims that go with it.

How much more 'instant' can note response BE on a guitar? Give me the softest, crappiest, least stable woods, put a string between them attached by 2 nails, and I guarantee that when you pluck the string you will still get an 'instant' response. There IS no latency in real-world physics.

I've also never noticed 'dead spots' on necks, but I'm willing to admit that there COULD be notes which, when fretted at specific spots, are a little less shimmery than other notes; as long as manufacturers are willing to admit that this probably has more to do with the overal resonance of the guitar and the sympathetic frequencies it's 'happy' with than with the structural integrity of the neck.

I mean, just because, for example, a 'G' fretted on the 3rd string 12th fret is a bit 'dead' doesn't mean that the spot under your finger is a bit dead; and while the neck may certainly be a factor (just due to the structural nature of a neck, it's likely the most important factor in the guitar's resonant frequencies) overall, it's not that there's some 'out of alignment' section of wood under there.

Again, just to make sure my point isn't missed here-- I have no doubt that the structural integrity is better, but when you get into the rest of the claims on tone, we're getting into territory that we cannot simply attribute to the neck improvement as a matter of course, without finding specific evidence to back the claims.

As for Ed Roman bashing-- well, the problem with that website (I know nothing about the man himself) is that there's a lot of complaining about the 'major companies', but then the site uses a lot of the same rhetorical techniques to fleece potential customers and provide them with less than complete information. It's the pot calling the kettle black, to use a cliche.

[ansil]

i have a a version of this that i was going to try to upload and see what you think i have doen this once and i had someone do a fretboard fro me.. i basically used twin box channels that went into the guitar body. and i applied a nice little truss rod adjustment for each one. and added up the iddle and on the sides three pieces of wod that i glued in to the frame.. and attached the thing with bolts to the top.. after the glue dried you coudl shape the neck.. since the back of the neck was made from the same thing as the sides. and i used floor trim that was mahogany [custom floor trim] the side pieces were already rounded and then cut so they formed a perfect 90 degree sides.

[litchfield]

I'll be pretty close to him. I'll go check em out sometime. I have to run out there soon anyway.

[soapbarstrat]

I thought the more tension on the neck, the better the guitar body resonates, which is what you want. And all that steel they have in their necks would make the guitar much more neck heavy.

[krazyderek]

basicly it looks like a big truss rod, with the nut mounted directly to it, and it just floats in the neck with contact at 3 points, instead of a tight fitting channel all along the truss rod..

all that steel and open space would make for a heavy, weak neck if you ask me, i'd still like to actually see and play one though just not for 250$

[frank falbo]

I love Dave Bunker and the Bunkers have the best of intentions. They are nice people but I think their necks sound bad. They use phrases like "the neck wood is free to resonate" which is silly. You're not miking the neck, nor are you installing contact transducers inside of it. What we want from a neck is for it to affect the vibrations of the string. The PBC minimizes the neck's effect on the strings, by removing the tension from it. Its the same thing if you attatched a metal bar to the neck, and attatched the bridge saddle to it so it would float freely in an acoustic guitar top. You know, take all the tension off the top. (guess what? Dave actually invented that, too! ) You lose the "tone".

It's also been my experience that if wood is left tension free, it is more likely to "warp". We use the term warp too loosely with guitar necks. Because if a neck has weak areas and it pulls into a twist, or it bows too much and the truss rod just puts an "S" curve into it, we say its warped. But actually it's failing under stress. Warped is when you go to the hardware store and the 2x4's all look like spaghetti! Yes, necks can warp, but a lot of time its something a little different. If you build a neck where the wood is just for looks and form, but not under any tension, it will be more likely to shift IMO. And I've seen it.

For my money, if I'm going to forsake the traditional "wood" tone and feel and replace it with non-wood materials, I'd take the Parker route. Where he says "forget what you've heard in the past, this is new" instead of the PBC trying to say "this improves the old sounds" or "gives you more of what you want-more resonance" because the Parker is going after a snappy, highly refined sound. They are after efficiency in vibrational transfer, sustain, and frequency response. The result is a new sound. Putting a tension free wood neck on a wood body just lessens the net amount of what we like from a wood guitar.

All that said, I don't have a Parker because I'm a wood man and I don't really like how they sound, either. But I respect them. I don't like graphite rods in necks either, and I can always tell if they're in there when I play a guitar. I think it limits the vibration of the neck wood. I suppose if you think necks with graphite rods sound 10 times better than an all wood neck, you might like the PBC, too. Or back in the day when Carvin used steel rods, their neck sounded like they were made of concrete to me. If you liked those, the PBC could be right for you.

[ansil]

i had a parker fly.. i hated it with a passion.. it was a versatile guitar allright and i got a deal for 120 dollars. sure but i got a better deal when i got 1200 from L and M for this model

it just didnt' feel natural it did so manythings but none of them really well.

[GregP]

I think the Fly is wonderful.

It sounds good, feels good, and plays well. Of course, that's just one man's perspective.

Greg