If you've got a good lookin' piece of wood, use it ! Let the natural beauty of the wood grain with a accenting inlay be the determining factor.

I've owned and played a D10 SB Pro III
( al.necks) , I liked it fine, I have a mica Carter ( al. necks ) , I like it fine and I have an old D10 SB Professional, which is one of the nicest pieces of grained wood I have seen, and I like it real fine. They all have different tones from my ears but for me it would go back to the natural beauty of the guitar, I say you can't beat the appearance of a great lookin' piece of wood.

On the other hand, Bobbe Seymour said that when they were developing the Sho-Bud Super Pro, they noticed it sounded different than the old Pro III and thought it might be the aluminum neck. But when they tried both types of neck on the Super Pro, it made no difference. The sound all came from the changer and body, not the necks.

So there you have it. On some guitars the neck makes a difference, on others it doesn't. Anyone who wants to know about their own guitar will have to try different necks on it. Comparing completely different guitars with different necks is a confounded comparison. There are too many other things involved that have as much or more affect on the sound, mainly the changer, the body, the nut, the pickup.

I have both Custom and Stringmasters here,I have an Emmons (69) will alum necks,,the Fenders by far cut the Emmons for the tone I prefer,,,they have both the bottom end and high end,,,Leo Fender always told me that tone could not be achieved with a pedal guitar,,that was before the 1000 guitar was
introduced.

I had a Bigsby when I turned coat and after receiving the Bigsby which was a beauty
I was sorley disappointed in its overall tone
it had alum necks,,,Paul Bigsby discouraged me from going the wood neck route. His comments were,,,the aluminum necks had a "bell like tone" whereas the wood necks had a dull sound,,.

That Bigsby lacked the punch I liked,,it had everything else going for it,,except the tone
I was a "Customed" to It was later that I discovered that what made the Bigsby sound brighter and tighter was the Standel amp.
They went well together,,My Bigsby when cranked up on treble would "feed back" with my Fender Twin whereas the Fender guitar would not. Here come those Bigsby guys after me.

Dan Dowd said it all in a few words and it takes me all day to clarify his comments.

Mr, Stafford..those were the length's of the
guitars you questioned.

Again take into consideration that Fender guitars not only had the pickups to give extreme high's often disliked by many and the
fact that they were solid bodies made a great
deal of difference. All in all,,I could live
with both aluminum necks or wood,,but since
my head is made of wood,,I prefer that. Leo
Fender liked the high road,,,some like the low road,,,I'll take the middle of the road.

But I wont be in Scotland afore ya. Are your eyes sore? thats normal when anyone reads my
posts,,,,it will clear up in a minute or two.

edited for,,,I never saw a drunk with an aluminum leg ,,have you??? I prefer wood, & I dont drink.edited for mis-spelling,,I mean turn coat,,like as in "traitor" to my own
company which I was not proud to do,,but I
just had to have a Bigsby. Great guitar and
wished I had it back again...

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 06 October 2002 at 02:45 PM.]

This guitar had an aluminum pickguard that was anodized gold. It was much brighter with this pickguard. I know because I replaced it with a plastic one and it sounded duller. I put the aluminum one back on and it regained the original highs.

Maybe (for the steel guitar) it has something to do with the material the pickup is mounted in.

Also, aluminum is 3 times heavier and 3 times stronger than wood. However on a steel neck it is usually "lightened" with "pockets" in the bottom of the neck. Maybe these "pockets" resonate the sound to the wooden body to make it brighter.

quote:

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Here come those Bigsby guys after me.

---

I have seen things posted on the Forum where
members get upset and as a result,,feelings
are hurt and so on. I felt bad after reading
Chas reply to my post,,and Its forgotton as
far as Im concerened. Chas if I caused you any discomfort..Im sorry,,,I still like wood
necks better than aluminum peace my friend

Let There Be Peace In The Valley.

Jody...The Fender guy. I feel better now.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 08 October 2002 at 07:42 PM.]

quote:

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you mis-took my friendly fire of humor as an insult...you obviously took as a slam against Bigsby and its fans. I beleive since you took issue with me on a personal level,

---

But back to Steve's topic....Steve are you really building a guitar? If you are, I don't think the the material matters as much as how the components react to each other. One way to test this would be to "vibrate" the body parts, pour dry graphite or sand in or on it and observe the vibration pattern. I learned this from a "Nova" program studing the properities of the violin masters' works.(Thats a long topic if you haven't seen it but it does apply, I think). The vibration patterns need to be consitant for the best tone and areas of turbulence should be worked with to smooth out or eliminate.

I'm not an expert but did study instrument building and actually built a violin from scratch that plays well. Like Ricky's post, I too believe that it boils down to the strings, pick up and changer and what they in turn attach to. The tone will vary depending on the properties of that material and how it resonates once it is vibrated...that will in turn keep the strings in motion or not.

Hopefully, this dosen't sound like a lot of hot air...I wish that I had the time and resources to really study different properties of guitar materials and build my own...one of these days. I do really believe though that vibration testing and the tightness or loosness of the vibration patterns will reveal or predict how the guitar will sound.

Bill

What started out as a friendly fun thing has obviously been mis-understood. Having fun on the Forum can many times be taken the wrong way by people,,,,this was one of those times.

Chas,,I sent you my e mail with no reply,,so
I guess,,,there is no more for me to say,,. However,,,I can still send that 8x10 photo of Jennifer Lopez

The Fender Guy....The Knight Of Tweed. I give up....you Bigsby guys are all the same

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 10 October 2002 at 05:29 AM.]

How do we do this?? YOU GO FIRST.. c,mon be a sport

Love ya too guy.

I'll show you mine,,but whatever you do,,,,,,
dont be jealous.