5 Bolt Neck

[Tele-Meister]

I see everyone talks about the "3 vs 4 bolt" thing. But if 4 bolts will have better sustain ect. than 3, what effect would putting 5 or 6 bolts on there have?

[Nick JD]

Two is enough. Hell, even a dribble of glue works. The tele is over-engineered in many aspects.

[TeleTim911]

First of all, "bolt on" neck is a misnomer. How many necks are actually "bolted" on? They are screwed on.

Secondly with the way most guitars are built in mass production, why not just go ahead and use wood inserts?

[boris bubbanov]

There's so much slop in the way the average 4 bolt goes together; I would rather take the time to upgrade the screws and plate to Callaham and make sure the neck holes are not half stripped and make sure the bores through the body in the pocket are clean to 11/64ths.

I was using this knowledge on my Deck today, making sure the intermediary wood was not binding up the screws I am using to hold the top railing down tight (screwed on from underneath).

[Birdmankustomz]

http://www.ritter-instruments.com/item_info.php?i=333

This guy uses 10+ in some of his necks, now THATS overkill

[Bolide]

I always like the observation that "A three legged stool never wobbles, a stool with more than three legs often does."
There's no need to have, as Nick JD pointed out, more than two screws* (thank you, TeleTim911, one of my pet peeves as well); four or more screws simply increase the number of ways that shimming can be screwed up. Adding more screws reduces the area of wood-to-wood contact so it can be argued (though no one seems to have ever observed this in fact either way) that adding more screws would reduce, not increase sustain.

With three screws in a triangle pattern, and not neccesarily the symmetric pattern used by Fender '70s, will give a means of good control of neck angle without inducing too many headaches.

* A bolt requires a nut; The threads of a screw engage in the workpiece itself.

[David Collins]

Bolt vs screw semantics aside, if you actually have ever heard someone saying that a guitar with a four bolt neck attachment has greater sustain than one with a a 3 bolt attachment, and that the difference is in any way directly related to that particular feature, this should serve for nothing more than a red flag that this person's claims should be viewed with great skepticism, and that the reliability of their logic and ability to reason clearly and objectively should be suspect.

How's that for a run-on sentence?

[Jack Knife]

Originally Posted by David Collins

How's that for a run-on sentence?

It's a beauty! And a well-stated sentiment I might add.

[Beatbx]

Three bolts are stable for a vertical load, but the problem with the 70's fenders I've encountered is the tendency for them to shift/turn in the neck pocket. For that problem, four bolts actually do perform better.

[KevinB]

Taylor manages to do just fine with a single bolt

[Northerntele]

Originally Posted by birdmankustomz

http://www.ritter-instruments.com/item_info.php?i=333

this guy uses 10+ in some of his necks, now thats overkill

jebus thats ugly!

EDIT: It gets worse!
http://www.ritter-instruments.com/item_info.php?i=459

http://www.ritter-instruments.com/ritter-royal.php

[Bolide]

Originally Posted by Northerntele

jebus thats ugly!

Let us hope that Romeo Rose never orders a custom build from there.

[Vladimir]

I think four bolts are there because of the percieved balance. Many basses have five bolts, but their heel is not symetrical.

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by David Collins

Bolt vs screw semantics aside, if you actually have ever heard someone saying that a guitar with a four bolt neck attachment has greater sustain than one with a a 3 bolt attachment, and that the difference is in any way directly related to that particular feature, this should serve for nothing more than a red flag that this person's claims should be viewed with great skepticism, and that the reliability of their logic and ability to reason clearly and objectively should be suspect.

How's that for a run-on sentence?

This is less of a mouth full Dave.

[David Collins]

Originally Posted by Colt W. Knight

This is less of a mouth full Dave.

So much more concise.

[Nick JD]

Originally Posted by Northerntele

EDIT: It gets worse!

Call me sick, but I quite like this one!

[Northerntele]

Originally Posted by Nick JD

Call me sick, but I quite like this one!

You're sick!

[Tele-Meister]

And yes when I said "bolt", I meant screws and or bolts... or any wood fastening apparatus.

So is it the general consensus that 3 bolts/screws is just as good, if not better than, 4 screws (or more)?

One can argue that with less screws, there is MORE wood-to-wood contact = better resonance, better sustain ect.

One may also object in saying More screws = more tension = better sustain ect.

Which brings up a other point, guitar neck threaded insert fasteners. Anyone with experience?

Originally Posted by Northerntele

EDIT: It gets worse!
http://www.ritter-instruments.com/item_info.php?i=459

I actually like that design. Am I a bad person?

[David Collins]

Damn. Another long post lost to the either.

Short and sweet - it doesn't matter nearly as much as some people seem to think it does. Why folks zero in on the neck joint as such an influential factor I have no idea, but it's more a question for a psychologist than a luthier or an acoustical engineer.

In practice, all these things you talk about fall somewhere near the range of whether you have phillips or slot head screws on your tuners, or gold vs chrome plating on your strap buttons in terms of effective influence on tone. Snake oil, red herring, it's just not a terribly influential factor.

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by Tele-Meister

And yes when I said "bolt", I meant screws and or bolts... or any wood fastening apparatus.

So is it the general consensus that 3 bolts/screws is just as good, if not better than, 4 screws (or more)?

One can argue that with less screws, there is MORE wood-to-wood contact = better resonance, better sustain ect.

One may also object in saying More screws = more tension = better sustain ect.

Which brings up a other point, guitar neck threaded insert fasteners. Anyone with experience?



I actually like that design. Am I a bad person?

Ive built numerous teles with threaded neck inserts. I think it is a better design. I need to order some more inserts though.