3 Bolt necks myth or fact bad design?

[Mark Davis]

Im starting to wonder why 3 bolt necks got such a bad rap in the early 70's?

Fender makes alot of 3 bolt neck reissues the Thinlines the 70's Classic Strats and a few others.

G&L used a 3 bolt neck design from when they started till 1997 and no one had any problems at all with those necks likewise with the newer Fenders.

So if the 3 bolt design was so bad why isnt everyone that has a new one complaining? I havent seen any recent complaints about the necks.

WHat happened in the 70's all I remember is everyone was saying those necks werent stable so everyone stayed away now There are lots of old and new ones out there that play fine what happened to all the unstable ones?

I think its a myth that its a bad design and a whole lot of people probably passed on perfectly good guitars with a undeserved bad rap.

 

[austintele]

I think a lot of it has to do with the "loose" tolerances on guitars with CBS in combination with the three bolt. The neck pockets on the 70's instruments were(IMO) pretty sloppy and with the three bolt neck they would slide around pretty good. I'm sure a 4 bolt neck would slide in those pockets as well.

 

[blue metalflake]

I think a lot of it has to do with the "loose" tolerances on guitars with CBS in combination with the three bolt. The neck pockets on the 70's instruments were(IMO) pretty sloppy and with the three bolt neck they would slide around pretty good. I'm sure a 4 bolt neck would slide in those pockets as well.

I'm pretty sure thats right. I think it was a general lowering of quality/opening of tolerances, that occurred at the same time as the 3 bolt necks. But give a dog a bad name .......

I played a couple of 70's custom teles with 3 bolt necks, and they were spot on.

 

[Stubee]

Oh heck. I had a '73 Strat for quite a few years, all original, and an SQ-series MIJ Squier Strat. Both 3-bolt, both fine. Never had any neck movement issues with those, though I'm not saying others haven't had problems. I eventually parted with 'em both cuz they weren't for me in other ways, but it sure had nothing to do with the number of neck mounting screws.

The '70s Strats got a bad rap for lots of reasons, some justified, some maybe not, and the 3-bolt was part of the package. My '73 was a great-sounding guitar, got lots of compliments on it when playing out & from others who played it. Shoulda kept it in a closet I suppose but I never really bonded with it, so out it went to be replaced years later by RI-model Strats (early AV '62, MIJ '67-68) that feel better to me and do everything it did.

If I were contemplating a Stratocaster purchase, I'd care less if it were 3-bolt or 4-bolt and consider the other stuff: tone, feel, finish color, neck contour, vibe, and so-on.

 

[vanguard]

all i know is that teh 1974 strat i played was drop-dead gorgeous. one of the prettiest guitars i've ever seen.

HOWEVER

it was like playing a rock with strings. it sounded TERRIBLE!! and i played it before i knew about 70's fenders supposedly being bad, so i wasn't biased. i was expecting it to be the best strat in the shop, as it was an old one. i picked up the cheapest squire strat in the shop and it killed it. the HW1 i was looking at cost over $2000.00 less, and was so much better it was sad.

was this due to the 3-bolt neck? probably not. but boy was theat a stinker.

 

[KokoTele]

I suspect that they drilled the holes in the body too big, allowing the bolts to slop around.

Plenty of current Fenders have big gaps on either side of the neck and they don't slide around. It's all about the stability of those neck screws.

 

[KC]

I was going to trade a guy out for a three-bolt strat, played it on one gig and discovered that it would spontaneously pop out of tune. you could then pop it back and everything would be fine but man, that neck joint was loose.

this was all 25 years ago and in hindsight I should have gone for it -- that guitar would be worth $$$ today -- but it seemed completely unusable at the time.

 

[toadman]

my '78-'79 parts caster(mighty mite body, 1980 fender maple neck) needed a shim under the neck to lower the bridge. the saddles were maxed out. this made the neck prone to moving out of whack every now and then. a luthier friend of mine told me to take a peice of wire screen a bit smaller than the neck pocket and put it between the body and the neck. it's just going back together now so i'll let you know how it works out. anybody ever try this trick??

 

[0le FUZZY]

...I think the Micro-Tilt was jes tew complicated fer the average magician.

...Most dent noe how tew set it up and/or lock it down correctly.

...I never hadda prollem with neck shift on any that I owned. I jes dent like the bullet truss rod a stickin out the headstock.

image removed.image removed

...Dew it rite and it'd stay tite!

image removed


0le FUZZY

 

[lunchbox]

I think it was myth but I played in a punk band with all the stage antics I used to do those necks seemed liked they loosened up really fast. I used them for recording and practice no issues whatsoever.

 

[zombywoof]

I worked in a music store in the 1980s and we had a good number of three- bolters come in with loose neck joints or microtilt adjusts that simply did not work (although they may have been buggered by folks who did not know who to work them).

IMHO, the Fender three-bolt guitars deserve their reputation as being unstable. This was not due to an inherent weakness in the design itself- Leo proved that with G&L - but rather the sloppy construction techniques used to build those Fenders.

 

[johnspierce]

I think it was the "Spinal Tap" thought process. I mean 11 has to be better than 10, right? Even with a gap in the neck pocket a properly tightened neck won't slip. I'm big and sort of ham-handed for sure and never had a problem with a 3-bolt neck.

JP

 

[boris bubbanov]

I'd just expand on what blue metalfalke is saying, by suggesting that with a four hole design, you as builder know if you've got an acceptible fit or not, simple as that. With an adjustible design, which ones do you reject, if any at all?
Or do you just say, tisn't perfect right now, but it can be adjusted, so ship it.
Sad to think that a design with promise was killed outright by bad execution.
I don't think Leo and George could've made guitars fast enough to get out from under the cloud of negativity associated with the earlier Fenders.

It is all in what the customer will tolerate in being used as a guinea pig while the production details are ironed out. I still don't understand why it is considered 'cool' that so many custom shop Fenders go out the door with shims in the neck. I think a shim in my neck pocket of a brand new production guitar is the sign of a mistake, not of tender loving care.

Bubbanov

 

[BritishBluesBoy]

Even with a gap in the neck pocket a properly tightened neck won't slip...

Hit the nail square on the head right there I reckon...

BBB.

 

[Paul G.]

Listen to Fuzzy (if you can understand him)

A properly set up 3-bolt fender will work just fine.

People would just bodge them up, then blame the instability on the declining quality of Fender guitars of the time.

One more debunking for you guys--because Fender made far less Teles than Strats, Teles of that era tended to be more consistent and less junky than Strats. Of course there were some really fine Fenders made, they just made more not-so-fine ones.

P.

 

[Ronkirn]

I think a lot of it has to do with the "loose" tolerances on guitars with CBS

Yep on that one... Just too many poor choices made at the same time....I've worked on a few over the time and all I can say is Phewieeeee....

Here's an interesting factiod... it was Leo Fender that invented the 3 bolt Micro Tilt... so I'm betting we were going to see it if CBS bought Leo out or not...

Ron Kirn

 

[ESQUIREoholic]

I get the best tone with the micro tilt adjustment screw loosened then tighten neck down into pocket flush to pocket bottom THEN tighten micro tilt screw to just snug. That gives me the best tone.............. And no shift.
The reissues I've seen thus far have a very good pocket joint fit. My 72 Telecaster Thinline is so tight you can unscrew the neck bolts and it stays in the pocket - talk about nice fit! Very gentle wiggle and it slips out - lucky I guess....

 

[frankthomson]

i have a few 3 bolt G&L's, and never a prob!..never.

 

[Stuco]

Its amazing to me that four screws will hold a guitar neck on with that much tension. I definately don't expect three to hold anywhere near as well as four dut the the simple physics of it.

 

[trag-o-caster]

I had a three bolt neck Strat back in 75, and indeed it did slip. Knocked it out of tune and everything. I had to take my hand, grab the neck, and force it back into it's place. It was shortly after that I traded her in on a Gibson SG Special that I kept until about 10 years ago.

I had a three bolt G&L that would slip if you really yanked it hard. After the G&L flirtation, I went with a regular ol' Tele and stayed. There's no place like home....