Skunk stripe vs. maple cap

[old crow]

I see sellers making a big deal about maple cap necks, but the skunk stripe style ,used in the 50's and then again in the 70,s to current , seems to be fairly popular
Is there any difference in sound ? Sustain, voicing, tone .....?
One thing I wonder about is: with capped necks, be it maple or R.w. Especially
Re fretted necks , sometime the tang goes thru the cap, so I think this would now be a bunch of little blocks glued onto the neck.
I guess I,m leaning towards a neck made of a solid chunk of maple , so the frets cannot cut it into little pieces all glued together. I think the truss route on the back is less of a worry.....
Am I out to lunch ?

 

[sacizob]

I look at it as one piece of wood either way.

 

[Bartholomew3]

If you ever do stage work under heavy lights and sweat...the white-neck gets real slippery and I personally found it to be a pain in the a$$ to work with. I traded a 65 maple for a rosewood fretboard 68 that I still have.

If the truss-rod works nobody cares about the skunk stripe - it won't make any difference in how well you can or can't play and is meaningless regarding sound.

Frets cutting the neck into little pieces all glued together - WTF ?

 

[old crow]

I know, it sounds weird, but think about it. If the tangs are thru the board, then the fingerboard is no longer one continuous length.
.....but does any of this affect the sustain or tone ?

 

[Bartholomew3]

All frets go through the fretboard to some extent so perhaps a fretless guitar would be your answer. I personally think you are concerned about something that is meaningless...no insult intended.

Tone and sustain is mostly in the hands. I sometimes use a Boss SD1 pedal and roll-back the guitar volume to get clean sustain.

Here's a soft-rock single I co-produced for Polydor in 1969 that made Billboard and went top 20 in Canada using a 68 rosewood fretboard tele and sf twin. 15 year old singer was a bit weak or it may have gone higher. The sustain and stereo panning on the leads was done by the sound engineer. I could have been using almost anything and the end result would have been the same or close enough. Amazing that somebody actually put it out there after 45 years. The lead lines were my jam session in the studio and I had a better take but they lost it on the 4 track tape.

 

[old crow]

Darn...your link wouldn't open....I'll try again later.
I play a 67 R.w. Board and it has amazing sustain and woody tone.
I'm not having any problems w my guitars but it just occurred to me
About the frets cutting right thru some refretted boards.

 

[xtrajerry]

My absolute favorite neck is a maple cap that's on a Danocaster that's on a '66 T he built for me last year..

 

[Major Gruber]

I don't think there's any difference between one piece mapple necks or capped fretboard necks in terms of sustain or sound or any instrumental evaluation. It's more about period specificities (cap board without skunk stripe between late 1959 untill the end of 1968), or aesthetic choice. There's many reasons why you can prefer one neck among others, but I don't think they're related to those precise parameters of building. Most of the non fender guitar necks on earth have a capped board. The one piece mapple neck was a creation by Leo Fender, it was very original, as it was new to play on a mapple fretboard. Mapple or rosewood, neck shape and feeling in your hand are parameters of preference to choose a neck. Skunk stripe or not is a detail.

 

[Bill]

Absolutely makes a difference. But that difference is probably so slight that it is many levels below what a human being could differentiate. I'd expect far different than the strings being one day older vs two days old, or the amp or speakers or room or a hundred different things including how you are playing the guitar that particular day.

 

[Major Gruber]

Absolutely makes a difference. But that difference is probably so slight that it is many levels below what a human being could differentiate. I'd expect far different than the strings being one day older vs two days old, or the amp or speakers or room or a hundred different things including how you are playing the guitar that particular day.

one invisible tiny difference lost among the bigger differences between 50's and 60' neck shapes and specs.

 

[Buckocaster51]

I have some of each.

I feel there is a difference.

Hard to describe.

 

[4Teles]

I find the maple caps to be a bit snappier sounding than solid maple. Not a whole lot of sonic differences though. As someone pointed out, fresh strings would be more obvious to the ear.

Maple caps don't need to be adjusted quite as much with weather changes. I don't like any relief in the neck. I like the feel of them straight. My 2 maple cap necks hold their adjustments somewhat better than my solid maple necks seem to.

 

[xtrajerry]

Snappy is the word I use to describe the feel of maple cap too.. I agree that the maple cap neck seems to be stiffer too.

 

[Redd Volkaert]

Yeah,

Like Xtrajerry said
I have a couple of new Musikraft maple caps and I LOVE em'
They sound more snappy and barky on the bass strings too.
Redd

 

[telecaster123]

I don`t think I can explain it, but there`s truly something special with my maple cap `68. The shape and feel of the neck is just magical!

 

[cap217]

Bill crook uses maple cap necks for the majority of his builds. I own both and have a 68 cap and a 69 1 piece but I can't be sure the difference is bc of the cap.

Who knows.

 

[kennl]

One thing I wonder about is: with capped necks, be it maple or R.w. Especially
Re fretted necks , sometime the tang goes thru the cap, so I think this would now be a bunch of little blocks glued onto the neck.
Am I out to lunch ?

Tangs are not very deep. The fret slots on my maple-capped Warmoth neck are less than 40% of the cap in depth. As tone goes, I personally feel that fret choice and neck contour is as important as construction (solid or capped), and wood species. An ultra-slim slab-cut neck will not sustain the same as a quartersawn no-caster log.