Neck Joint - Set In Neck

Set-in neck is a method of guitar (or similar stringed instrument) construction that involves joining guitar neck and body, pressing it tightly together using some sort of adhesive. It is a common belief that this yields a stronger body to neck connection than a bolt-on neck, although most luthiers agree that a well-executed bolt-on neck joint is equally as strong, and will have similar levels of sustain and neck to body contact. However, neither of these joints are as strong as a neck-thru body joint, which is a labor and material intensive undertaking and is usually only seen on high end offerings.

This method is most popular on acoustic guitars. Almost all major acoustic guitar manufacturers use set-in necks, with only notable exception being Taylor Guitars. In the electric guitar market, Gibson traditionally produces almost all of it's electric offerings as set-in neck models, as opposed to rival Fender, which traditionally builds it's electric instruments (most notably, the Stratocaster, Telecaster and various Electric Basses) with bolt-on necks.

Wooden musical instrument construction relies on four widely used types of glues:

• Hide glue
  
• PVA (both "white glue" and "yellow glue")
• Epoxy and Cyanoacrylate are sometimes also used for neck joints, but generally such use is rare. Structure of these glues makes it difficult to disassemble joint later if repair or servicing is required

Typically cited advantages of set-in neck include:

• Warmer tone
• More sustain, although this is not supported by formal research
• Usually better access to top frets in comparsion to bolt-on necks utilizing a metal plate (as seen on Fender guitars)

Disadvantages

• Slightly harder to mass manufacture than bolt-on necks, much harder to repair / service than a bolt-on neck
• The player has no control over the neck-to-body angle; changing it requires disassembling the instrument and re-glueing the neck by an experienced luthier

source : Wikipedia

Neck Joint - Neck Through

Neck-through or neck-thru (or in full form neck through body) is a method of electric guitar or bass guitar construction that involves extending the piece (or pieces, in a laminate construction) of wood used for the neck through the entire length of the body, essentially making it the core of the body. The strings, fretboard, pickups and bridge are all mounted on this piece. So-called "ears" or "wings" (i.e. side parts of the body) are glued or laminated to the central "stick". The "wings" may be bookmatched in order to give a symmetrical appearance, and are often cut from one piece of wood.

Neck-through construction is significantly harder to mass-produce than bolt-on or set-in neck constructions and is primarily found on high-end guitars. It is somewhat more common in basses than in guitars. Neck-thru construction allows easier access to upper frets, because there is no need for a heel — the thickened area where a neck would "bolt-on" (although technically, 3-4 large screws are used) to the body. Many musicians assert that neck-through construction provides greater sustain and stay in tune longer. There is little formal research on this topic, but what exists does not support this assertion.

Repairs to the neck are usually expensive and tedious. In many cases, it is usually easier to remove the old neck completely, either by taking the wings off and putting an entirely new core in, or by converting the guitar to a bolt-on or set neck by creating a heel and affixing the new neck to the core already in place, rather than to try and repair the neck itself. However, thanks to excellent stability and reaction to string tension and pressure, neck through guitars are often much more sturdy than many other guitars on the market.

source : Wikipedia

Neck Joint - Bolt On Neck

This neck joint usually found in common electric guitar. This method is used frequently on solid body electric guitar and on acoustic flattop guitars. In the typical electric guitar bolt-on neck joint, the body and neck cross in horizontal plane, the neck is inserted in a pre-routed "pocket" in the body, and they are joined using 4 (rarely 6) screws. As screw heads damage the wood and could put extra stress on it, typically a rectangular metal plate or a pair of metal plates are used to secure the joint and re-distribute the screw pressure evenly.


Such a plate is usually criticized for making playing on top frets uncomfortable, so, manufacturers sometimes employ some kind of more intricate method to hide a metal plate, smooth the angles and make access to top frets easier. However, a visible metal plate is usually considered as a part of "vintage" style and they are a popular place to emboss manufacturer's logos, stamp out serial numbers and put other artwork. Fender is the manufacture that used this neck joint in nearly all of the product. While Taylor used this joint for their acoustic guitar

Typically cited advantages of bolt-on neck include:

• Easier and cheaper to mass production and repair if damaged. Necks that allow Fender "standard" 4-screw joint are frequently interchangeable provided they are intended for the same style of guitar (e.g. Stratocaster or Telecaster): for example, one can order custom neck (with personal profile or radius) and change one by just removing one neck and attaching the other. A Stratocaster neck can also be fitted to a Telecaster body, although the reverse is untrue unless some minor modifications are made. Less traditional versions exist, such as 3-screw plate (with easier micro-tilt adjustment) or even 6-screw plate bolt-on joint, but they may differ widely in the shapes, sizes and position of screws. Which one is better is debatable, but budget guitar manufacturers often choose 3-screw joints for its minimal cost, notwithstanding the quality.
• Easy to control: sometimes bolt-on neck includes some sort of adjustment screw that can control neck-to-body angle.
• More resonance due to wood-to-wood contact in high quality bolt-ons, no glue allows better coupling.
• More attack and "snap", slightly brighter tone, but this advantage is frequently debated

And the disadvantages of bolt-on neck include:

• For solid body electric guitars, harder access to top frets, especially if screw plate is used and visible. Slick heel with hidden plate (such as depicted one) makes playing the top frets more comfortable and special neck joint techniques, such as the Ibanez AANJ, MusicMan Silhouette and Stephen's Extended Cutaway mitigate this problem.
• Less sustain, due to the bridge and nut being on two different pieces of wood, but this disadvantage is subjective, frequently debated, and not supported by formal research.
• Bolt-on necks are less structurally sound than neck-thrus, making them easier to break (also easier to fix), and more susceptible to going out of tune.
• Sloppy construction or assembly of a bolt-on guitar exacerbates any of its inherent disadvantages

Luthiers and guitar players cite both advantages and disadvantages of bolt-on neck construction. Note that most of these views are highly subjective and relative. It is not easy to measure most of the claims objectively or even compare objective factors, as guitars differ considerably.

Source : Wikipedia

Guitar String Construction

Depending on the construction of the instrument on which they are used, strings will usually have either a ball or loop at one end to attach the string to the instrument. Strings for some instruments may be wrapped with silk at their ends to protect the string. The color and pattern of the silk can be used to identify the string.

The simplest ones are the Roundwound strings. They have a round core inside and round-winding wire, wound in a tight spiral around it. Such strings are usually simple to manufacture and thus are usually the least expensive. There are several drawbacks, however:

• Roundwound strings have a surface profile (the "bumps" of the winding) that causes "squeaking" sounds when the player's fingers slide over the strings. Whereas some artists use this sound creatively on purpose, this sound is, in general, unwanted.
• Non-flat surface profile also hastens fingerboard and fret wire wear.

The winding is not secured to the core and can rotate freely around it, especially if the winding is damaged after use. It makes it harder to push down and hold the strings with the fingers, and thus impairs the general playing experience.

Flatwound strings also have a round core, but the winding wire has a rounded square cross-section. When tightly wound, such strings have a much shallower profile (in cross-section), thus making them more comfortable to play, less damaging for frets / fretboard and producing quieter squeak sounds from fingers sliding along the string. However, players frequently cite that the sound of flatwound strings differs considerably from the sound of roundwound, with less brightness

Halfwound strings, ground wound strings or pressure wound strings are a cross between roundwound and flatwound, providing both the tonal characteristics of roundwound and the lack of squeaking and the playing feel of flatwound. Such strings are usually made by winding round wire around a round core first, then polishing, grinding (thus the name, ground wound) or pressing the exterior part of the winding until it is practically flat.

Note that polishing process removes almost half of winding wire mass, thus, to compensate for it, manufacturers have to use heavier gauge winding wire. In its turn, thicker winding wire lowers frequency of slide squeaking. Depending on sound processing, it can be a good thing (as squeaking becomes less accented and it will be masked out by performed music) or a bad thing (high-pitched squeaks are much easier to detect and filter out when recording).

Hexwound strings are composed of regular hexagonal core and a tight (usually round) winding that closely fits a hexagonal shape. It solves the second problem: it secures the winding around the core, so it cannot rotate and slip under the fingers. Sometimes it is cited that hexagonal core improves tones due to closer bond between the core and the windingThe drawback is that relatively sharp hexagonal corners are less comfortable for fingers and wear down the fingerboard and fret wire even faster than roundwound strings. Hexwound strings are more commonly used on bass instruments (such as bass guitars).

Source Wikipedia

Guitar Strings

One of the cheaper and easier way to change your guitar tone is change the strings. But which strings we should use to get the sound we want? Guitar strings are bits metal or plastic that you strum away at to make sound. There are many different types of string which is made of different materials for different purposes.

Guitar strings made from solid threads of material (metal, plastic, silk, gut) and some rounded with wire wound tightly to get the required thickness.

Strings for acoustic and electric guitar have their own characteristic and should not change vice versa. Because of electric guitar use magnetic pick up, so acoustic strings made from nylon can not use for electric guitar. But electric guitar strings can be used for acoustic guitar and produce thinnest sound than acoustic strings.

Acoustic Guitar Strings
Strings for acoustic guitar usually come in two kinds

Bronze Wound Acoustic Guitar Strings
Bronze is alloy which is actually a mixture of copper and tin or copper and zinc. An 80/20 bronze string is made of an alloy comprised of 80% copper and 20% tin or 20% zinc. These alloys are sometimes called brass.
Bronze strings produce a very brilliant, crisp sound when new but begin to lose their new sound after only a few hours of playing. So we should change the strings each time we want to perform or recording the sound.
Example Martin MSP3200 Studio/Performance 80/20 Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings

Phosphor Bronze Wound Acoustic Guitar Strings
Phosphor bronze (P/B) is second in popularity to the 80/20 bronze strings for acoustic guitar. They produce a bright, but slightly warmer and darker sound than bronze strings. The small amount of phosphorous in the alloy helps them retain their new sound longer than bronze.
Example D'Addario Set Acous Exp Phos Brz Med

Electric Guitar Strings
Electric guitar strings use two kinds of string i.e. plain and wound. Plain made from steel as the basic, meanwhile wound made from steel for the core and rounded by another material to add the weight and diameter to get the lower sound. The bigger the diameter and weight the lower sound will produce. So the plain strings usually used for strings 1,2, and 3 and wound string for string 4,5, and 6.

Electric guitar strings can be divided by material used

Pure Nickel Wound Strings
Inner steel were wound with an alloy called Pure Nickel. This kind of strings popular at 50’s. Tone characteristic is bright, warm, and vintage tone.
Example Original 1550's - Pure Nickel Wound 11-49 Gauge

Nickel Plated Steel
Nickel plated steel is the alloy most widely used in string making today. The nickel plating enhances the feel and reduces finger noise and fret wear. They are hotter and provide greater sustain and a brighter sound than pure nickel.
Example DR Strings MT-10 Tite-Fit Nickel Plated Electric Guitar Strings

Stainless Steel
Stainless steel strings are hotter, brighter, and provide more sustain than either pure nickel or Nickel Plated Steel. They are more resistant to oils, acids, and sweat and are, hands down, the longest lasting strings.
Example Ernie Ball 2246 Stainless Steel Regular Slinky Electric Guitar Strings

Guitar Bridge - Non-Tremolo System

It is generally thought that non-tremolo bridges offer better transfer of string vibration into the body. This is due to direct contact of the bridge to the guitar's body. These bridges are bolted directly to the guitar body and, assuming good quality, limit longitudinal string movement completely.

Therefore tuning stability is assured. The improved transfer of string vibration into the body has an effect on the sound, so guitars with this type of bridge have different characteristics than those with tremolos even when it is removed. There are no springs in the body or a cavity to accommodate them, which also affects resonance.

Fender have different bridge for strat and tele model. This is for strat model
and this is for tele model

Gibson Les Paul build their own type of non locking bridge known as Tune-O-Matic (TOM) designed by Tom McCarty, the former president of Gibson .
The Tune-o-matic bridge consists of 2 adjustable posts that are screwed into the guitar body and a bar between these posts. The bar has 6 saddles, one per string. When fully assembled, each string is passed through a saddle and the saddle thus "marks" the end of the vibrating string. Each saddle can be adjusted (moved back and forward) with a screw to control intonation.

To prevent saddles from falling out of the bridge when no strings are installed, most models usually hold the saddles with retainer wires. After the saddles, each string is passed to the tailpiece. Some guitars have a stopbar to hold strings, others have "strings through the body" construction, thus holding the string by whole body. The Tune-o-matic bridge is not absolutely flat, and standard Gibson Tune-o-matic bridges have a 12" radius. Ideally, the radius should match the radius of fretboard for the most comfortable playing experience.

Guitar Bridge - Tremolo System

A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.
The bridge is placed perpendicular to the strings and larger surface (which are roughly parallel to one another) with the tension of the strings pressing down on the bridge and thus on the larger surface beneath it.

Bridges for electric guitars can be divided into two main groups, "tremolo" and "non-tremolo" (also called hardtail).

Tremolo bridges
Tremolo bridges usually need to be suspended in some way, which reduces contact. Most tremolo designs today use a group of springs in the guitar body, which oppose the tension of the strings. Some players feel that the vibration of the springs affects resonance in a way that makes the guitar sound better; others disagree. Naturally, it all depends on personal preference and the musical style of the individual player. There are two kinds of tremolos bridge:

Non-Locking Tremolo
Non-locking (or vintage) tremolos are the bridges found on all guitars manufactured prior to the advent of the Floyd Rose locking tremolo in the late 1970s and many (typically cheaper) guitars manufactured thereafter. For many playing styles, vintage tremolos are a good choice because they are easy to use and maintain and have very few parts. Some people feel that they can also provide a better degree of sound transfer, especially with tailpiece type tremolos such as the Bigsby.

However, "Synchronized Tremolo" type found on the Fender Stratocaster is balanced against a set of screws in much the same manner as a locking tremolo and offers little improvement in the way of sounds transfer. This picture is an example of vintage tremolo bridge which usually used in old fender stratocaster

Given that this type of tremolo is installed on solid body guitars the degree to which sound transfer affects the sound that the instrument produces is minimal. Also, keeping a guitar with a non-locking tremolo in tune can be difficult. The most common types of non-locking tremolos are the "Synchronized Tremolo" type and an almost endless stream of copies and also the Bigsby type although that type has largely fallen out of favour. The modern tremolo bridge that can be found nowadays

Locking Tremolo
Another type of tremolo is the locking tremolo. These bridges have a sort of vise in each saddle which clamps the string into place (usually with an Allen Key). The end of the string has a clamp, which holds the string in place, stopping it from slipping. This is especially useful for songs that require tapping or heavy/hard playing styles. Once set up for tuning stability, locking tremolos are very good. However, their fulcrum points offer extremely minute contact with the body, which may disturb sound transfer.

Around 1979, the locking tremolo was invented by Floyd D. Rose. The locking tremolo became highly popular among 1980s heavy metal guitarists due to its extremely wide range of variation and tuning stability.

The original Floyd Rose system was similar to the Fender synchronized tremolo, but with a number of extra mechanisms. The first to be added and most obvious is a locking plate on the head nut, tightened with a hex key to fix the strings at this point after tuning. This provides extra tuning stability, particularly during use of the tremolo arm, but as an unwanted side effect it also prevents further adjustment of the pitch using the machine heads.

This is an original floyd rose tremolo

and this is the pro version

Get close with NUT - NUT materials

There are a lot of materials can be used for nut i.e. plastic, bone, graphite, tusq, corian, brass, nickel etc.

Plastic
Usually found in low budget instrument. The color is white and made with injection molded machine. The tone is quite well but not as best as the other harder materials
Bone
A hard material with a vintage look, must be cut cleanly to keep strings from binding in slots. Made from cow bone which is almost luthier's favorite material. This hard material give a good tone contribution. The typical sound is bright and clear with detailed sound.

Graphite
It's black and also used for pencil. Genuine Graphtech self-lubricating material works well with tremolos and headstocks that do not have straight string pull through nut. The sound is warmer and even-soundingTusq
Synthetic material with a look similar to bone. The sound is warmer and even-sounding
Corian
Hard synthetic material takes a fine finish and is available in large oversized blanks. The sound is balanced, clear, even sound.

Brass
Hard material polishes well and looks good with gold hardware. Great sustain for bass and slide guitar playing. The sound is bright with very good sustain.

Nickel
Made of the same material as our fretwire (18% hard nickel/silver) so it matches sound & look of frets. Well polished. The sound is very bright with excellent articulation and sustain.

Get close with NUT - NUT types

What is nut? Maybe nut is not popular like the other guitar part but nut is a crucial component in tone shaping and playability. This material lays near the headstock for string foundation and have a gap to directing each string to tuning machine.
There are four types of nut i.e Standard Nut, Locking Nut, Roller Nut, and Compensated Nut.

Standard Nut
We can find this nut type in almost electric and acoustic guitar. A small strip made from various materials, slotted, and polished. Generally this nut type is glued to neck and fretboard. A Fender nut usually has 3 mm thickness and set to fretboard and Les Paul model or acoustic usually use 4 mm thick nut.

Locking Nut
This nut usually associated with Floyd Rose tremolo bridge. This nut type have a mechanism to lock the string stay tune after an extreme tremolo action or extreme bending
Roller Nut
To avoid the string out of tune after extreme tremolo or bending action without locking nut, Trev Wilkinson design this roller nut. This ingenious nut uses ball bearings to locate the strings and ease their movement across the nut. When used in conjunction with locking tuning machines and moderate tremolo action, tuning issues are significantly reduced when compared to more conventional set-ups

Compensated Nut
Compensated nut designed to maintain each tone in every fret in each string get close with the proper tone. This nut is especially nice for finger picking where a lot of open string chords and open strings in general are used.You will simply love the fact that you can play chords up the neck that include open strings. The accuracy of this nut is amazing!