Neck-thru

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A fretless electric bass with a continuous neck. The light wooden strip in the middle of the body and the strips to the right and left of it are parts of the neck construction.

Neck-thru describes a special type of construction of electric guitars and electric basses . The German-language equivalent is continuous neck : The neck of instruments constructed in this way is not screwed or glued into the transition to the body , but runs through the entire body. In this type of construction, the body itself consists of two “wings” (either in solid construction or with resonance bodies), which are glued to the right and left of the continuous neck. The pickups as well as the bridge and bridge of such instruments are mounted directly on the part of the continuous neck that is located in the body , unless an additional body cover is installed. The installation of the bridge on the extended neck construction is said to have an improved sustain compared to other designs . The reason for this is that the vibrations that the strings transmit to the neck or the body cannot be dampened by a neck-body transition. The difference to the sustain of high quality instruments with screwed or glued necks is difficult to determine.

One of the earliest known neck-thru electric guitars was built by Paul Bigsby and country musician Merle Travis in 1947 or 1948 , the Bigsby / Travis guitar . The neck-thru construction is also a characteristic feature of electric guitars and basses from the US manufacturer Rickenbacker , but there are also numerous other guitar construction companies that use this construction method. Important electric bass models with neck-thru construction are the Rickenbacker 4001 introduced in 1961 and the Alembic Series I, which has been built since 1971 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard R. Smith: Fender - a sound makes history . Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Hamburg 1999. ISBN 3-937872-18-3
  2. ↑ Bacon: Totally Guitar , pp. 550 ff.