[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1358344897' post='1937350']
BRX, we don't need to have identical basses to know if the neck construction will alter the tone, because we know it will. How we know that is because we already know that bass frequencies aren't picky, and will cross grains, glue, gaps, joints with ease. Treble frequencies follow the grain, and stop at joints, gaps, glue and even the grain. Now if you were to ask about the treble resonance of a neck through bass, and a bolt on bass, i would bet that the neck through would come off better.
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If popular culture is to believed it would also depend on the woods used though (heavily disputed btw).
Also other phrases are banded about which would disagree with that particular assessment, bolt ons are generally considered more aggressive sounding compared to neck throughs which are generally considered more "polite". Personally I expect a good bolt on can sound like a neck through and vice-versa.
However... It could be that neck through basses are built with a certain sound in mind (and for the same reason so are bolt-ons), because of this we have a preconceived idea of how they sound.