What is 'set neck'

[iconic]

...can't see any screws, bolts, nails, staples, welding so I suppose it must be a horse glued joint for the neck to body....are they dovetailed as well?

is a 'set neck' set good or bad....?



many thanks

Edited May 19, 2010 by iconic

[peted]

Set Neck is where the neck is glued into a pocket in the body. I don't believe they are dovetailed in the general case.

The construction method tends to be marketted as something between a bolt-on and through-neck. Cheaper to make than a through-neck, but supposedly the increased contact between the neck and body gives the impression of increased sustain similar to a through-neck.

[BigRedX]

Not necessarily better or worse just different. Whether you like it or not will depend on whether you like what it does to the sound.

Technically to do well it's probably the hardest of the three ways of fixing the neck, but because of the way the joint is made it's the easiest to disguise any short-comings as the contact surfaces are hidden.

More common on guitars than basses - Gibson and Rickenbacker are the main exponents of set-neck bass construction.

[henry norton]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='841762' date='May 19 2010, 10:58 AM']Not necessarily better or worse just different. Whether you like it or not will depend on whether you like what it does to the sound.

Technically to do well it's probably the hardest of the three ways of fixing the neck, but because of the way the joint is made it's the easiest to disguise any short-comings as the contact surfaces are hidden.

More common on guitars than basses - Gibson and Rickenbacker are the main exponents of set-neck bass construction.[/quote]
+1 on that although I thought Rics were usually thru neck. Set necks go back to the age old luthier traditions when makers had no choice but to glue a seperate neck onto a hollow acoustic body. The main reason bolt on and thru necks came on the scene is because solid bodies made it easier to do. As for the sound, some people reckon they can tell the difference but it's very subjective. I really like set necks just because they're [i]not[/i] bolt on or thru necked. The choice is yours....

[Spoombung]

Example

[Lfalex v1.1]

My Warwick Infinity SN4 is a "set-neck" (hence the SN bit!)

It's really well done in this case, and the slightly odd overall construction of the body (sliced in two to facilitate the chambering) makes it a sensible idea. If it were bolt-on, you could potentially pull the back off of the bass..
One other advantage; you can sand the base of the neck into the body to give a heel-less design as seen on the picture above. This can help with upper fret access for all you dusty-end polishers out there.

Sound wise? I can't tell any difference! I own bolt-ons, Through-necks and a set neck. The quality of the sustain/tone is better/smoother on the through-necks, but that's about it. There are much greater influences at work in the tone of an instrument (pick-ups, string gauge/condition/type, electrics etc.)