Bolt-On vs Neck-Thru

[MaxOfMetal]

No one does that, usually broken necks get glued anyway. Getting a new replacement neck is hard to find and if you do, in most cases it'll cost you more than glueing or buying a new guitar alltogether. It is however better to buy a bolt on if you ever think about taking it all apart and go DIY on it. Like some dudes and me on this forum. Throw away the Ibanez RG body and buy a body black on the internet.
Imo you should start thinking about this dilemma when you are going to get a custom.

It depends.

Anything Fender compatible you can get a neck for <$100 fairly regularly. Ibanez is maybe a bit more depending on how picky you are (whole used guitars are as cheap as $200, even MIJ). Even Jackson and ESP/LTD isn't too terribly hard to source in the world of forums and gear trading site.

You throw your old hardware and nut on the new neck and you're ready to go. You'd be surprised how popular of an option that is.

It's only in the ERG world that neck swapping is as extremely uncommon.

 

[Merrekof]

It depends.

Anything Fender compatible you can get a neck for <$100 fairly regularly. Ibanez is maybe a bit more depending on how picky you are (whole used guitars are as cheap as $200, even MIJ). Even Jackson and ESP/LTD isn't too terribly hard to source in the world of forums and gear trading site.

You throw your old hardware and nut on the new neck and you're ready to go. You'd be surprised how popular of an option that is.

It's only in the ERG world that neck swapping is as extremely uncommon.

You are right. I totally forgot about Fender and the massive amount of spare parts flouting around on used markets.
It's just that 99% of guitarists I know buy a guitar, and never mod it. They might take it to a tech once in a while but they won't be bothered with shimming a neck and stuff like that.

200$ for a MIJ? I know used prices are low but I haven't seen that before! I've seen as low as 300€ for a MIJ (pre prestige) ibanez but that's it

 

[Splenetic]

My MIJ RG470 was 220 Canadian Dollars.

Which is like.... 12.50 US

 

[Tuned]

You are right. I totally forgot about Fender and the massive amount of spare parts flouting around on used markets.
It's just that 99% of guitarists I know buy a guitar, and never mod it. They might take it to a tech once in a while but they won't be bothered with shimming a neck and stuff like that.

200$ for a MIJ? I know used prices are low but I haven't seen that before! I've seen as low as 300€ for a MIJ (pre prestige) ibanez but that's it

I bought me 2 MIJ guitars for like 283 USD, or $141,5 per guitar. One MIJ Fernandes was intended for sacking and scavenging to liven up another late 80-ies MIJ Fernandes that I'd bought before (including MIJ GOTOH-made Fernandes OEM Floyds and some worn hardware), but eventually I just interchanged the parts between them and sold the 'newer' one for like $170.
The other, the ESP Edwards turned out to be a cool guitar actually, had a MIG OFR and Seymour Duncans TB6/SSL2RWRP/SN6 on it, sounded like an angered buzzsaw but could do decent cleans as well. Reverse ESP headstock is always cool with me too. The back of the body was badly and heavily scratched by a belt buckle... which I easily buffed it out with a hand drill, buffing circle and a few grams of auto repair polish substances that I was given free at a car rapair (they buy them by large buckets). The only bad part for me personally was the thinnest neck I've ever played (the ESP site warns you about that), but that's just me. I had to sell it when I was moving to a different city, and it went for appr. $470.

 

[RBadel]

For me personally it all comes down to personal preference.
I am a huge Bolt-on fan and i think its more like a feeling thing for me.
Neck-through constructions are said to have more sustain. Bolt-on have a quicker response when you are picking the string.

but to be honest i dont need so much sustain because i never play a note that is long enough

 

[Adieu]

Bolt-on, because it's easy to detach the neck, shave and oil it, and then it shim it up proper for excellent playability

 

[TheRealMikeD]

Alder body I suppose. What pickups you have in there? I have a Pegasus/Sentient set on my Soloist and it sounds bananas. Moderate output and pretty balanced and tight.

Sorry for the delay, didn't get any alerts about this reply.

As I mentioned, I tried a lot of different pickups in the Jackson. I tried two Bareknuckles (a Warpig and a Painkiller), a SD Alternative8, a Super-Distortion, and a few others I can't even remember now. All of them had the same problems, so I eventually ruled out the pickups as the issue. I ended up with a Dimarzio AT-1 in the bridge and a D-Activator in the neck. I added a custom high-pass filter to the bridge PU to filter out the muddy low end. The tinny/twangy high end is still there, though. I could adjust my amp settings, but every other guitar that I own sounds good with my standard settings except this one. I am learning to live with it.