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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Does anyone know about the two different neck set lengths on Thunderheads? Seems some of them are 16 frets clear of the body and others are 18 frets. Here's a photo showing the difference.
http://www.road2moab.com/thunderheadnecks.jpg
Notice on the top guitar that it is 16 frets clear. The bottom guitar is 18 frets clear. On both guitars the neck pickup is in exactly the same position on the body, so that's why on the 18 fret style there is a gap between the pickup and the fretboard. Notice also that obviously the position of the bridge is different to compensate for the neck length. Since the bridge pickup is always right next to the bridge this leads to a different spacing between the two pickups on the these two guitars
Does anyone know the history of why two different neck lengths? Was it different by year? Or maybe the Thunderheads 18 fret and the Thunderhead Deluxe is 16 fret? Just curious. Because of the difference, these guitars play and sound very different.
Dave |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | How are the sounds different? |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | The shorter necks were first. I'm not sure why they changed, maybe to compete better with the G company? The scale is the same. When the neck got longer the bridge moved up to cover it.
Any sound differences would be only on the front pickup, which is further back ever so slightly |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Paul,
The 16 fret style places the neck pickup about 2 inches farther "up" the strings (away from the bridge). It seems to have a much bassier or jazz sound. It also makes the whole guitar kind of "short" so it's very nice and easy to play.
Dave |
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Thunderhead Neck Length Question
