Sustain and Electric Guitar Neck Joint Type

by R.M. Mottola

Originally published in American Lutherie #91, 2007



A long-standing bit of conventional wisdom has it that the type of construction used in the neck joint of an electric guitar has some influence on the duration that notes will sustain. A straw poll taken in preparation for the research detailed in this article suggested the perceived ordering of this influence is as follows:

■ Longest sustain is associated with neck-through construction, where the shaft of the neck structure continues right through the body of the instrument.
■ Shortest sustain is associated with bolt-on neck construction, where the neck shaft is attached to the body via wood screws.
■ Set neck construction, where the neck is glued to the body in some fashion, offers sustain somewhere between that of the other two neck joint construction types.