Peerless Renaissance?

[va3ux]

Originally Posted by moto

so...i was feehling ;]
The block is only unter the PU´s!

Where are the other guys with her renaissance´s?
Cam´on take a picture of it!!!

moto

There you go then : solid top. Confirmed by Jack with his "kerfed bracing" comment.

Sorry that I added more confusion for you with my comments.

[pollysurfs]

Originally Posted by va3ux

I stopped caring about spliced necks when it dawned on me that if that really mattered (tonally), the Telecaster and Stratocaster would have failed as professional quality instruments years ago : A bolt-on neck has to the worst-case example of 'spliced neck'.

3-piece and 5-piece necks : all separate pieces of wood glued together (ie. 'spliced' together) but we never consider that to be a potential detriment.

The glued joint where the neck and body meet with a set-neck : another 'splice' that we consider to be a sign of higher quality compared to a bolt-on neck.

And on and on.

Scarf joints, set necks, bolt-on necks, mortise-and-tenon joints, dove-tail joints, one-piece necks, multi-piece necks, through-body necks. Different from each other - mechanically, Yes. Better or worse than one another tonally: I have no idea. Maybe different; maybe not. If they painted all necks black so you couldn't see how they were constructed, it would ultimately come down to 'do you like the tone of the guitar or not ?', and you we wouldn't be distracted by neck construction (from a tonal aspect).

good point.

i steered away from the peerless because of the spliced neck theory thinking of it like finger board used for trim work in homes. didn't really give a thought when knowing that i own some bolt on necks though they are solid... who really gives a f... like the guitar, feels good, sounds good...enjoy it then

[va3ux]

Originally Posted by pollysurfs

good point.

i steered away from the peerless because of the spliced neck theory thinking of it like finger board used for trim work in homes. didn't really give a thought when knowing that i own some bolt on necks though they are solid... who really gives a f... like the guitar, feels good, sounds good...enjoy it then

I've been looking at Ibanez "lawsuit" copies from the 70's recently - archtops of course. These were considered to be the near equivalents of the Gibson models they were imitating in terms of build quality and playability. I noticed that many of those models (but not all of them) have scarf joints on the necks. My take on that is that if scarf joints were a questionable construction method, Ibanez - of all companies - wouldn't have used them.

On the flip side, Gibson - and independant luthiers who build high-end hand made guitars - don't use scarf joints on necks. This implies that there is something less desirable about scarf joints and therefore they avoid them.

I don't know the real answers to any of this; I just notice these differences. But there are 40 year old Ibanez and other Japanese copies out there with scarf joint necks that are still 'just fine' in 2011. I have a 20 yr old Samick L-5ish copy with a scarf jointed neck that has had 12-54 strings on it for 6 years with no neck problems at all.

[jzucker]

The issue with with spliced necks isn't the splice itself. The splice is an indication of cost savings and on a high end instrument one might wonder what else is being saved?

Regarding those earlier lawsuit ibanez guitars, I've had a few of them and they were not very good despite their apparent collectability. I've played the L5 and Johnny Smith copies and owned a 175 copy. They are on the level of the Korean epiphones in terms of sound quality. That's a case where the splice probably didn't make a difference on its own but along with the other shortcuts that were taken with the guitar, it didn't work out.

Additionally, in the case of 3 and 5 piece gibsons, the glue joint is along the long edge of the wood. Glue definitely impedes vibration. That's a known fact.

Whether it makes a difference in the freq range of the guitar is debatable and I've offered to do a demo of the peerless so I'll wait to make my judgement on that one.

[va3ux]

No question - you do not find scarf joints and splices on high end guitars. I see your point regarding 'what other corner-cutting might accompany the scarf joint ?'.