Is there a “Sonic” difference ?? Richard Hoover Responds

It certainly won’t be measurable but no question I always hear the difference.

While we await the official opinion, I’ll offer my experience. I owned an excellent H13 with a slotted headstock, but I wasn’t quite satisfied. I ordered a custom H13 with same woods, however I specified a solid headstock and discussed what I thought were the shortcomings in the slotted H13 before the Custom was ordered. Short story, the Custom H13 with the solid headstock is an absolute perfect guitar for me. I did the same thing with a Froggy Bottom 00 model and the Custom Froggy with the solid headstock is the clear winner. In general, I’ve found the models which a solid headstock are deeper sounding, handle a pick better, while maintaining responsiveness and clear tone when playing softly with fingers. Both guitars with solid headstocks weigh 3 pounds 10 ounces, so added weight was not an issue.

Submitted, we’ll get to this on the next Podcast

From the mothership

Physics first, as always!

The mass of the neck affects how much of the string energy “chimneys” up the neck or not,
A light weight neck becomes an integral part of the guitar’s resonance producing a more open and airy presence.
This is desirable in some styles of playing and complimentary to certain repertoires. It can be achieved with a slotted peghead,  open back tuners, lower density neck wood and even reducing neck mass through joining it to the body at the 12th vs. 14th fret.

A “heavy” neck blocks string energy from being “lost” by limiting it from entering the neck allowing more of the guitar’s volume to be projected from the top and sound hole. This give the player the advantage of focus and enhanced projection if they want to cut through in an ensemble and be heard further away.

One would likely choose a lighter necked, 12 fret, slotted peghead, open geared, smaller body in an intimate venue for singer songwriter vocal accompaniment. The player who wants to cut through other instruments while showcasing single note virtuosity may choose a jazz style guitar with a heavy maple neck, big solid peghead and weightier enclosed tuners.

It is the combination of all these things that make the perceptible change between the two. It would be a pretty subtle difference in two otherwise identical guitars if the only variable was a solid vs slotted peghead. In this case I would suggest the decision should be based on cosmetic preference, rather than sound.

All the best,
Richard.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by indexless.