Breedlove Bolt On Neck

[Hamerhack]

The wife says I can get an acoustic, since my son will be taking my old one to college (cheapo '80's Yamaha FG430 that sounds pretty good).

Anyway, seems like the Breedloves are HFC approved. Might check out the Pro series.

Haven't seen an acoustic with a bolt on neck.

Any problems/opinions on the bolt-on technique?

Thanks!

[atquinn]

Haven't seen an acoustic with a bolt on neck.

If you've ever seen a Taylor guitar you have. Plenty of other manufacturers use them too.

-Austin

[fractal]

Haven't seen an acoustic with a bolt on neck.

If you've ever seen a Taylor guitar you have. Plenty of other manufacturers use them too.

-Austin

Yeah, even Collings use them. So, I don't think they are a problem at all!

[JGale]

Acoustic bolt-on necks good!

Have four. Taylor/Taylor/Breedlove/Breedlove

[Hamerhack]

Taylor, Collings...

D'oh! What a bolt dolt I am!

Guess it's been a while since I've paid any attention to acoustics!

I suppose a bolt on neck is non-heresy. I won't worry about it.

[Steve Haynie]

Add Bourgeois to the list of high end acoustics with bolt-on necks. The reason that Bourgeois gives is that it will make doing a neck reset easier in 40 or 50 years. Considering how they sound, do not ask too many questions and just go with it.

Tacoma makes some models with bolts visible on the back of the bodies. They sound good, too.

[tonyvieira]

My Tacoma archtop (AJF22CE5) has a bolt on neck, guitar sounds great (acoustically) and is very stable.

Now the choice of an EMG Hz floating pup for a jazz guitar is another matter

Not mine but exact same thing, you can see the bolt on the picture of the back>> http://www.archtop.com/ac_03tacoma_AJF28.html

[darc]

I have a Pro (the Cedar top one) and I love it. A lot of people are up in arms about the fact that they are advertised as made in the USA when in fact the bodies and necks are made in Korea. (Some part of the final assembly/ finishing/ setup happens here in the states.) Just something to be aware of before buying if that kind of thing is important to you.

P.S. The construction of that Tacoma is different than the Breedlove Pro's - the I don't know any details, but I do know that there are no visible bolts on the back of the Breedlove.

[Hamerhack]

Here's a reply from the Marketing Communications guy at Breedlove regarding bolt-on necks:

(From a Breedlove forum page):

I think this would be an excellent time for me to chime in on the subject of instrument warranties. The warranty term on Atlas instruments is shorter than our Pro or Custom Shop Series instruments not because we are expecting that Atlas Series instruments are going to develop problems after 1,826* days of ownership (*assumes only one leap year within that five year period.) They are actually built very well, and can certainly last you a long, long time with proper care. The reason the warranty is shorter has to do with a key difference in design and construction. Atlas Series instruments are built with a set neck. Pro Series and Custom Shop instruments are built with a "bolt-on" neck. If a neck reset should ever be required, it's a fairly simple and painless procedure with a bolt-on neck, while a reset on a set-neck instrument is far more involved.

I'll address another misconception about bolt-on necks here, as well. And perhaps a better term is bolt-through necks, to avoid comparisons with electric guitar construction, where bolt-on means modularity, efficiency, economy. Needless to say, there are no visible bolts on the exterior of a Breedlove. It's actually more of a challenge to produce a Breedlove Custom-Shop quality instrument with bolt-through construction than it would be if we switched to a set neck design. With a set-neck instrument, you can attach the neck to the body and then apply the finish, with plenty of opportunity to cover your sins, so to speak. With a bolt-through scheme, you have to finish the body of the guitar to a mirror-perfect gloss before you begin to attach the neck. You can't finish the whole assembly, because the finish would be damaged once the neck had to be removed for any reason, thus negating part of the benefit of a bolt-through neck. If you've ever seen the process of neck attachment, you'll know that careful glue application, precise sanding, and lots of big, heavy metal clamps are involved. Special care is required to attach a finished neck to a finished guitar body without causing damage to one or both of these components. And it's also very challenging to make sure that the body and neck come together with the proper geometry - again, there is little room for adjustment once the guitar body is finished.

I hope that information helps and/or is interesting. I myself am constantly amazed at what it takes to produce Breedlove guitars. I've always been bowled over by Breedloves, but it's easy some times to take for granted the amount of work required. Back when I was a dealer, I came to expect that guitar after spectacular guitar would be waiting for me in each arriving case, perfect in tone and playability, and free of marks and blemishes. Now, I see the build process far more clearly - a chain of intricate and interdependent steps, where there's plenty of opportunity for things to go awry. The fact that they don't go awry, time after time, is a testament to everyone here that is involved in the process of building Breedlove instruments.

David Ingram