Neck Plate Pads... Tone Suckers?

[Timmsie95]

So I've seen in a few videos and forums that the plastic neck plate pad is a tone killer and dulls your sustain.
I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on this. Have you tried with and without and noticed any difference?

Personally, I prefer the look and feel of it, because it gives you a gentle "ramp up" when you run your palm up to it, and it looks a lot cleaner to me. Plus, it protects your finish from being marred up by the metal plate.
I don't know how much truth there is to it, seems like snake oil to me.

Lemme hear your thoughts!
:headbang4:

 

[stratamania]

I have them on some guitars and not on others. The guitars that have them have great tone and sustain.

What you have read and heard is fanciful if you ask me as they make no difference to how the body and neck wood meet or how they are held together. They are inexpensive enough to try one and do a comparison.

 

[Timmsie95]

I have them on some guitars and not on others. The guitars that have them have great tone and sustain.

What you have read and heard is fanciful if you ask me as they make no difference to how the body and neck wood meet or how they are held together. They are inexpensive enough to try one and do a comparison.

Yeah that's what I think as well.
I was thinking of taking the pad off of one of mine next time I change strings, but I don't think it's worth it  :laughing7:

 

[T89Rex]

It probably depends whether it's a vintage neck pad.

 

[mayfly]

I've got them on some guitars, and not on others.  To my ears it makes no difference whatsoever.

 

[swarfrat]

If an elastic pad touching the back of the neck joint made such a big difference, none of us would be fat, and we would be having discussions about rowing technique and that SRV tone.

(Hit 1:43/500m for a just a few seconds the other day and thought I was gonna die.)

 

[Cagey]

Sometimes I wonder what the motivations might be for spreading such information.

 

[mayfly]

Sometimes I wonder what the motivations might be for spreading such information.

I suspect it's so that they can feel good about themselves.

 

[Rick]

This is a joke, right?

 

[AirCap]

In forty plus years of repairing and building guitars, that's the first time I have heard THAT question. So kudos to the OP for originality, but in answer to your question - HELL NO. And if I hear the term "tone sucker" again, so help me I will kill someone.

 

[Cagey]

Perhaps one could find contentment in the fact that the question is asked on a forum loaded with people who've built multiples, sometimes overwhelmingly so, of instruments that include many variables and could return some valid information. A key feature of critical thinking is to question validity.

 

[Cactus Jack]

I put them on all my guitars because I wanted to try one and it was cheaper to buy a 6 pack compared to a single. For me, it about looks, I like the black frame around the chrome plate and has zero impact on tone. I will say that I do like them on Warmoth's contour heal...might be a placebo effect, but I think it helps with the screw angle a bit.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I have buckskin/leather under my neck plate of the Bari-Tele and it doesn’t have any sustain issues whatsoever.  The screws transfer vibrational energy from the neck to the body, the pad really doesn’t have a noticeable tonal affect one way or the other.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I used one on a Strat I built for a friend of mine. It was a purely aesthetic decision. I didn’t do A/B testing or anything, but the guitar sounded great when it was done. I’m inclined to agree that most of the tone action is where the neck meets the body, not where the body meets the plate.

 

[PhilHill]

I used one on a Strat I built for a friend of mine. It was a purely aesthetic decision. I didn’t do A/B testing or anything, but the guitar sounded great when it was done. I’m inclined to agree that most of the tone action is where the neck meets the body, not where the body meets the plate.

I think you hit it right there. The qualities are transferred between the neck and body at the point they meet. The screws are just there to keep the two together tightly, the same as glue. The heel plate simply keeps the screws from sinking into the body. Machine screws and neck inserts are considered by many of these people as superior and they don't use a plate at all.

 

[Timmsie95]

In forty plus years of repairing and building guitars, that's the first time I have heard THAT question. So kudos to the OP for originality, but in answer to your question - hell NO. And if I hear the term "tone sucker" again, so help me I will kill someone.

Oh I know it's ridiculous, haha. I didn't think for one second that it would make a difference.
I just wanted to watch the bloodbath  :laughing7:

 

[swarfrat]

I still think we should start an internet rumor that being skinny helps your tone.

 

[Timmsie95]

I still think we should start an internet rumor that being skinny helps your tone.

If that were true, I would be The Tone Master, hahaha.

 

[BroccoliRob]

Lol yet another tone conspiracy for the ages.  sheesh, what u gonna tell me next, the the coming winter solstice is going to invert the polarity of my blood and ruin my tone? The moon phases and tides affect my tone? Where does it end? Rock n roll? I say fuggedaboutit and get out there rawk and roar

 

[BigSteve22]

I always use a spacer/pad/frame/whateveryouwantocallit, strictly for aesthetic reasons. To me, it just makes a custom plate look more "finished". I mean, you wouldn't leave a Rembrandt just sitting in the corner without a frame, would you?  :icon_jokercolor: