"A tight neck pocket" is just one of those things that mentally spun out-of-control because we are traipsing in a field of mostly hype & ILL-logic. Now, it can be a sign of craftsmanship when all the parts fit together nicely - but somewhere in the mists somebody began knob-polishing their own perceived pocket-tightness and everyone giddily (& instantly) leaped aboard. "OH MY GOD- IT'S SOMETHING NEW TO HYPE!" To the point that more than a few makers have bragged about being able to pound the neck into it's slot and pick up the body with the neck - before there are any screws! Fantastic, wonderful, your seats in heaven will be right on the 50-yard line...
Hey, Doodlefutz!... are you going to put any varnish on that thing? :icon_scratch: :icon_tongue: :laughing8: :toothy12:
uh-oh.
Meanwhile, those old 1968 paisley Telecasters that James Burton, Scotty Anderson, Brad Paisley hold to be their own personal unholy grail had neck pocket clearance you could drop a quarter into. I dunno, I use screws to hold my neck on... "tight neck pocket" is like another bugaboo, "sustain." Yes - if a guitar has no sustain, that's a bad sign - but the characteristics of a guitar that has really long sustain are not the same characteristics of a guitar that has a warm 'n' woody tonal nature, indeed, they're somewhat oppositional. Ever notice how often Stevie Ray Vaughan had to double pick or even (sort-of) tremolo-pick his big manly git-faced bent notes to get them to stay where they're put? :laughing3:
There are all sorts of these tiny little talking-points that get fixated upon, then competed-over, then they become "conventional wisdom" as they are pounded into our heads with no need whatsoever to support their importance.
Guitar maker 1: "My guitar sustains good!"
Guitar maker 2: "My guitar sustains gooder than that!"
Guitar maker 3: "My guitar sustains even gooderer than those!"
Guitar maker 1: "My guitar has a tight neck pocket, though!"
Guitar maker 2: "My guitar has an ever tighter one than that!"
Guitar maker 3: "Your mama dresses you funny!"
Etc. etc. and so forth ad nausea on and on and on... meanwhile, the most bone-headed engineering concepts boldly soldier on, mowing down entire fields of logical thinking, like - humbucking pickups STILL only have a single mounting screw on each side! How many millions of precious man-hours have been wasted cramming little bits of foam and shit underneath pickups, yanking them out, cramcramcram over and over to try to get them to sit flat, chasing around springs that sproinged into the shag rug in the crepuscular dark dank den - oh, the tragedy! The horror! And at least half-a-dozen (mostly seditious oriental) companies have TRIED to sell guitars with three and even four height adjustment screws on each humbucker -- problem SOLVED - say, what's that ignominious flubbery sound I hear... O.M.G., is that ROASTING HUMAN FLESH I smell?!? Never reach critical mass against a stupid idea if there's a lot more stupids than smarts that's all. QWERTY? If you can find an electrical engineer to tell you that 1/4" phone jacks are among the top five things he'd use to transmit music-laden electrical signal - he's got a stake in it somewhere. :headbang1:
