The Electra Forums

For anybody who has experience with a set neck Phoenix... do you recognize a difference in either tone or sustain as compared to a bolt on Phoenix?

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"GREAT Googiley moogilie Jack...jumpin jehosephat, hot dang and all".
- jdwhealton

I like mine a lot, but not a HUGE difference in tone.

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Thorny

I don't know whether or not the Phoenix had the heel-less neck, but the Spectrums surely did so there's another wrinkle....

I have neck-thrus, set necks and bolt necks sitting on stands here at the moment and, if I'm honest, I cannot hear a real difference in tone or sustain between them, not even with no FX added and played both quietly and with enthusiasm! Yes, they all have different sounds but that is down to the pickups...

I favour the neck-thru for work way up the dusty end of the fretboard simply because of the ease of access on the heel-less neck - Vantage X-99 and VA900 - but - and this is a little secret just between you and me, the electric guitars I use most when laying down tracks are a heavily modded Westone Spectrum ST which is, for all intents and purposes, a Telecaster, an APII LC440.... and a Phoenix X195! That Phoenix is mega and can do just about anything I want it to do....

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

Agreed 100% - and you are right, my FX is a Westone Spectrum and not a Phoenix. But they are nearly the same guitars as you would agree. So many view them as the same guitar, even though the name on the headstock is indeed different. I just view them as the same thing with set neck and a little different hardware (nut lock, finetuners). I like the functionality of the push/pull knobs on the westones (I know wired the same, I mean the inverted shape of the knob makes it EASY to pull). Pickups are reportedly different, and mine has the "bar" on one coil of the pickup which is more cosmetic than functional. I have not measured the coils to see if they are markedly different between each other). The black stripe is cool, kinda sexy like a stripe on an old hemi dodge or chrysler - but the black stripe is prone to scratching with the nice bright metallic red underneath in my instance. Very nice guitar though, very comfortable to play and sounds great - and very well made. You don't really see many of the last FX models without the heel. I'm glad I have one.

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Thorny