AANJ vs Old Block style neck joint. Curious...

[john1880]

I'm curious about your opinions on this. I've heard it said that the old style Ibanez neck joint is "better" than the AANJ because there is more contact with the neck.
I was just watching the G3 tour from 2003 on DVD. BTW, if you don't own it, BUY IT!!!! Steve Vai is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$9 at www.deepdiscountdvd.com
anyway...Vai is playing a guitar with the aanj, but his 3 neck guitar has the old block style neck joint.
Anybody notice a difference in sound, sustain, tone?
If the aanj is good enough for Mr. Vai, it's certainly good enough for me.
All my Ibanez have the aanj, so I can't compare.
Thanks in advance.

John

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Also, I've noticed that there is more than one kind of AANJ on RGs. The AANJ on my RG8670 is different than on my others (RG3120, RG520QS). It's cut a little thinner, so it's even less obtrusive on the RG8670.

[Rich]

First, there's no way to compare tone from a table top slab of wood to a normal single neck guitar.

J Custom AANJ's are different, nearly all mahogany bodied which is much stronger wood and doesn't need as much mass to join the neck. It's also a JC "feature".

[lennartengel]

oke, i'll give it a shot: I've had an rg 570 with fender style neck joint. It actually sounded very thin it even reminded me of a telecaster... I've also got a satriani model with the fender style joint wich sounds great. It's got a very beefy sound, but i rarely play because of the neck joint.

My favorite guitar is my rg 1527, obviously with aanj, it's got a sustain wich was unreal for me when i first played it. Also got way more balls than my other guitars... But since the seven string neck is bigger it has more contact with the body, maby thats got something to do with it?

Now my point is: Guitars al sound different, so it's kind of hard to compare them especially if you would like to do so with a jem and a triple neck monster... And besides that, to me a guitar must have a certain amount of playability, as with my js: sounds great but i just don't feel comfortable on it...

and blablabla...

[toshiro]

Let's see, I had an older RG750, a newer RG570, and RG7620 all at the same time.

Still have the 750 and 7620, sold the 570(bought an older 760 with the money).

Personally, I feel the old joints(with no shims), have more wood on wood contact and sound and sustain better than the AANJ. It could be just that piece of wood in the 570, or the bubinga in the neck, or the thick finish, but it was no-where near as nice as my old heel 750 is.

And yeah, the 7 string sustains about as good as my older guitars, must be the extra neck mass. :P

[john1880]

Thanks for your input and opinions. I guess that's a very tough question to really answer because every slab of wood is different, and every neck is different.
Basswood I think is very inconsistent too. I have a RG570 that's a couple of pounds heavier than another. I would never guess the heavy one is basswood, but it is.
Too many variables to truly answer this question, but it's nice to know some opinions because I'm strictly AANJ. I often look on ebay and consider buying an older RG550 for the different neck joint.
One thing I don't like about the older joint is that piece of wood hanging off the end to extend the frets. It just worries me that it'll warp someday.
Happy Thanksgiving!

John

[Petie]

Originally Posted by john1880

One thing I don't like about the older joint is that piece of wood hanging off the end to extend the frets. It just worries me that it'll warp someday.

Yeah, and notes on those frets don't sustain very well, which is why Vai scalloped them, so the notes can be grabbed by the cobblers.

[pro-fusion]

Tone and sustain vary so much from guitar to guitar that you can't really generalize. I find the old-style RG neck joint to be very intrusive--the fretboard extends so far past the beginning of the joint that you have to really extend your hand to hit the 24th fret. The AANJ is a much better design, in my opinion, even though I suppose it could have a negative impact on the tone.

[Murray]

I havnt had an old block neck joint to compare properly, but heres some details on the differences between the 2 joints:

http://www.jemsite.com/axes/htm_features/neckjoint.htm