How much to change out neck?

[Mason Dixon]

I like to play alternate tunings and I just found out about the Tronical robot tuner. However, my breedlove acoustic has a funky headstock tuning peg layout and I don't expect Tronical to make a tuner for it. I like the sound of the breedlove and I can't seem to find anything quite like it so I would like to keep it but need a different neck.

The neck is a bolt on. How much would I expect to pay for someone to swap the neck out with one covered by Tronical?

What are some good fingerstyle playing necks that would be a good substitute?

Thanks

I doubt any existing neck would be a suitable replacement. For easy neck replacement you'll need a telecaster. To have one made, finished, and fitted, I'd say you're looking at $1,000 or more.

[tomana]

IMO a robot tuner is a gimmick type of device, like ProPeel / Ronco stuff. It's nice to have for about a week and then you'll wish you had not bought it. There's a reason Goodwill stores are stuffed with those Ronco machines (and Foreman grills, etc).

Get yourself a headstock tuner, practice and before long you'll be tuning faster than the robot tuner

I use a Planet Waves NS Micro Headstock Clip On Guitar Tuner, clip removed, used double sticky tape to mount to back of headstock. Check before using sticky tape if finish is a vintage nitrocellulose type.

[Long Jon]

+1 on Gimmick. Save your money.

[picassov7]

Originally Posted by tomana

There's a reason Goodwill stores are stuffed with those Ronco machines (and Foreman grills, etc).

Hey now, I used to love my Foreman grill

[Wade Hampton]

I still love my Foreman grill, but paid nickels on the dollar for mine at a garage sale.

Mason, one of the things that all of these quick-tuning devices fail to factor in, whether they're Scruggs-Keith banjo tuners or robotic tuning machines, is the surprisingly large influence that metal fatigue and string age have on how well they work. With the Scruggs-Keith tuners, the fact that most five string bluegrass banjo playing is a series of (very fast) arpeggios helps disguise the fact that the strings are not quite as accurately brought into tune as you might imagine.

I found this out the hard way, having put four of them on a mountain dulcimer. The Scruggs-Keith tuners are designed to make fast tuning changes easier and they're supposed to be precise, but what I discovered when trying to play four strings at the same time was that there'd always be at least one string slightly out of tune with the others. You don't hear that as clearly when you're arpeggiating, but you sure hear it loud and clear when playing chords all at the same time.

I have diddled around at music trade shows and played some of these guitars with servo motors that take you from one tuning into another, and they have about the same rate of accuracy as those Keith-Scruggs tuners, which is to say maybe you won't notice, and maybe it won't bother you if you do.

But it bugs the crap out of me, frankly, and I've found I can switch tunings by ear just as fast and more accurately than I can diddling around with robotic auto-tuners.

Because no matter how accurate the electronics and how precise the servo motors might be, the Achilles heel of the whole thing is the natural physical limitations of those thin wispy bits of metal wire that we use as strings. They really don't last all that long, particularly if you're whizzing along pushing buttons and zooming them from one tuning to another.

Seriously, if you want to be able to quickly and effortlessly change tunings, you need to do two things: keep your strings fresh (this is vital,) and secondly you have to practice going from one tuning into another - it's an acquired musical skill, just like learning new chords and new techniques, and just like those things the more you practice, the better you'll get at it.

I understand the promise and appeal of an electronic device that promises to do all that for you, I really do. But until some genius invents a new kind of strings that won't die and wear out through repeated retunings, you're still stuck with what is and isn't possible with the strings themselves.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

PS: Replacing the neck on a Breedlove guitar so that you can retrofit it with a robotic tuning device would not be even remotely cost-effective. If you're bound and determined to get one of those things, you're much better off getting a guitar that's already got one or that's easily converted to accommodate it.

[patticake]

not only would replacing the neck be way expensive, but it could change the tone of your guitar and you risk damaging the finish. buy a snark, stick it on the headstock, watch it as you tune.