How does Taylors “New Technology” [NT] neck differ from the neck joints on other guitars?
Introduced in January 1999, Taylor’s revolutionary neck design completely changed the way the guitar neck attaches to the body, the relationship of the fingerboard to the neck and body, and the way the neck itself is made. In a New-Tech or NT neck, instead of the necks wood ending with the heel block at the 14th fret, it continues as a joint or “tongue” along the underside the fingerboard extension. Prior to the NT neck, the fingerboard extension would be glued directly to the guitar top (soundboard), but now, the extended neck joint is set into a pocket precisely routed into the guitar body and top, where it is secured to the interior blocking system. This leaves the fretboard independent from and unaffected by changes in the top caused by humidity, i.e., sinking or swelling — an important factor for an artist encountering climatic change on the road, for example. Special laser-cut “spacers”, machine-tapered in graduated increments of two-thousandths of an inch, are set into the pock
