Freedom Custom Guitar / Tone Shift Plate SP-JP-03

The Tone Shift Plate SP-JP-03 is a neck plate for guitars and basses designed to improve tone. Made from brass, it produces a richer, more harmonics-rich sound than standard steel plates. This highly sought-after replacement neck plate is a testament to Freedom Custom Guitar's commitment to crafting instruments with the player in mind.

■ Tone Shift Plate
■ Color: Chrome
■ Dimensions
・Thickness: 3mm
・Screw Pitch: Approximately 51 x 38mm *Actual measurements

~From the manufacturer's website~
■ The highly musical resonance of brass is proven by its widespread use on wind instruments, snares, and a variety of other instruments. Compared to standard steel neck plates, this plate adds more overtones to the sound, resulting in a mellower, more expansive, and more mellow sound. Furthermore, by being twice as thick as standard and providing greater mass, it fully absorbs the significant picking energy of wound strings, resulting in a clearer, fuller low-end sound for wound strings 4-6. Furthermore, increased rigidity dramatically improves sustain.
""Sound"" is ""vibration."" The type of ""vibration"" is a key factor in determining the ""tone."" Striking a large bell produces a low, ""gong"" sound, while small bells produce a high, clear ""tinkle."" The differences in pitch and timbre between these bells and chimes result from differences in their size, shape, and materials, which affect their characteristic vibrational frequencies (natural frequencies of free vibration) and the amplitude distribution at each frequency (amplitude spectrum). In other words, ""timbre"" is a complex interaction of natural vibrations.

When a stringed instrument, whether electric or acoustic, produces sound, the following mechanism occurs:

① Picking (vibration input) → ② String vibration (primary vibrating body) → ③ Vibration of the neck, body, etc. (secondary vibrating body). This is not a one-way process from ① to ③; immediately after ①, ② to ③ cause ""resonance"" and ""phase"" phenomena, affecting each other's vibrations.

In other words, immediately after picking, the string does not vibrate in the primary vibrational manner from ① to ②, but rather becomes a ""tertiary vibrating body"" that vibrates in a manner influenced by ③. In electric guitars and bass instruments, the magnetic field of the pickup is disturbed by the vibration of the magnetic material, generating an induced current and producing sound. In other words, the final ""tone"" is determined by the way the strings (magnetic material) vibrate, which is influenced by ③. This is where the ""tone shift plate"" comes in.
The neck and body are the largest vibrating bodies. The joint plate that connects these two vibrating bodies has a major impact on the way the neck and body vibrate. In other words, by changing the material and mass of the neck joint plate, you can change the way the strings vibrate and actively alter the sound.