[Brian Krashpad]

I have a batch of setnecks and a batch of bolt-on's (and one neck-through). The difference in sustain is relatively minimal. Bolt-ons can take way more abuse though, with setnecks you can't just sling 'em around or down onto a hard surface like you can with a bolt-on, or the headstock will pop right off. I've seen it happen to a really nice setneck bass during a live performance, as well as seen broken headstocks on Les Pauls after the fact, and it ain't pretty.

As far as preferences, go I don't really prefer one over the other, other than I am a bit more careful with my setnecks. For LP-style guitars, however, I'd just as soon have a setneck, and conversely with Fender-style guitars (Teles, Strats) I'd just as soon have a bolt-neck. Never really seen the point in a bolt-neck LP copy, and frankly a lot of times bolt-neck LP copies are"bottom of the barrel" in quality because (at least until very recently) setnecks took a lot more work to produce.