I’m looking for a bit of advice please?

I’ve fairly recently bought a Scott Scale 720 Plus bike having previously had a Mondraker Vantage hardtail.
The Mondraker was brilliant, modern geometry, 160mm Yari fork, great for riding about the local enduro tracks and trips to Nant Yr Arian, apart from one thing – a harsh back end!
So, after much deliberation I swapped it out for a “plus” bike, thinking that a bit more plushness at the back would help – but it hasn’t!
Three rides in (on familiar tracks) and on each ride I’ve suffered from shoulder and neck ache.
I’ve tried to set the bike up similarly, but the Scott has flatish bars and only 120mm of travel
Is there anything that I should be looking at in particular? Would riser bars help?
ANy other suggestions?
Cheers

How is the seatpost height / saddle position vs your old bike ?

It kinda sounds like it might be a bit long in the front end! So it’s forcing you to be more forward putting pressure on your wrists and shoulders and making you have to look up more, might only be a small amount 5/10mm but that’ll make a big difference. Years ago when them there stems where right out there long I had the same sort of issue, I dropped the stem back first 10mm then 20mm, to a Staggering 80mm from a 100 and it sorted it for me.
So my be look at getting a slightly shorter stem

How do the riding positions compare? I would start there – a touch more weight on your hands could cause those symptoms.

It kinda sounds like it might be a bit long in the front end!

Makes sense to me.
Small variations might cause a lot of … pain. There is more weight on your wrists…

If you are lucky your body will adjust. For next weeks: run the fork softer, the tires with less pressure, use strong medical wrist wraps and VOLTAREN on wrist and shoulder. Would try this for 2 or 3 weeks.
Right now with cold weather: maybe not the right time for this experiment?