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Hi

I have some european beech blanks in my shop. Is it okay to use it for makeing a bass neck?

Thanks
Juss

dont know much about european beech, the beech that grows around here is hard as a rock, and im sure would make an absolutely solid bass neck. if european beech is like that then i would say yes.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Yeah its a solid as a rock. I wander why its not used often to build necks thats why i asked

Beech has been used a lot as guitar neck material over here, it is wonderfully strong, but also quite heavy. For a bass, you'll have to take that into consideration in your design, or might not balance well.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

i am guessing that the reason most guitar companies have never used a wood like beech is actually because of its hardness, i know that the beech i have used around the farm is hard that you have to pre-drill it to hammer in a nail. a wood that hard puts much more wear and tear on your machines, and when you are producing thousands of guitar necks that adds up. the other reason is just availability, its a perfectly fine wood for the job there is just not as much of it around.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

From what I've read in wood guides is that beech is pretty unstable and tends to crack despite is really strong and hard nature. Really flexible and warping, first reason why it's largely use for bent furniture, like rocking chairs.

Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Thanks for your replays

I've built many pieces of furniture with Euro Beech as the specified timber with no problems and currently have 1/2 a m3 in stock. I don't use it for lutherie because it has almost no tap tone or figure.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

I built an amp out of European Beech, it was a good experience. I had never worked with beech before, but it went well. Seems to be fairly stable, although make sure you build in a humidity controlled environment, because I am experiencing some minor expansion and contraction with the seasons. Although there's a lot more mass in my amp then in your bass neck, so it shouldn't be problematic for you at all.

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Captainate

If it's a bolt on,
why not give it a try?