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What other woods do you all like to use to make necks besides mahagony. I don't care for Maple on acoustics. I've seen walnut and that seemed nice.

Walnut, Mahog, Rosewood, Maple, Cedar, Paduak, and Bocote

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

add cherry to that list.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

[QUOTE=Dave-SKG] Walnut, Mahog, Rosewood, Maple, Cedar, Paduak, and Bocote[/QUOTE]

Dave-- Cedar? Which one...and how did it work for you?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Cherry and Walnut make a really nice neck. They are two of my favorites to work, and cherry finishes so well. Here's a walnut neck.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Walnut, Spanish Cedar ,Cedar of Lebanon, Cherry, Ash,

A lot of you are using walnut. I've never seen walnut neck blanks for sale. Are you making one piece necks, laminating, or scarf joint with stacked heel?

I never buy neck blanks. I just carefully select my wood from flat=sawn stock, and laminate it. When I glue it up I turn the flat-sawn wood 90 degrees and then the flat grain becomes vertical, you can see it pretty well in that photo.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

I use Cedro Rosa from Brasil. It is similar to Spanish cedar but more reddish in color like mahogany with a very nice aroma to it.

Hi Mike

I buy my walnut from a guy who saws it to my spec.

Russell

Sorry forgot to say earlier I use Inch thich timber and Satcked configuration.RussellR38657.7252777778

[QUOTE=Steve Kinnaird] [QUOTE=Dave-SKG] Walnut, Mahog, Rosewood, Maple, Cedar, Paduak, and Bocote[/QUOTE]

Dave-- Cedar? Which one...and how did it work for you?

Steve[/QUOTE] Not sure...it was whatever LMI was carrying at the time. Turned out great but I use two carbon rods for stiffeners...so it's sometimes hard to tell whether I am getting the strenght from the wood or those rods.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

[QUOTE=Mike Mahar] A lot of you are using walnut. I've never seen walnut neck blanks for sale. Are you making one piece necks, laminating, or scarf joint with stacked heel?
[/QUOTE]

My cedar and Mahog blanks are/was scarf joints with stacking heels. All others... like the Walnut, etc. are one piece, ZOOTMAN specials, and they are spectacular!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

Mark that walnut neck is beautiful. It looks like a stacked heel. Or at least one piece added on. Can't tell if your using a scarfed joint for the headstock. If so it sure opens up a lot more usable wood rather than trying to find 3" x 4" stock.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

For classicals, I have seen mahogany, cedro (aka Spanish cedar), and even quartersawn Western redcedar. I use either mahogany or cedro, but I prefer cedro.

I have seen one steel string acoustic that was built completely from sitka spruce. Even the neck. Surprisingly (or maybe not ) the neck was holding up against the string pull just fine, last I heard.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

I've been making a lot of necks out of koa.

Here's one that's kind of curly


Here is a rather plain koa neck but it brings a nice color match to the body.
John Kinnaird38657.788287037

Gilet Guitars here in Sydney are using Narra. They look nice, dunno how they hold up.

Anyone try oak? Too heavy?

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DES - Shepherd, MI

I've been using Sapele lately. An idea I got from Mario. It works a lot like like Mahogany. Nice quatersawn boards are easly to come by and inexpensive. Enough for 6 necks cost me $30. These are two piece necks plus a stacked heel.
Scott Thompson38657.9709490741

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Bob, thanks for the nice comment, and John those are really pretty necks!
Bob, I do make stacked-heels and scarf my pegheads. When I laminate up he neck blanks, I use the whole board and rip the neck blanks up at 3/4" wide. If my neck blank is 4" wide I can get 4 necks out of that easily. I like making them that way, and I'd rather have necks with stacked heels and scarfed pegheads if it means saving that much wood and work.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Thanks Mark.
Same to you, I really admire that peghead/neck/volute intersection you created. Very tasty.

I am in complete agreement with you regarding the scarfed peghead and the stacked heel. I think it is stronger and it certainly saves wood.

John

Not meaning to commandeer this thread but...
Mark;
Do you have a trick for getting perfect alignment on your centre lamination when you glue the peghead on?
I have only built one neck with a contrasting centre strip & if you look carefully you can see that the glue joint slipped the tiniest bit before the glue dried.
I decided that the next time I try it, I'll glue up the blank, then rip it down the centre & add the centre laminations. Is there a better way?
Thanks, Dan'l

Well, after cutting and preparing the scarf joint, I put in two staples into the gluing surface with a staple gun. make sure that you choose a place that will either be cut off later, or will be buried within the neck so they won't show!
Then I cut off the outer part of the staples with end nippers. I leave just a bit sticking out...and then I align it as perfectly as I can and clamp it up dry. The staples will bite into the other surface and make a mark in it, that you can match up after you put the glue on there. They also keep things from "swimming" or moving as you clamp up.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Daniel
   That is exactly what I do. It is really tough getting that center laminate lined up and if you have a light colored laminate the joints will be harder to hide. I like the look of a solid center laminate in the stacked heel and scarfed neck. Just split and glue.

John

Mark,

I agree with you 100% about the strength (especially with front and back peghead veneers) of the scarfe joints and stacked heels, and more importantly the best use of a scarce resource - neckwood. Some people will always say, however, that you can see the join at the stacks no matter how well executed. My first reaction was - so what - the contrasts in wood grains you sometimes get from stacking adds a lot of interest and texture in my view. But recently, I've been making a "virtue of a necessity" and have been using a different wood for the heel stack (usually as one piece). I find that London Plane (or Sycamore as you call it in the US) works well with mahogany - carves well and has interesting grain contrasts. Also recently I've been doing laminated necks (usually 5 piece) with different woods, scarfing and then using a different wood for the heel block.

Variety is the spice .....

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010