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My next guitar is going to have a maple neck. I've never built a maple neck before. I like stacked heels in mahogany, do they look any good in maple? Do people make these or are maple necks made with a single block to form the heel or is the whole neck carved out of a large block?

Thanks,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

Figured or straight grain? One-piece (or laminated with a center stripe and then cut like a one-piece) definitely looks better than having any maple-to-maple joints where figure discontinuities stand out. But for straight grain, I think it would be ok. If you don't mind the look of stacked heels in the first place, that is. I like laminated heels, just not stacked. Two pieces of riftsawn wood, glued together so the grain makes a V down the centerline.

Thanks Dennis. It will be straight grained. I don't mind the look of a stacked heel in mahogany at all. In fact, I prefer it to a single block where the grain doesn't match as well. Not too sure about how it would look in a light wood such as maple though.
Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I did this one many years ago with straight grained maple and the stacked heel looked pretty good. (Please ignore the neck joint it was an early guitar which I tried attaching the neck before finishing). If you can cut it from the same neck blank it will be a little more noticeable than mahogany but still not too bad. I would do it again.

I don't think there's a way to make the seams in stacked Maple invisible. I've seen some antique stringed instruments with contrasting woods used in the stack. Perhaps using the artsy approach like Howard Klepper?

http://www.klepperguitars.com/gallia.html

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I'd probably try to find some flatsawn maple and make a multi piece neck with a full heel and a filler with black stripes.

kjaffrey's (how did his mother name him that?) stacked heel looks good to me - I would have guessed, without knowing, that glue lines would show up more readily in maple than in mahogany or spanish cedar. Personally, I prefer stacked heels, so I think there's no question I'd go forward with it.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu