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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| Author: | Mike Mahar [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:15 am ] |
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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. |
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| Author: | Dave-SKG [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:24 am ] |
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Walnut, Mahog, Rosewood, Maple, Cedar, Paduak, and Bocote |
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| Author: | Bobc [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:56 am ] |
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add cherry to that list. |
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| Author: | Steve Kinnaird [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:30 am ] |
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[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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| Author: | Mark Swanson [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:45 am ] |
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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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| Author: | RussellR [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:50 am ] |
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Walnut, Spanish Cedar ,Cedar of Lebanon, Cherry, Ash, |
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| Author: | Mike Mahar [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:29 am ] |
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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? |
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| Author: | Mark Swanson [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 7:06 am ] |
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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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| Author: | Robbie O'Brien [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 7:36 am ] |
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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. |
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| Author: | RussellR [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:08 am ] |
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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. |
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| Author: | Dave-SKG [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:50 am ] |
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[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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| Author: | Dave-SKG [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:53 am ] |
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[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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| Author: | Bobc [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:01 am ] |
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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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| Author: | Michael McBroom [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:14 am ] |
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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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| Author: | John Kinnaird [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:50 am ] |
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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.  |
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| Author: | PaulB [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:58 am ] |
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Gilet Guitars here in Sydney are using Narra. They look nice, dunno how they hold up. |
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| Author: | Darin Spayd [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 1:57 pm ] |
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Anyone try oak? Too heavy? 
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| Author: | Scott Thompson [ Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:15 pm ] |
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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. |
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| Author: | Mark Swanson [ Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:59 am ] |
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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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| Author: | John Kinnaird [ Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:15 am ] |
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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 |
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| Author: | Daniel M [ Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:11 am ] |
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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 |
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| Author: | Mark Swanson [ Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:00 am ] |
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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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| Author: | John Kinnaird [ Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:26 am ] |
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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 |
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| Author: | Dave White [ Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:47 am ] |
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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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