Neck Wood Choice Input Please

[ibreakemineedtobuildem]

I'm building an Explorer with a Mahogany body that will be tung oiled along with the neck.I don't want to use maple or mahogany for the neck,I was thinking of using padouk or purpleheart to build a one piece neck.Has anyone ever used these woods alone in a neck?(not a laminate)What about solid Bubinga?These are aout the only woods I have access to for now.

So,tell me what to do

[goth_fiend]

well purpleheart is some bright sounding stuff, a little goes a long way, but its possible, hell on your tools though i havent worked with padauk or bubinga though

[javacody]

Those are all woods that don't need a finish (if memory serves) and probably wouldn't take a Tung Oil finish anyway.

The only good resource I know of on these woods is the warmoth website and the rampart guitars website. Even then, how do you know if the author's idea of "creamy" (just as an example) matches your idea of "creamy"? I wish I could help here with personal experience.

Are you planning on doing a bolt neck? If so, I'd go for it (I'm nutty that way), using the lightest piece of the wood you have available to you (amongst the three that you mentioned). If you don't like it, well, you can always make another one, and sell the one(s) you dislike on ebay.

I specifically mentioned that lightest piece, as from what I've read about the three woods mentioned, they are all fairly heavy woods (again if memory serves, and bear in mind that it is 6:32 AM as I am typing this and no coffee yet).

Edited November 17, 2004 by javacody