Wenge + Maple (?) For A Neck?

[balooka]

I was promised a nice piece of wenge the other day (havent seen it yet ) and it's supposed to be quartersawn. I'm planning on using it for a neck with a maple laminate in the middle (wenge on the outside). The body also is in that combo (Maple sandwiched between wenge), but i've read that wenge gives a smudgy sound. I cant find the link anymore to that statement, but i wondered if this is correct and I should not use this combination. Any help is appreciated.

TIA

jP

[Phil Mailloux]

Wenge and maple are both excellent neck woods, there's no reason why you shouldn't use it.

Plenty of pro bass builders use Wenge for building necks.

[Phil Mailloux]

Wenge and maple are both excellent neck woods, there's no reason why you shouldn't use it.

Plenty of pro bass builders use Wenge for building necks.

[egdeltar]

Wenge is good, my bassist has a wenge kneck on one of his basses. Plays and sounds like a dream

[balooka]

Wenge is good, my bassist has a wenge kneck on one of his basses. Plays and sounds like a dream

←

Hmm, both of you mention bass necks, but im not building a bass. Does that mean the sound of wenge is dark or will it be compensated enough by the maple??

TIA

jP

ps. I'm finishing my list of items to order, and have a maple fretboard on it.

[Phil Mailloux]

Dude, forget about the "sound" of whatever. What does that mean anyway, dark, smooth, smudgy, snappy, *insert other word* ect...?

On electrics, the biggest part of your sound comes from your electronics, the wood acts as a filter

I mention a bass cuz i'm a bass player/builder. Fact is bass builders like to play around with exotic woods and guitar builders prefer to stick with what's tradition. You can built with whatever wood you want.

"If you build it, it will play"

Edited August 9, 2005 by Phil Mailloux

[egdeltar]

Phil, I have to completely disagree with you, I’ve always felt that wood has the biggest influence on tone. Pickups play a big part but certain woods will always give off certain characteristics.

[jnewman]

I have some 1/4" thick wenge I'm using through the body in my next project (a guitar, not a bass), and it has an absolutely remarkable tap tone. You give it a good rap with your knuckles and it just rings and vibrates - I've never had another piece of wood that resonated quite as much when you hit it. I'm really looking forward to working with it - it seems very, very musical.

[balooka]

thanks guys

A (former ) friend of mine used to build basses for a living, and he used wenge all the time. I did some looking around and I couldnt find a solidbody guitar made out of wenge/maple.

That being said, I'm going for the wenge now

I've changed the maple board on my orderlist to a wenge board, and the neck is now 50% maple. Now it's sit back and wait for the shipment.

thanks

jP

[Phil Mailloux]

Phil, I have to completely disagree with you, I’ve always felt that wood has the biggest influence on tone. Pickups play a big part but certain woods will always give off certain characteristics.

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Wood definitely has the biggest influence on tone when we're talking about acoustic instruments, howerver, we're talking about electrics and the electronics do most of the job and the wood gives *some* tonal characteristics but not that much in my opinion.

Let me give you an example:

I recently built a 6 string fretless bass. The body woods are ash, mahogany, purpleheart, wenge and olive. The neck has maple, purpleheart and wenge.

I hand built the pickups, two jazz-bass pups.

Wanna know what it sounds like? Like a fretless Jazz bass.

I was actually disapointed when I connected it passively (before I put my preamp in) because I was expecting a high-end tone and it turned out to sound just like a fender bass. Sure it's got *some* tonal differences than a fender J bass but that's what it sounds like.

There's just no way you'll get a P bass sound out of it unless you put in P bass pickups. Just as much as you won't get a strat sound out of a Les Paul unless you stick 3 single coils in. No matter what wood you use.

To make a long story short, my point in the original post was to forget about which wood you'll use for what tonal characteristics because in the end only the most picky players will ever hear the tiny differences in it and just build the damn guitar!

I hope I didn't sound sarcastic or peed off because i'm not, just saying my point of view.

[balooka]

hehehe

kewlies

I am gonna use the wenge (once the hombre brings it to me )... I've made an oak + walnut body before and the neck was maple + walnut. I like the oak more than the plain maple, but it's a tad on the heavy side. So for this new one I might be going for wenge and (chambred) oak. Since we're not really looking and tonal qualities anymore

Thanks

jP

btw, nice bass