Douglas Fir As A Neck Wood

[Melvyn Hiscock]

Some time ago there was a discussion that mentioned whether Fir could be used for necks so I have been playing with it.

The guitar is not sprayed or strung but I can see no problems so far. The guitar is a neck through with two pieces of fir with a 1/4 in strip of Sapele down the middle. This is not for strength but just because I had it available and it was exactly right to make the neck blank the right width.

A double action truss rod is in there with a thinnish ebony board.

At this stage it certainly seems no more flexible than many other necks. It was fun to carve as it comes off so easily!

The piece I chose was very close grained and almost quartered.

The body sides on this one are Cedar as making a softwood guitar appealed to my sense of the absurd. It si very light!

Since this is one for me it takes a back seat to the pay jobs so will get finished when it is done and not before but I will post how it turns out. It has a good vibe though, I think it will be fine.

There will be more.

Melvyn Hiscock

[erikbojerik]

Love to see the pics when you have them ready. Fir and cedar, man, what does that weigh, like 2 kilos?

[Mickguard]

What other alternative woods have you experimented with in the past?

Not exotic woods that have to be shipped in from far off countries, but local or at least regional woods--seems weird to me that I should be fixated on maple and mahogany, since neither grows around here (France).

On the other hand, it's difficult to know which of the local woods I can use -- beech is really easy to get here, for example. Seems to work really easily too, but I wonder if it's not too heavy for a neck?

And there's a sawmill near by who specializes in coffin woods...poplar especially, they say.

[Melvyn Hiscock]

Love to see the pics when you have them ready. Fir and cedar, man, what does that weigh, like 2 kilos?

No, it has binding so that has made it heavier . . .

I haven't weighed it (there isn't much point, it'll sound good) but I think hardware might double it!

MH

What other alternative woods have you experimented with in the past?

There was a thread on here recently about Parana Pine. That is a good body wood.

Not exotic woods that have to be shipped in from far off countries, but local or at least regional woods--seems weird to me that I should be fixated on maple and mahogany, since neither grows around here (France).

But you could use European maple, a little greyer in colour than American but still good. If it was good enough for Stradivarius it should be good enough for you (mind you Stradivarius's electrics were pretty average). You could also use Walnut which can be very nice. Ash grows in Europe although can be heavy. Cherry is nice, I have some pearwood that has made a great acoustic. My friend Dave King has used Yew on acoustic backs and that looks good. There is a lot of choice. I would certainly consider Cherry for necks.

On the other hand, it's difficult to know which of the local woods I can use -- beech is really easy to get here, for example. Seems to work really easily too, but I wonder if it's not too heavy for a neck?

Try it! you might be surprised.

And there's a sawmill near by who specializes in coffin woods...poplar especially, they say.

You could try Poplar for bodies but is it not that much fun to work and I have yet to make a guitar from Poplar that really knocks my socks off. I kew a coffin maker, his work was so popular people were dying to get hold of it. - Sorry should have posted a bad joke alert.

[Batfink]

Well it's nice to see a post about using an alternative wood rather than the stream of questions about a certain woods suitability - although these posts are understandable considering the amount of 'black art voodoo' that's sometimes written about guitar making - a lot of it valid but some just plain pants in my humble opinion ! I suppose that it's easy for all of us to get unduely concerned sometimes about timber choice when, if we sat down and looked at it, the 'experiment' to actually use the wood in question may add up to less than a trip to McYuk's for the kids and if after making said neck for example you'd probably get a fairly positive or negative feel for it - whether it'll bend like a banana or not - before gluing the board on so you'll either lose a couple of quid's worth of timber or gain a whole new prospective on a perhaps more readily available and cost effective alternative.

I'm mucho looking forward to your findings Melvyn as you, probably more than anyone else here, are the benchmark that we'd all trust seeing as you've held so many of our hands through your book.

Jem

Oh, and me: i make bolt on's with maple or sycamore necks so not exactly stepping out of the ring there am i !

[Southpa]

Speaking of using oddball wood species, I have a chunk of Q-sawn holly that is destined to become a Fender style neck one day. Its hardness, density and grain is not unlike hardrock maple. I guess its simply not used because its not that available.

[Melvyn Hiscock]

'black art voodoo' !

That made me laugh. There is a lot of Black Art Voodoo. The voodoo in force in the late 1970s was the reason I wrote the book in the first place and with the internet there is even more. It is funny that people regard Wikpedia as being dubious in terms of accuracy but will take a lot of other stuff from the internet without question. I have to bite my lip and not react as I could so easily get into flame wars with people who really get into their own digestive system from the wrong direction when talking about guitars. The easiest thing is try it and listen! Like you say a few bits of wood are not going to cost that much. the guitar I am experimenting with has hardware built into the body and facings on the body and is a complicated build. I have to be fairly confident the Fir will work as there must be nearly five pounds invested.

Voodoo is interesting. When MYOEG came out in 1986 heavy guitars were the fashion (sustain!!!!) and I did point out that alder body strats sometimes sound nicer and that you should experiment. Since then it has become fashionable to weigh guitars (Les Paul for sale, 9.273 lbs etc) and lightweight is definitely in. The thing is, I have just made a cedar tele that is great fun but I also have a 1971 les Paul 1954 reissue that is very, very heavy but also sounds great. It is all down to experimentation.

It'll be a few weeks until the guitar is finished but I may start a few more just for fun.

I am also sticking pins in wax models of various guitars and I have taken to making guitars whilst covered in chicken blood and feathers.

Nothing to do with voodoo, I am just strange that way . . .

MH

[RAI6]

I am also sticking pins in wax models of various guitars and I have taken to making guitars whilst covered in chicken blood and feathers.

MH

Now, that sounds interesting.

I would love to see the pics of that!

[Jaam]

I heard you get more sustain from wax guitars if you finish them with tung oil instead of nitro.

[brian d]

And there's a sawmill near by who specializes in coffin woods...poplar especially, they say.

You could try Poplar for bodies but is it not that much fun to work

If they use it for coffin's then obviously Poplar is good for bodies. (Should have had another bad joke alert)

Brian.

[Melvyn Hiscock]

And there's a sawmill near by who specializes in coffin woods...poplar especially, they say.

You could try Poplar for bodies but is it not that much fun to work

If they use it for coffin's then obviously Poplar is good for bodies. (Should have had another bad joke alert)

Brian.

It has a stiff quality.

[guitar2005]

What other alternative woods have you experimented with in the past?

Not exotic woods that have to be shipped in from far off countries, but local or at least regional woods--seems weird to me that I should be fixated on maple and mahogany, since neither grows around here (France).

On the other hand, it's difficult to know which of the local woods I can use -- beech is really easy to get here, for example. Seems to work really easily too, but I wonder if it's not too heavy for a neck?

I'm using silver leaf maple for the neck on my Explorer project.

It is a 5 piece laminated neck where the two outer pieces are silver leaf maple, 2 thin 4mm strips of Jatoba (happned to be what I had at hand, from flooring leftovers) and a hard rock maple core (Again, what I had at had from a kitchen project this time). Silver Leaf maple is softer than regular maple and has a grey tinge to it. I believe that European maple is similar so you should be OK in my opinion (i'm no expert though).

Some people here have said to stay away from silver leaf maple for necks but I really don't why. It is a relatively hard wood and I'm not seeing any problems so far in terms of stability compared to regular maple. No real explanation was given.

I wonder if douglas fir is simlilar in strength compared to Sycamore. I can get Sycamore easily here in Canada.

Melvyn, is this neck you're building for an Electric? If so, any details on scale length, body joint type. I'm trying to get a feel for how long your neck will be.

[Mind Riot]

And there's a sawmill near by who specializes in coffin woods...poplar especially, they say.

You could try Poplar for bodies but is it not that much fun to work

If they use it for coffin's then obviously Poplar is good for bodies. (Should have had another bad joke alert)

Brian.

It has a stiff quality.

Compared to other tonewoods it can be rather dead sounding.

[Melvyn Hiscock]

Melvyn, is this neck you're building for an Electric? If so, any details on scale length, body joint type. I'm trying to get a feel for how long your neck will be.

Yup, neck through, fir/sapele/fir with just a 1/4 in of sapele to get the width (deja vu, did I say this before . . .)

Small neck angle, 24 and a bit scale being sprayed at the moment.

I have high hopes for it.

MH

[Jon]

And there's a sawmill near by who specializes in coffin woods...poplar especially, they say.

You could try Poplar for bodies but is it not that much fun to work

If they use it for coffin's then obviously Poplar is good for bodies. (Should have had another bad joke alert)

Brian.

It has a stiff quality.

Compared to other tonewoods it can be rather dead sounding.

Good thing you guys are luthiers and not comedians.