Padauk And Purpleheart Neck?

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

I did a search and it turned up nothing.

I am winding down on my first build and now its time to pick out woods for a second. I'd like to do a padauk/purpleheart/padauk body, as well as a purpleheart/padauk/purpleheart/padauk/purpleheart laminated neck. Would this be strong enough? I did my first build using maple in the neck laminate because of its strength, so any input would be great before I take the plunge. Thanks!

Edited February 2, 2007 by wwwdotcomdotnet

[MCH]

Purpleheart is very strong hard wood. Its hardness rating is higher than maple. Padauk is also harder than maple.

Maple = 1450

Padauk = 1725

Purpleheart = 2090

So you'll have no problems for strength. I love purpleheart and padauk. I use them in furniture building. I've used purpleheart in my Mocking Bird for accent. In my other build I'm using purpleheart for the centre piece (soundboard?) for the pickups and for the neck to bolt on.

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

thanks so much!

[jnewman]

It's actually more the modulus of elasticity (how much flex for a given force) and ultimate strength (how much force it takes to break, although you'd have to use some seriously weak wood for this to be a problem) that are important for a neck, not the hardness. Either way, padauk and purpleheart are still way plenty.

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

Thats what I meant without trying to get too technical haha. Maybe I should check out some stress-strain curves in my textbooks

[cherokee6]

Padauk is strong stuff. You shouldn't have a problem. It's tonal characteristics are closer to mohagany. I haven't had experince with using purpleheart but its also very strong. I don't know how they'll be as fingerboards; I'm sure one of the previous more knowledgeable posters can tell us. There is also a member: 'soundat11' who sells neck and fingerboard stock. He's also very knowledgeable, about what to use for your git. Good luck with your project!

[KD Williams]

You won't have any problems with the wood's strength... but it is going to be HEAVY... you may want to chamber the body so your back doesn't go out... it'll be pretty though!!!

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

got the wood today at a local wood supply store, its soooooo nice

and yeah im gonna do a semi hollow body with it

[Marzocchi705]

a couple years ago i was given a all padauk sg to look after. Neck heavy but what a sweet tone. Youl be fine with that, especialy lamanated to purple heart.

[wwwdotcomdotnet]

here it is

Edited February 5, 2007 by wwwdotcomdotnet

[westhemann]

man,i despise purpleheart.

so many other woods are just as dense and way cooler...oh well,personal preference and all

[Canuck Brian]

I love purpleheart! I did the entire neck of my 8 string out of one solid piece of it. It hasn't shifted, twisted or done anything to knock the guitar out of tune. I think I dig it because it's not maple and it's cheap.

[Supernova9]

man,i despise purpleheart.

+1. It just looks......bad. Like the only person I could ever see looking good playing a purpleheart guitar would be Prince. I just don't like the natural colouring for anything more than maybe 2 thin lams on a bass neck.

[Desopolis]

ehh, I have no Opinion on purpleheart, IMO its the same as canary or any other colored wood..

The Paduak looks killer though..

quartersawn?

[MCH]

+1. It just looks......bad. Like the only person I could ever see looking good playing a purpleheart guitar would be Prince. I just don't like the natural colouring for anything more than maybe 2 thin lams on a bass neck.

-1. I think we all have our preferences and there is a whole array of options to go around. I really enjoy the look of natural woods. But I'm sure I would want to play really good rather than, 'look good playing'. But unfortunately I can't play really good.

sigh

[ibreakemineedtobuildem]

Feel the hate for purpleheart.

I like it for laminations with maple.

I would think that purpleheart and Padauk could be very stiff and bright sounding.

I'd make two necks using Padauk and maple or mahogany for one and purpleheart and maple for another.

To each his own though.

Which ever way,good luck and have fun

[Supernova9]

+1. It just looks......bad. Like the only person I could ever see looking good playing a purpleheart guitar would be Prince. I just don't like the natural colouring for anything more than maybe 2 thin lams on a bass neck.

-1. I think we all have our preferences and there is a whole array of options to go around. I really enjoy the look of natural woods. But I'm sure I would want to play really good rather than, 'look good playing'. But unfortunately I can't play really good.

sigh

I think you misunderstand me - I like natural woods, I just don't like purpleheart - too gaudy.

[MCH]

Don't worry about it. I was justing ribbing you about 'about looking good playing'. Like I said we all have our preferences. One preference is no better nor worse than another.

It's all cool. Keep on making designer sawdust.

[westhemann]

designer sawdust

great name for a guitar company

[KD Williams]

hey while you are on it.... remember how toxic purpleheart is... be sure to wear a dust mask!

Edited February 12, 2007 by KD Williams

[Demiurge]

hey while you are on it.... remember how toxic purpleheart is... be sure to wear a dust mask!

Damn, I didn't realize that purpleheart is one of the more toxic woods (along with paduak)... here I was buying more purpleheart to get away from using paduak (even with a mask, etc., it was affecting me).

I'm sure both woods together will work great, though.

[SoundAt11]

Padauk is strong stuff. You shouldn't have a problem. It's tonal characteristics are closer to mohagany. I haven't had experince with using purpleheart but its also very strong. I don't know how they'll be as fingerboards; I'm sure one of the previous more knowledgeable posters can tell us. There is also a member: 'soundat11' who sells neck and fingerboard stock. He's also very knowledgeable, about what to use for your git. Good luck with your project!

Thanks, I'll try. Seeing as how I don't sell Purpleheart presently, I can be really objective about it: I LOVE IT! It's got a deeper and more resonant tone than Hard Maple and is a little easier to work with. Padouk is much easier to work with than Purpleheart or Hard Maple. It's more akin to Black Walnut in terms of workability.

I prefer Purpleheart and Padouk to Hard Maple, If you like those but prefer Maple's smoothness, Bloodwood is smooth as possible. Padouk and Purpleheart are open grained (but still pretty slick feeling).

Tonewise, Purpleheart and Bloodwood are very clear and bright sounding, but still resonant, so they shouldn't sound sterile.

[SwitchfootOnPRS]

Does having a carved top alter the sound of the guitar itself AT ALL?

[fryovanni]

Padauk is strong stuff. You shouldn't have a problem. It's tonal characteristics are closer to mohagany. I haven't had experince with using purpleheart but its also very strong. I don't know how they'll be as fingerboards; I'm sure one of the previous more knowledgeable posters can tell us. There is also a member: 'soundat11' who sells neck and fingerboard stock. He's also very knowledgeable, about what to use for your git. Good luck with your project!

Thanks, I'll try. Seeing as how I don't sell Purpleheart presently, I can be really objective about it: I LOVE IT! It's got a deeper and more resonant tone than Hard Maple and is a little easier to work with. Padouk is much easier to work with than Purpleheart or Hard Maple. It's more akin to Black Walnut in terms of workability.

I prefer Purpleheart and Padouk to Hard Maple, If you like those but prefer Maple's smoothness, Bloodwood is smooth as possible. Padouk and Purpleheart are open grained (but still pretty slick feeling).

Tonewise, Purpleheart and Bloodwood are very clear and bright sounding, but still resonant, so they shouldn't sound sterile.

Sound, I find hard maple to be very resonant(low dampening across the spectrum of frequencies we look for in a guitar). I find Purpleheart tends to dampen higher frequencies a little(not a lot, but this allows me to hear the lower freqs a little clearer). I have never considered Purpleheart to be more resonant than Maple though. I find Hard Maple to be very low dampening. Maybe I am just getting confused when you use "resonant" to describe.

Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustic system to absorb more energy when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system's natural frequency of vibration (its resonant frequency) than it does at other frequencies.

A resonant object will probably have more than one resonant frequency, especially at harmonics of the strongest resonance. It will easily vibrate at those frequencies, and vibrate less strongly at other frequencies. It will "pick out" its resonant frequency from a complex excitation, such as an impulse or a wideband noise excitation. In effect, it is filtering out all frequencies other than its resonance.

I generally stray away from talking tone of given wood species. I find there is just too much variation in a given species, and when speaking on the subject people generally don't bring design considerations(such as thickness, shape, hardware mounting and such) up in the discussion. Then the terminology used is generally not very clear(I find this is the case with most guitars acoustic/electric *classical acoustics possibly being an exception as those people really developed the language they use to desribe their desired tone).

Switch-

Does having a carved top alter the sound of the guitar itself AT ALL?

Anytime you change the overall mass of a guitar. You will change how it sounds. However this change may be very slight, and if it is an electric instrument vs acoustic the difference is going to be very very slight and overshadowed by many other considerations(especially in the electronics).

Peace,Rich

[SwitchfootOnPRS]

Thanks