avengers63 Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 I've been looking at the eBay seller "karosaguitars" for a few months now. He makes nice looking necks from exotic woods like bocote, cocobolo, yellowheart, and jabota. As I really like the looks of these uncommon woods, I've been wanting to get a neck from him. I was wondering if anyone here can testify one way or another about the quality of his work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~davie Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 hmm.. interesting.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 I bought one of his necks for my second build. Bacote neck w/ovankol fretboard, stainless steel frets. The neck I bought is okay, but nothing as compared to a factory neck. The neck itself is fine with the shape being constant and smooth from the headstock to the heel but on the fretboard there are a couple minor flaws. By a couple frets there are some small chips in the wood that were filled, (with CA glue maybe?), and smoothed. The side dot markers are brass looks to me, but on the seventh fret, side fret marker it is a tad lower than the wood, I guess from pressing it in too far. I would have liked to see the marker being left proud and then filed down to flush. His home made dual action truss rod seems to work just fine. On the page I bought mine from he seems a bit long winded in explaining things which made me kind of worry but I think it is to let you know what you are getting. His page is kind of gimicky if that's a word, but the neck is just fine, plays well with no major worries. This is the first "home made" neck I've ever seen let alone played so I have nothing to compare it to. As I said at the beginning, it isn't a factory neck to be sure, but I like it and the price made it a deal.0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gipper Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 I bought one of his necks as well. Again the fret board had a few nicks and dents and the brass side markers were not all aligned well. I also did not like the ebony nut he installed. It was sloppily glued in and did not fit the slot all that great. It looks nice and feels ok but I have yet to put it on a guitar. HE does offer money back if you are not happy with it though so for the modest cost it is not a bad deal. Gip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 The fretboard on that guitar is bocote,not the neck.And the fretboard finish is horrible.Also the headstock/neck join is assymetrical to a severe degree. From what I can see,the work is inferior to a mighty mite neck....so I think you would do better with mighty mite or warmoth,if you can afford it.warmoth has excellent necks,and they offer stainless. When you can see flaws such as that so easily in not so good pics,there is no way you can trust what you can't see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 The finish on the fretboard does look horrible. Do you need to finish a bocote fretboard even? I thought Bocote had enough natural oils, and was hard enough that you just need to hit it with some lemon oil, or mineral oil, or bore oil, or whatever you use for cleaning/oiling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAGGOTBRAIN Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 I have 2 of Larrys necks.,,. the 1st one i got was nice,., fret work was decent plays great on my Strat.,.,the second one.,.,different story, has a few dings and chips here and there.,.,main problem is the holes drilled for tuners are off.,.,didnt look too bad in the pics he provides but when I went to put the tuners on it really showed how far they were off. Unusable as is...Wish Id have known about http://www.soulmateguitars.com/ sooner... peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Y'all are great. Thanks for the input. Has anyone had any exprience with the necks from Korea or Tiwan? You know - the ones with the crazy inlay work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Y'all are great. Thanks for the input. Has anyone had any exprience with the necks from Korea or Tiwan? You know - the ones with the crazy inlay work? http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=30823 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 The finish on the fretboard does look horrible. Do you need to finish a bocote fretboard even? I thought Bocote had enough natural oils, and was hard enough that you just need to hit it with some lemon oil, or mineral oil, or bore oil, or whatever you use for cleaning/oiling. it looks like that might be part of the problem on the neck above, bocote is very oily and it doesnt look like its taken nicely to having a finish applied. Its so oily i had a neck come completely apart on me a few months ago, It was laminated from zebrano with a strip of bocote in the middle, glued with titebond original. i forgot to do anything to get rid of the oil and i literally pulled it apart with my hands a few days later - the joins were still very clean, glue had obviously soaked into the zebrano but not touched the bocote at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 it looks like that might be part of the problem on the neck above, bocote is very oily and it doesnt look like its taken nicely to having a finish applied. Its so oily i had a neck come completely apart on me a few months ago, It was laminated from zebrano with a strip of bocote in the middle, glued with titebond original. i forgot to do anything to get rid of the oil and i literally pulled it apart with my hands a few days later - the joins were still very clean, glue had obviously soaked into the zebrano but not touched the bocote at all So the lesson is: Avoid bocote fretboards. Gotcha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Y'all are great. Thanks for the input. Has anyone had any exprience with the necks from Korea or Tiwan? You know - the ones with the crazy inlay work? http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=30823 Yep! That's the dude I was looking at. I really didn't figure it was worth anything, but I was still intrigued. Their necks are crossed off my list. I still might get an inlaid pickguard from him and some inlaid tuning peg buttons. Maybe not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 So the lesson is: Avoid bocote fretboards. Gotcha! No,that is not the lesson...thed lesson is to do a better job on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuntinDoug Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Wez, You may want tot try "Smith all wood epoxy": http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts....+All+Wood+Epoxy I have never tried it, but I have heard it works great on oily woods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Thanks for the tip doug - i have worked with pretty oily woods before and wiping them down with thinners normally does the trick for me, i just plain forgot on this occasion here was the neck before it came apart So the lesson is: Avoid bocote fretboards. Gotcha! thats not what i said is it. I suggested that it can have problems with glue and finishes, but the fact i forgot to take the neccisary precaution on my neck would not put me off using it again.... you can bet i wont forget to do what needs to be done again . I have used it before on a guitar and a bass fretboard and it worked very well. I will even be able to save the neck that came apart if i ever get around to it!! the lesson i suppose is to test your finish on scrap, that bocote fretboard should never have been sprayed in the first place, it works fine with just a polish but might need a little oil if you have wiped it with thinners Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 For what its worth, I've seen quite a number of reports of wiped down woods failing. Cocobolo, for example, with the folks who never have had any failures (and build with it a lot) simply gluing freshly planed joints. Either way, I'm looking for a european source of a similar 'oily woods' epoxy myself for this kind of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Yeah, it might be true. I havnt used it in neck laminations like this before, just for fretboards - so it could be the size of a glue joint that made it more successfull the first few times i used it instead of any oil removal technique i tried to employ... either way, still good for fretboards i havnt tried coco yet - i just have a bad feeling about it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 I just read something that had an argument for not wiping oily woods with a thinner before gluing them. It said that removing the oil will cause more oil to rush to the surface and create worse problems. They said to just sand it with 80 or 100 grit sandpaper to remove a little oil, and create some teeth for the glue to grab into. Now there was no testing to really back this up, but it sounds like a decent theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 RE: bocote fretboards I'm not doing the work. I'm buying a finished neck. If there's a chance that the bocote hasn't been properly attached, then the lesson for me is to avoid them. Y'all can do things I don't know how to do nor have the time & money to invest in learning how to do. You know... things like reattaching fretboards that came unglued. No bocote for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 The bit about oil coming out again, yes. The bit about teeth - unless you're gluing with epoxy, in which case yes - is complete bollocks. Freshly planed, freshly scraped, freshly sanded (220 grit), them's the best gluing surfaces, in that order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjhalsey Posted November 17, 2007 Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 Jim at JCS Musical Instruments make a great neck. Check them out here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZqsc1230 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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