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Posted

Hi!

I am going to build a neck from quatersawn curly maple. As I am not too convinced that this is stable enough, I decided to insert a 5/16" centerpiece in the neck. Which wood is the best choice as a centerpiece if I want the best possible stiffness/stability? Walnut? Bubinga?

It should be dark wood, for getting a nice contrast between the maple and the centerpiece....

Thanks in advance,

Marcel Knapp!

Posted
any should do really, once the grain of all the laminates is arranged as to oppose any twist that may occur.

That'll make it a bit of an arse to plane though. :D

Carbon fibre strengthening rods seem to have a bit of a following, although I've never used them myself..

I'm sure this has been talked about a few times, might be a good idea to check some of the past threads.

Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars
Posted

I reccomend purpleheart. Its inexpesive, beautiful, and STRONG! Wenge is good, too, but quite a bit more expensive. Purpleheart is $4.95/bf wenge is $19.95/bf here in my area.

Posted
I reccomend purpleheart. Its inexpesive, beautiful, and STRONG! Wenge is good, too, but quite a bit more expensive. Purpleheart is $4.95/bf wenge is $19.95/bf here in my area.

yes...but it's PURPLE!!!!!

:D

Posted

Hmmm....I am just not sure. I have this quatersawn curly hardmaple neck blank here. It is a very special 39" long piece, I want to use for a neckthrough guitar.

Do you think I need to insert the centerpiece to get it stable enough or will it be stiff enough if I just use the blank as it is? It would be sad to cut this special blank.

It was not easy to get a neck blank which is 39" long and 2" high.

Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars
Posted
I reccomend purpleheart. Its inexpesive, beautiful, and STRONG! Wenge is good, too, but quite a bit more expensive. Purpleheart is $4.95/bf wenge is $19.95/bf here in my area.

yes...but it's PURPLE!!!!!

:D

So? Whats wrong with purple?

Posted
Hmmm....I am just not sure. I have this quatersawn curly hardmaple neck blank here. It is a very special 39" long piece, I want to use for a neckthrough guitar.

Do you think I need to insert the centerpiece to get it stable enough or will it be stiff enough if I just use the blank as it is? It would be sad to cut this special blank.

It was not easy to get a neck blank which is 39" long and 2" high.

Use a two way truss rod and Carbon Fiber Rods. no need to laminate the neck, unless you really want to

Posted
I reccomend purpleheart. Its inexpesive, beautiful, and STRONG! Wenge is good, too, but quite a bit more expensive. Purpleheart is $4.95/bf wenge is $19.95/bf here in my area.

yes...but it's PURPLE!!!!!

:D

don't say that near derek B):D

and isn't wenge poisonous?

carefully wes *takes out his people to thwart very badly list*

Posted

seriously though, a good peice of bubinga is a good choice, scott also has a good point with the carbon and a double rod, that's actualy and easier rout too if it's your first neck. But if you really want to laminate the best wood would be ebony, very very very hard wood, again bubinga, wenge, but also take into consideration stability (the tendencay NOT to warp) ebony being very stable and VERY expensive, purple heart and some of the other heart woods are also great foor stability, and cost 12 times LESS then ebony

oh and if you leave purple heart raw ( no finish, cause it doesn't neet to be sealed) it'll eventually turn a nice brown Wes :D , i'm not sure if you want speed with up though, it's just the natural oxidation cycle of the wood that changes that results in a colour change.

Posted

Thank you very much for all your answers!

I think I'll go with Ebony, Bubinga or Wenge. Price doesnt matter, as I want to build the best guitar for myself and not an affordable one. I often heard that Purpleheart is a very solid wood. But the Purple color is really not my taste.

Greets,

Marcel Knapp!

Posted

Marcel, observing your postings on both the mimf and on here it is obvious you want to build a very special guitar. I don't doubt you are capable of building one, but your first instrument is unlikely to be it. Save the fancy blank. Build the best guitar you can with homely but functional woods, solid but inexpensive hardware and the like. Your first guitar will not be a POS, but it will not be the flawless dream-machine you imagine.

Once you've racked up some experience and woodworking chops you'll be ready to tackle that fancy flame maple. I know you've made a pratice neck, but there is no substitute for building a whole instrument (or 2) before moving to the high end materials and pricey hardware.

I'm in the last stages of instrument #3, and I'm still making the occasional boo-boo which would be heart breaking on more expensive materials. Maybe on the next one I'll be ready to pull out all the chocks on a fancy top and primo korina body, maybe not...

Just my 2 pennies/cents/pfennigs/euros :D

Posted

Marcel does appear to be doing lots of homework on his project but I agree with Setch. I learned a ton from my first guitar and boy am I glad I didn't use expensive materials. Most of my mistakes are not visible and the guitar plays great. In fact, I don't play my store-bought guitars anymore. I'm still learning and adding in the more expensive materials as I go.

If you're only planning on building one guitar - then by all means do it up. If not, then save the good stuff for when you really know what to watch out for.

Good luck - looking forward to seeing it. I need to get a digital camera some day and post some of mine.

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