Question about Laminate Neck wood

[Ryan Michka]

I'm currently in the planning stages of my second build. I am looking at making a laminate striped neck using a mixture of maple and mahogany or walnut. Is using 1/16" thick hardwood for the mahogany/walnut from a scale lumber place like Midwest Products feasible or do I need to look for wood elsewhere? The figuring on the grain isn't of concern because it wont be visible but I'm just wondering about the strength of the neck I suppose.

Thanks

[John Sonksen]

I've got three made with lumber from regular lumberyards, I don't think it'll be an issue.

[Jason Rodgers]

Don't be concerned about getting wood from instrument wood or specialty dealers. Pay attention to moisture content (seasoning), grain direction, and potential internal tension (cupping, bowing, etc.). Instrument wood can be inexpensive or free, as long as you know what to look for.

[Keith VanDen Heuvel]

I have made three necks with wood from Menard's (a home center) and have a couple of others made with wood from a local woodworkes shop. They have all held up fine so far and the necks age from 12 to 2 years in age and they are all about the same more or less in terms of stability. I regularly play these instruments out and have no issues with them. None of these woods were specifically selected for instruments by anyone other than myself, and my knowledge of such things is limited to say the least. I think that what Jason said is more important: look for good, straight wood that has been properly dried, and consider how it will be used in the instrument. I have seen gorgeous figured maple that would make a great neck or top, but the degree of warping was such that made it unsuitable. I would rather a have a boring straight and dry piece than a pretty twisted one.

[Jedi Clampett]

you may want to put this discussion in the wood forum, I am not the forum police, just a suggestion.

[Mark Wybierala]

I stumbled up a number of big leaf maple planks at Lowes (Home Center) that had awesome flame. I purchased all that they had and probably made at least a dozen Fender style necks from the purchased lumber. Not one of these flat sawn necks has had issues. The picture below is of neck blanks that I created for Rickenbacker style necks using the Lowes maple and something I found at a lumber yard they called Lyptus. The resulting necks are now about three years old on sold guitars and none of the clients have reported any issues. One of them has a maple center with Honduran mahogany. I kept one for myself and the neck is quite stable with only a very minor tweek of the trussrod twice a year. ...and yea, that's my kitchen table from flamed birch and ash on a base made from a Norway maple base from my back yard.

[Mark Wybierala]

Correction,... The outer wood of these blanks is actually the Lyptus and not the wood from Lowes.

Here is a picture of the wood from Lowes.

[Ryan Michka]

Thanks for all the replies. Sweet amp, Mark! I really like the sound of the fender bassman. I'll have to draw a neck out in CAD to get this project moving forward now.

[Mark Wybierala]

I use 1" strips of innertube rubber to clamp a laminated neck blank with small toothpick locator pins. Three 2ft lengths give you an awful lot of serious clamping.

[David Robinson]

Here are 12 neck thru guitars (+ 2 basses) all made with big box maple and a dark veneer center stripes. I laminated 3 of the 3.5" wide boards and yin-yanged my templates to get 2 neck thru blanks from each laminated block. The headstock ears are glued on out of scrap bits. Rough carve 14 head/neck joints in a row and you get pretty quick, and sore.

[Chad McCormack]

If you're doing your first ever laminated neck, keep in mind the grain orientation. When you carve it, you can end up with a neck having one flatsawn looking side and one quartersawn looking side if the wood grain on those outside pieces happens to be going in the same direction. For example, if the grain on both outside pieces runs up and to the left when looking at the heel end, you can get a flat "reveal" on the left and quartered reveal on the right when you carve the neck. When looking at the heel end, your outside laminations should mirror one another (grain runs up and to the middle from both sides, for example) so that when you carve your neck, you get symmetry with respect to the grain runout. I choose a section of flat grain for my center section so that when up on its side in the lamination, the grain is vertical. Then, I choose my outside pieces to run up and to the middle when looking at the heel. Perfection is unattainable due to the natural growth of the live tree, but this way I get the grain to run out closer to perpendicular to the carved neck surface. Just my $0.02.

[David King]

Midwest Products undoubted uses the very finest wood they can find. I'm sure it will be kiln dried and flatsawn. They'll have the best widebelt sanding equipment money can buy so you can expect perfectly consistent thickness. It's a premium product at a premium price.