cherry for neck?

[Tom Martin]

My son is building a Cherry OM guitar. He has sourced some sweet looking wavy cherry for the back and sides. The top is going to be Redwood. He was wondering about using cherry for the neck and blocking also. Does anyone have any experience in building an acoustic steel string neck from cherry? Any thought? thanks in advance. When we looked at Martin's sustainable wood cherry guitar, we noticed that the neck is mahogany.

[Bryan Bear]

I have not used cherry for a neck but I will be on one of my next projects. I'm quite sure you will get several responses saying it is a great wood for necks; this has come up on these fora before. . . Are you planning to use the figured cherry for the neck or are you planning to use straight grained stock there?

[Tom Martin]

The neck and blocks would be as close to quarter sawn, straight grained wood as possible. Really not looking to do a lamination either at this point.

[Bob Gramann]

I've made several necks from cherry. I'm careful to use straight grained wood. It's strong, not too heavy, and relatively easy to carve. When I use a cherry neck, I make the head block from the same wood. I usually use spruce for the tail block just to make a lighter guitar.

[Victor Seal]

I built an OM with cherry back, sides and neck with a redwood top. Turned out great and the new owner loves it. I laminated the neck with maple. C\M\C\M\C. Also bound it with curly maple.

[Michael Lewis]

In the teens Gibson used a cherry wood insert in the mahogany mandolin necks to reinforce them. They are fairly short and wide necks by today's standards but most of them I have seen are still quite good, and that's about a hundred years of string tension.

[Mark Swanson]

I love the wood, and use it for necks all the time. Works great, finishes well.

[Tom Martin]

I built an OM with cherry back, sides and neck with a redwood top. Turned out great and the new owner loves it. I laminated the neck with maple. C\M\C\M\C. Also bound it with curly maple.

Was the lamination for strength or aesthetics? Any pics? Thanks.

[Joel Nowland]

I have been using cherry for necks for many years, it's wonderful!

My favorite.