making a fancy neck

[__Robbo__]

howdy..

I'm going to make a guitar, right. and at first i was going to use just maple for the neck, but i really dont think it would suit it.
its going to be a bolt on neck.
i was thinking of something like the looks of SoM's bass's. with that nice stripe finish.
Also, if its possible, id like to make it so the neck is like that, but then the headstock is just the one wood. is that possible?

so what are some darker woods that would make for a good neck, that would match a walnut colour body?

cheers guys

[Spazzout22]

I used Wenge (a nice brown chocolaty color) for my neck, and you just need to make a laminate neck to get that striped finish. Also, if you want to make the headstock look like it's one piece of wood, and not striped, you should put a headstock cover over the top and bottom parts of the headstock. That is, a solid piece of wood that's really thin that lays ontop and on bottom of the headstock, I think SoM did that on a couple of his basses.

[__Robbo__]

oh ok. thanks Spazzout22!

a few more questions.. sorry to be a pest..


1. anything special i need to know about laminate necks? like, special glue, etc.?

2. the headstock cover.. just like any piece of wood that i cut to shape and glue on the top?

3. i really like the look of Wenge! is it an expensive wood? and what would be another darker wood that i could make into a laminate with? it has to suit a walnut body, and an ebony fretboard...


cheers guys,

Rob

[Son of Magni]

I'm looking on my myspace and I guess I don't have many good headstock pics. But here's one:

http://a700.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/26/l_bc314e1f5d98f7fc8fced68d44c629d3.jpg

The thickness of the headstock lams isn't all that important, these are pretty thick because it's spalt and I didn't dare make them any thinner. Often I use some layers of different types of veneer, like maple/purpleheart/maple. You can see there's a thin maple veneer between the spalt and the neck lams.

For the neck, purpleheart, ebony, bloodwood, mahogany, zebrawood, wenge, maple - any hard stable wood basically.

Titebond original is the most popular glue for guitar building.
- SoM

[__Robbo__]

cheers guys, thanks for your help!

Rob

[Jublian]

bookmatched birdseye maple fb ftw

[Nick]

SoM - maple necks - how safe is just tung oil? Warmoth warns against it, says 1 in 10 will warp without a hard finish.

thanks

[Son of Magni]

SoM - maple necks - how safe is just tung oil? Warmoth warns against it, says 1 in 10 will warp without a hard finish.

thanks

It it's a one piece neck then they may be right. With a 3 or more piece laminated neck then there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

[Nick]

hmm it's a one piece

that may be problematic, but I'll just oil anyway.