Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

Always had Flatsawn Maple necks until this build:




which has a Quartersawn Roasted Maple neck and it is the best playing neck I've ever owned! I don't know if it is because it is Roasted or Quartersawn...or the combination of the two but the neck sustains like crazy and feels better than any neck I've used. Vote here for QS!...and roasted maple

[Chickenwings]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

+1 for roasting

[philthis]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

Just played a quarter sawn roasted neck tonight on an expensive fender strat. It was a all maple neck and oil finish. It was a custom shop guitar. I can tell you guys the quarter sawn neck has a sharper attack. I would not say it's abnoxious and unpleasant but it is a sharper attack kind of like the difference between alder and ash for the bodies. How much does it effect the tone? Well to me it's about 20 percent but not more. I wouldn't spend the wod for a quarter sawn neck expecting it to radically alter your tone, pickups would be a much more substantial tone change then adding a quarter sawn neck. However, if your concerned about neck stability like traveling between humid and dry areas, or live in a dry climate and having frets pop up on the neck or having to redress and file down sharp frets on the neck from seasonal changes occasionally then you might add those issues with the desire to have a sharper attack and decide to spring extra for a quarter sawn neck. It's one of those things that with other minor changes like a nitrous finish and bent steel saddles on your bridge that add up to better tone on the whole. So to put this in perspective. ........bent steel saddles on the bridge 15 percent difference in tone - nitrous finish 20%-quarter sawn neck 20%. There are other things as well such as improved electronic parts which don't significantly change the tone but all things minor changes added up will amount to a significant change in tone when your done. If I wanted to significantly alter tone the fastest and cheapest way I would start with the pickups before tinkering with everything else. Some of you may not like the tone of bent steel saddles or maybe not the sharper attack of a quartersawn neck becouse good tone is subjective and of personal taist. If your tone is heavily distorted most all the time I'm not sure you will even hear much difference if you made all these subtle changes anyway. In that case you may only hear a little sharper and more pronounced gain on your chords and notes and that's somthing the average drunk dope in the audience probably wouldn't notice much anyway.

[treyhaislip]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

+1 for roasting

Absolutely! Roasting is awesomeness! lol

Just played a quarter sawn roasted neck tonight on an expensive fender strat. It was a all maple neck and oil finish. It was a custom shop guitar. I can tell you guys the quarter sawn neck has a sharper attack. I would not say it's abnoxious and unpleasant but it is a sharper attack kind of like the difference between alder and ash for the bodies. How much does it effect the tone? Well to me it's about 20 percent but not more. I wouldn't spend the wod for a quarter sawn neck expecting it to radically alter your tone, pickups would be a much more substantial tone change then adding a quarter sawn neck. However, if your concerned about neck stability like traveling between humid and dry areas, or live in a dry climate and having frets pop up on the neck or having to redress and file down sharp frets on the neck from seasonal changes occasionally then you might add those issues with the desire to have a sharper attack and decide to spring extra for a quarter sawn neck. It's one of those things that with other minor changes like a nitrous finish and bent steel saddles on your bridge that add up to better tone on the whole.

So to put this in perspective. ........bent steel saddles on the bridge 15 percent difference in tone - nitrous finish 20%-quarter sawn neck 20%. There are other things as well such as improved electronic parts which don't significantly change the tone but all things minor changes added up will amount to a significant change in tone when your done. If I wanted to significantly alter tone the fastest and cheapest way I would start with the pickups before tinkering with everything else. Some of you may not like the tone of bent steel saddles or maybe not the sharper attack of a quartersawn neck becouse good tone is subjective and of personal taist. If your tone is heavily distorted most all the time I'm not sure you will even hear much difference if you made all these subtle changes anyway. In that case you may only hear a little sharper and more pronounced gain on your chords and notes and that's somthing the average drunk dope in the audience probably wouldn't notice much anyway.

Personally, a Roasted neck is the best feeling neck I've ever played (second would be a solid Rosewood that I played recently.) I definitely think Roasted and Quartersawn are exceptional options to strengthen a neck–gluing a fret board down strengthens it as well.

To me, how a guitar feels (comfortable to hold, fits the hands just right) is just under the actual guitar tone. I've played guitars that had great tone but the neck was uncomfortable to me and I ended up selling because I couldn't "play it" (hopefully that makes sense.)

I can't quantify X percentage of Y part adds/takes away from the tone; however, I think we all have to find out what works for us and I don't think there are alot of wrong answers.

[philthis]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

so after owning an Eric Johnson strat now for a few years I can tell you that a quartersawn neck gives a more snappy and pronounced attack. It also adds sustain and I have never as of yet (crossing my fingers) had to do a fret job for sharp ends popping off the fret board nor a neck adjustment for string tension of 10 guage. I also noticed that the natural and tapped harmonics are more pronounced.
if you roast a quartersawn neck you will in most every case get even more sustain and slightly more dynamic tone added to the tone of the quartersawn neck. It is also usually very comfortable to play and even more stability is usually added to the neck.
If your tone is a soft, and very round type note or chord tone you may not like a quartersawn neck as its tone is more pronounced, dynamic, and snappier. However, this can be easily handled by just adjusting your pickup magnet heights per string or swapping out pickups like using an A3 instead of an A5 which might be a little too ice picky on the upper notes.
I personally love the sound and feel of roasted quartersawn necks. I played a custom Ernie Ball and found it felt, played, and sounded fantastic. I have also played a few custom shop Fenders with this same option and found them to be equally outstanding. They dont sound alike becouse of these options but each one sounded very clear, spanky, and dynamic with the woods and electronics they were constructed out of. The advantage here is that people usually spend all kinds of money on extra pedals to try to get their standard guitars to sound this way. It would be much easier then to minimalize your effects on your tone meaning simplifying your sound with just a good amp and maybe a few pedals only. Loud cleans would benefit the most but harmonics, sustain, and chirps and squeels on distortion tones would benefit as well. I think its definitely worth it if you have the money and you play a lot. you will enjoy the improvement in tone. I would definitely add a nitro paint job and things like improved caps and better block, saddles, and springs to add to your tone. remember to do them 1 step at a time to make sure each improvement sounds the way you expect it too. good tone is subjective and each improvement will add something new to the over all tone of the guitar.

[DonP]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

Old thread but I'll bite. My best sounding guitars have quartersawn necks.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Flatsawn vs Quartersawn.

As for the tonal difference, the only guitar I have with a quarter sawn neck leaves me wanting for brightness more than any other Strat I have. I can't prove that it's because of the quarter sawn neck, but there definitely is a correlation.