Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

[Wayne27]

I ask because I heard that maple allows you to shred faster because it's smoother.

I also heard that mahogany gives a you a deeper and darker tone in the sound.

[kramersteen]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Maple makes me play at least 70% faster

Nahogany makes me sound 40% more metal and darker.

[dave74]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Won't matter for speed, especially if it's painted or satined. Open-grained oil-finish maybe it's a tiny bit rougher, but it shouldn't affect speed.

Tone is another story/thread. Both have their pros and cons,,,,,,,so I suggest owning a few of each.

[weepingminotaur]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Won't matter for speed, especially if it's painted or satined. Open-grained oil-finish maybe it's a tiny bit rougher, but it shouldn't affect speed.

Tone is another story/thread. Both have their pros and cons,,,,,,,so I suggest owning a few of each.

Agree 100% with the first part. The fingerboard itself (ebony over rosewood) and access to the upper frets (low heel, compound radius) will have more impact overall on speed.

Agree with qualifications with the second part. Tone, in my very humble opinion, is more than any single component of the guitar. So yes, a mahogany neck will lend a slightly darker sound to the guitar than a maple neck, but there's also the guitar body, fingerboard, pickups, bridge, scale length, shape, neck type (bolt-on / set-neck / neck-thru) and string gauge to consider.

[Sirion]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Heavy metal is such a broad term anyway that you'll find plenty of variations of both and more.

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

I have a PRS with a thick mahogany neck that is brighter, more snarly, and snappier than my Ibanezes with thin maple necks, FWIW. The PRS does have an ebony board, and the Ibanezes have rosewood boards, though.

[Diego]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

I don't care, as long as I like the neck as such.

[ehdwuld]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

I don't care, as long as I like the neck as such.

This
A thinner neck to me is faster
But some find it the other way around

I find the one that's the most comfortable for my hand
And tweak the amp to get whatever sounds I want

If you are switching guitars onstage this may not be perfect

[greekdude]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

I dont care as long as it's maple neck with maple fretboard and white alder body

[NegativeEase]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Unless the finish exposes the texture of the neck wood -it should not make a difference between Maple and Mahogany for speed Neck profile, Binding/edge of fret finish angle, fret height and type, sometimes fretboard wood (depending on setup), string height, string tension/feedback from strings all make impacts to speed that should be explored. All of my guitars have the neck finish worked with 0000 steel wool to a matte finish to make for a comfortable and fast playing experience -but the wood is not really part of the equation.

Mahogany does sound different that Maple -people are going to argue on here as the differences are somewhat subjective -IME Maple is more lively and snappier -in your face if you will and Mahogany more smooth and warm and sedate -sometimes Mahogany can sound like the some small bands of mid range frequencies are not very present -so it seems various mahogany guitars can have their own personality -which can be awesome or I guess not too.

If you are thinking about these Guitar subtleties -you should probably think about fretboard material too -Rosewood Ebony Maple etc

[Ayrton]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

The material and neck size is irrelevant to speed. Sure, you may find one or the other more comfortable for you, but there is no "one size fits all."

Paul Gilbert plays a neck thick enough to make country Tele players cry, and he seems fast enough.

[Francois]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

I like both Maple and Mahogany necks. But my best sounding guitar has an huge maple baseball neck (Jeff Beck Strat v1). Once you get used to it you can shred with that as well.

For shredding you need an action with is confortable for you with bridge saddles in line with the fretboard radius up the neck.

The smoothness is just the finish, not the wood. If you like very smooth finish you may check some japanese 80s necks like high end Matsumoku's.

[Adieu]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Oiled maple.

[dave74]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

Oiled maple.

Best feel for sure. IMO

[Iron1]

Re: Do Heavy Metal players prefer mahogany neck on their electric guitars or maple?

In the end it doesn't matter what it's made of it matters how it feels and sounds (and looks, to some extent). I've picked up two guitars that were the same brand/model and one was amazing and the other suffered from deadplankitis. Go to a guitar store and play a bunch of guitars - find the ones that speak to you, then go from there. For the longest time, for me that was Ibanez, but now I'm more into Jackson - at least as far as the new models are concerned. But a new Ibanez and a new Jackson with the same body wood, same neck wood, same fretboard etc can feel and sound totally different.