banner

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Roasted tonewood.....

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Roasted tonewood.....

    Okay, I now have my first experience with roasted tonewoods. A longtime client begged me to assemble one of his Warmoth projects. I finally relented.

    My first surprise were the frets. I thought they were Jescar gold. Nope - the fingerboard was stained amber, and so were the frets. They polished right up to a nice sheen with a half-hour's elbow grease.

    He had a roasted and chambered alder body, with a roasted flame maple neck. I expected the lightness, and I expected the wood to be trickier to work with. But I found that screws strip out so easily in this stuff.... the body and neck got the crumblies under any mechanical pressure. I hadn't even tightened down the first neck attachment screw yet and found that it had stripped the grain out of the hole. Yes - I checked the size of the hole, and did NOT drill it out larger. Yes - I lubed the threads of the screw. The first one went in easy as pie... and just kept turning, never even beginning to tighten up. I was using fingertip pressure on the screwdriver, I hadn't wrapped my meaty paw around the handle to apply pressure. The wood simply... yielded.

    So I reinforced the 3 remaining holes with super glue, and then drilled and doweled the first hole with new maple. Anyway - it's cool now. Plays like butter, sounds great. Wilkinson vibrato set up to float, Lace Sensor Gold loaded pickguard, 1 7/8" wide at the nut with a compensated nut, self-locking StewMac tuners with Waverly buttons.





    Last edited by ICTGoober; 08-14-2021, 07:30 AM.
    aka Chris Pile, formerly of Six String Fever

  • #2
    I love the way roasted maple looks. I’ve been a little intimidated to work with it for the same reasons you mention.

    However, the thing that jumps out is a 1-7/8” neck! Was it the standard thin profile? 1-3/4” is a bit wide for me I don’t think I can handle 1-7/8”. Haha

    Anyway, well done. Almost an updated Clapton.
    Oh no.....


    Oh Yeah!

    Comment


    • #3
      I got my first roasted maple neck a few months ago. I didn't have to use any screws in it, so I didn't experience what you did. It is a very nice material though- I love how light it is.
      Administrator of the SDUGF

      Comment


      • #4
        My Falbo 8 string has a roasted flame maple neck. The only time I’ve modified anything was adding a clip less D’Addario micro tuner. I removed one of the screws from a tuner, and replaced it with the longer supplied screw. No issues like you experienced.
        “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

        Comment


        • #5
          However, the thing that jumps out is a 1-7/8" neck! Was it the standard thin profile?
          I like wide necks - I have a 1 7/8 Warmoth neck on one of mine.

          This one was an SRV carve - very chunky like a '59 LP Junior, but slightly asymmetric - thicker on the bass side. I liked it a lot. This client ordered several Strats and a Tele with this neck. He has a P-bass on order, too. Went whole hog on Warmoth stuff.

          I have another Warmoth Strat in the pipeline for another longtime client that will have a Wizard neck.

          aka Chris Pile, formerly of Six String Fever

          Comment


          • #6
            My last Warmoth build has a roasted plain maple neck, 1 5/8" nut, boatneck contour. Wider nut width with that profile is uncomfortable even for my big hands. Didn't have any problems at all with drilling and putting screws in. I love the feel and the look. It plays so smooth. The body of mine is not roasted.

            Comment


            • #7
              I've also noticed that screws don't hold as well in roasted woods. Wood glue + toothpicks seems to solve the problem for me, but something to be aware of.
              Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

              Originally posted by Douglas Adams
              This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

              Comment


              • #8
                Yeah, I do the CYA glue trick to the threads of all of my Mahogany necks w/o even trying them first, I'm fully expecting stripping under pressure with those.

                But I would not have expected that with a Maple, rather interesting discovery.

                I commonly hear about tuning gear screw issues in roasteds, but never heard of the actual neck bolts stripping that easily.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Roasting = more "stable", but also more brittle. The wood fibers crumble and shear much easier under torque than non-roasted woods. That said, it gives the wood a great feel and less weight. I have roasted maple necks, as well as a Warmoth roasted Alder body. Really cool stuff, just have to be careful with the smaller screws on tuners, truss rod covers, pickguards, etc.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Not to mention, way more stability. I got my 8 string with a set of 9-42, 56, 90. I replaced them with 11-52, 64, 90, and the relief didn’t budge. Ultimately went to 10-46, 59, 74, and same thing again.
                    “I can play the hell out of a riff. The rest of it’s all bulls**t anyway,” Gary Holt

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Second went together much easier. Plays well, too. Very flashy.






                      aka Chris Pile, formerly of Six String Fever

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by ErikH View Post
                        My last Warmoth build has a roasted plain maple neck, 1 5/8" nut, boatneck contour. Wider nut width with that profile is uncomfortable even for my big hands. Didn't have any problems at all with drilling and putting screws in. I love the feel and the look. It plays so smooth. The body of mine is not roasted.
                        I have the boatneck profile on my roasted maple warmoth as well. I think I'm going to shave it into something close to my MIJ 54 reissue deep V.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X