Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

[Masta' C]

Does anyone here have experience with necks made out of Wenge, Goncalo Alves and/or Rosewood?

I have a lot of experience with your typical neck woods (mahogany, maple, sapele, ebony, etc.), but these 3 have escaped me. To be clear, I'm talking about the body/back of the neck or the neck as a whole, not just the fretboard.

I typically shy away from "tone wood" debates, but different neck materials have very different feels under the hands and substantially different characteristics in terms of resonance/transmission of vibrational energy. I know weight can vary a lot, as well.

Curious what people's impressions have been with these woods?

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Yes! I have an all wenge neck with a ziricote fretboard and I truly love it! It has a very unique tone and it has a unique feel to it as well. Very musical wood imo. Wenge has a very defined low end, great sustain and I would say it is an overall balanced tone that leans slightly warm but with musical articulation. It really vibrates in the hands... very cool guitar necks and great for bass necks too. I have a few YouTube videos of me playing my guitar with a wenge neck outdoors at a Greek art show in 2015, I am using a clean tone with Duncan Jazz pups, so you can kinda hear it. However, it was recorded using an old cell phone, so the audio quality is poor (plus I was overweight at the time so I do not like sharing it often, haha)... but I am happy to share it if you want to hear it.

I also have an all Indian rosewood neck, including the fretboard. I love all rosewood necks. Expect rosewood tone with a silky smooth feel in your hand. Similar to mahogany necks with rosewood boards imo.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

The first neck I ever wanted to order from Warmoth was Alves, but they could not use it for an angled headstock so I chose wenge on the fly as a replacement. I have never been disappointed. That was 13 years ago...

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

I have a guitar with an all-rosewood neck. Another with all-bubinga. And I used to have a bass that was, I think, Wenge and Ovangkol?

I like the feel of all of them, because they're unfinished or finished with just wax and oil. Other than that, I couldn't point to any particular aspect of the instruments' sounds that I'd credit to their neck woods. Do they affect things? Probably. But a whole lot less than almost everything else I'm doing to those signals.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

When Fender did all-rosewood necks a couple of years ago I thought they all had a slightly boosted midrange compared to their maple cousins. I still kind of want one of those Telecasters..

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

I have a guitar with an all-rosewood neck. Another with all-bubinga. And I used to have a bass that was, I think, Wenge and Ovangkol?

I like the feel of all of them, because they're unfinished or finished with just wax and oil. Other than that, I couldn't point to any particular aspect of the instruments' sounds that I'd credit to their neck woods. Do they affect things? Probably. But a whole lot less than almost everything else I'm doing to those signals.

All-Bubinga was another one that caught my eye!

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Darn, that is some beautiful wood.

If i get rich one day, I'll try to get hold of one of those necks. For inheritance to my "grand children" lol .

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Here are some clips with my wenge neck, but sorry about the audio (and singing in one of them) quality. One of them is clean and one of them is dirty, quite literally. They are both old jams, but they are on my wenge neck. I use the 59 roundback profile, so there is a good chunk of wenge there.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Thanks for the clips!

Do you find the Wenge neck too heavy, especially with the '59 Roundback profile? Does it make the guitar prone to neck-dive at all?

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Thanks for the clips!

Do you find the Wenge neck too heavy, especially with the '59 Roundback profile? Does it make the guitar prone to neck-dive at all?

You're welcome.

No, not at all. Maybe I got lucky with a somewhat lighter piece of wenge, but I use it with a chambered black limba body featuring a Wilk. 2-point trem. So the body is not especially heavy and it still does not neck dive...

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Oh, here's something people don't tend to mention very often: raw Indian Rosewood, while gorgeous (I prefer it to Brazilian, for looks) smells kinda awful. I believe the polite description would be "barnyard."

It fades over time, but when you first open a box, you'll swear someone's livestock took a dump in there.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Oh, here's something people don't tend to mention very often: raw Indian Rosewood, while gorgeous (I prefer it to Brazilian, for looks) smells kinda awful. I believe the polite description would be "barnyard."

It fades over time, but when you first open a box, you'll swear someone's livestock took a dump in there.

This is a true story, but a fair price to pay for the playing experience imo. On the other hand, a very pleasant unfinished neck to play is roasted maple, even after 5 years it still smells like roasted maple syrup with a hint of campfire when I play it.

Anyway, almost 11 years later, my Indian rosewood neck has virtually no scent at all.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

I have an all rosewood neck on a swamp ash strat. It is easily my favorite guitar. Excellent sustain. Not as twangy as all maple necks, but it's still open and airy enough. Certainly not thin sounding.

I played a bass with a wenge neck once. Perfect for deep bass tones.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Oh, here's something people don't tend to mention very often: raw Indian Rosewood, while gorgeous (I prefer it to Brazilian, for looks) smells kinda awful. I believe the polite description would be "barnyard."

It fades over time, but when you first open a box, you'll swear someone's livestock took a dump in there.

:11:

I feel like Warmoth should note that in the description, ha ha!

That's so bizarre!

 

[orpheo]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

I 100% totally disagree with that statement about Rosewood. That is smells. It smells kinda sweet, like Ginseng with a hint of Chocolat and roses. Gosh, if I could afford working on rosewood necks exclusively, I would. If only for the smell. Never ever have I heard of someone saying that it stinks?!

About tone and feel.

Wenge feels very coarse to the touch, has (all other specs being the same!) a warmer, fatter tone than mahogany but with more clarity. It's tonally, though, a great substitute for mahogany.

Rosewood feels silky. A bit brighter in tone than wenge. Wenge feels faster when playing, though; Less surface drag due to the large pores.

Goncalo Alves feels waxy and dense. Tonally, it's like mahogany. It's also fairly soft to work with. OK, maybe more like Koa.

Bubinga feels glassy. Can't describe it any other way. Bubinga, now, that stinks. Badly. Bubinga is tough and hard: a bad combination to work with since it dulls cutters and abrasives like there's no tomorrow. But ones polished (this wood allows itself to be polished!) this feels fast, really, really fast. Tonally, it's brighter than rosewood. Perhaps a bit like soft maple. Not as piercing as the hard rock maple but still, fairly bright.

Padouk: like rosewood, only this stuff is bright red. Smells like playdough.

Purpleheart: in texture, it feels like rosewood. Smells like perfume. I like it! But... It is a nightmare to work with. If you have a few laminated strips, it's OK but a full neck shaft is really difficult. It's so, so tough! You need supersharp cutters and fresh abrasives otherwise you'll be sanding till next century to get the burned spots out (even if you're careful, this stuff is just a pain).

Pau Ferro: see rosewood, tonally a bit brighter.

Cechen (Caribbean Rosewood): see bubinga for tone, rosewood for feel. No noticeable smell.

Ziricote: see purpleheart. Nightmare. Lovely to look at, though.

Bocote: see rosewood.

Hope this helps. All from my own experiences, not regurgetated from the Interwebz

 

[ChAoZ]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

Wenge is great, just watch out for the splinters - but if you're buying a Warmoth neck then they will have to deal with the splinters, smells like toast when you machine it, not particularly heavy
Bubinga I find easy to machine and not hard on tools, smells really nice - like roses, is quite heavy
PS : PM me please

 

[Mincer]

Re: Any Experience with ALL-Wenge, ALL-Rosewood, and/or Goncalo Alves Necks?

My Warmoth has an wenge neck with an ebony fretboard, SS frets, bloodwood stripe and coral stone dots. It feels great to play on, and the only thing to know is to make sure the body is heavy enough (4 lbs or so) so the guitar isn't neck heavy.