Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Ernie Balls are like Rickenbackers for me. I'm sure they're great guitars, but I can't play them without my hands cramping up! I guess I can't complain though because there are a lot more 1 11/16'' necks out there than 1 5/8'' so you small handed guys are certainly at a disadvantage.
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Oh crap. I lost track of time and just burned up my tele neck in the oven!

:chairfall
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Looks pretty cool to me, though I much prefer Maple when it's yellow-er.
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Maybe we'll see these for sale in Starbucks soon?



re: the side discussion-- I have small hands and prefer the wider nut as well- 1 5/8" is def crampy.
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

I guess I'm the only one who prefers 1 3/4 nut width...
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

is this like the vulcanized neck that Suhr offers where the neck becomes uneffected by humidity changes?
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

I thought you like, burned wood to harden it, into say, A Stake.

Kill me some vampires! Get some!
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Mincer said:
I love the tiny necks on their guitars, which is why the Silo Special is my favorite guitar. I think the roasted maple necks look cool, but I don't know if heating up wood provides all the benefits the marketing claims.
Click to expand...

Well, heating up the wood like that probably removes any remaining moisture which I'm sure has some effect on the sound, but I'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference unless I tried two similar guitars side-by-side. If all it did was look awesome I'd be fine with that.
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

I make necks and I can't imagine a neck not warping if it were baked after carving it up.
I have a neck here with no home so I'm preheating my oven right now. I'm going to start at 7:45 AM and roast it for 4.5 hours at 400. I'll post the results at 12:15.
Before
OM-Neck1_rear.jpg
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

DivebombInc said:
I make necks and I can't imagine a neck not warping if it were baked after carving it up.
I have a neck here with no home so I'm preheating my oven right now. I'm going to start at 7:45 AM and roast it for 4.5 hours at 400. I'll post the results at 12:15.
Before
OM-Neck1_rear.jpg
Click to expand...


They're doing it in a kiln, bro, not a freaking kitchen oven.
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

If you don't need that neck, send it over to me. I'll put it to good use. :p
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Are any of these "vulcanized" necks not flamed/birdseye?
Cause what I'm seeing is the marketing spin of a process designed to correct an inherent flaw in heavily flamed/birdseyed necks and that is a strong propensity to warp over time.

In my mind, this is akin to the eye wear industry touting that "protective coating" on eye glass lenses that is already a necessary part of the manufacturing process.

Yes, it looks cool, and it *may* effect tone positively, but really what it does is make it so they don't have to replace such a high percentage of the visually appealing, waiting-to-warp, necks.

MM
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Heat is heat bro, and I wouldn't have done this in my oven to a perfect neck. I have access to a kiln nearby for real work. This was one of our first necks and not without a few flaws.
Worked just fine. Neck is in great shape and I learned something... side dots turn into bubbles when heated. I'm going to make another one and roast the neck and fingerboard blanks seperately before carving and assembling. The neck warped a bit but went back straight after it cooled off. I didn't go 4 hours obviously. One other reason this has to be done before carving the neck I believe is because the nut width is about 1/16" narrower and the heal is about 1/32" narrower. That would lead me to believe that the overall length and scale is off a bit now too. Roast the blanks and carve it up after. That'll be my next attempt at this.
The color however is very nice and looks like a 93 EVH/EBMM that a friend of mine has. A little steel wool here and there to even it out and it'll look even better.
roasted.jpg
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

Sweet experiment, dude. Thanks for sharing.
 
Re: Check this out from Ernie Ball - Roasted Maple Necks.

DivebombInc said:
Heat is heat bro, and I wouldn't have done this in my oven to a perfect neck. I have access to a kiln nearby for real work. This was one of our first necks and not without a few flaws.
Worked just fine. Neck is in great shape and I learned something... side dots turn into bubbles when heated. I'm going to make another one and roast the neck and fingerboard blanks seperately before carving and assembling. The neck warped a bit but went back straight after it cooled off. I didn't go 4 hours obviously. One other reason this has to be done before carving the neck I believe is because the nut width is about 1/16" narrower and the heal is about 1/32" narrower. That would lead me to believe that the overall length and scale is off a bit now too. Roast the blanks and carve it up after. That'll be my next attempt at this.
The color however is very nice and looks like a 93 EVH/EBMM that a friend of mine has. A little steel wool here and there to even it out and it'll look even better.
roasted.jpg
Click to expand...

Did you remove the oxygen from the kiln when you did this? That is supposed to be a major part of the process.
 
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