What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

[Got_tone?]

I'm looking to get a new neck for a two piece alder aerodyne strat (HSS) that has a maple top. I can't decide on what kind of wood the neck should be made of. So far I have narrowed it down to "Pau Ferro" (similar to Maple) and "Malagasy Rosewood" (similar to Indian Rosewood) for the fretboard. As for the back of the neck, I think I might go with maple.

I'm looking for a "all around" tone from the neck that will let me different styles from blues to death metal. Warmoth also lets you pick from lots of neck profile's like standard thin, a wolfgang, clapton's strat, srv's strat, a wizard neck and etc. I'm gonna head out to a guitar center to check out the profile's but you guys can let me know what I should look out for before I go.

So if anyone can give me any suggestions or input that would be sweet.

 

[jmh151]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

I have a Pau Ferro neck I'm fitting on a Charvel mutt. It's supposed to have the tone of maple, look of Brazilian rosewood. It's the smoothest wood I've ever touched, slicker than Ebony and doesn't need a finish.

 

[Captain Tightpants]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

Pau ferro is a fine choice for a fretboard, and there is nothing wrong with the Indian Rosewood either, I've had 4 Warmoth necks with Indian Rosewood fretboards.

Whatever you choose for the back, DON'T get the "mahogany". It's fine for bodies, but I had nothing but trouble with the neck I had. Never could keep the screws tight, eventually had to put some maple dowels in just to keep the screws tight. Very brittle, too. Accidently knocked it over on carpet once, it shattered like GLASS. Replaced it with a maple/rosewood one, much happier now!

 

[CronoDL]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

You can't go wrong with maple on a strat neck. I have a maple warmoth neck with ebony fretboard, and it's nice!

 

[Hellion]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

Straight quarter-saw maple. You can play any kind of music with any kind of gear. If you don't want to go with maple, go with ash with a pao ferro top.

 

[elelpe]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

one (or two) piece rosewood neck is sweet

 

[uOpt]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

I'm looking to get a new neck for a two piece alder aerodyne strat (HSS) that has a maple top. I can't decide on what kind of wood the neck should be made of. So far I have narrowed it down to "Pau Ferro" (similar to Maple) and "Malagasy Rosewood" (similar to Indian Rosewood) for the fretboard. As for the back of the neck, I think I might go with maple.

I'm looking for a "all around" tone from the neck that will let me different styles from blues to death metal. Warmoth also lets you pick from lots of neck profile's like standard thin, a wolfgang, clapton's strat, srv's strat, a wizard neck and etc. I'm gonna head out to a guitar center to check out the profile's but you guys can let me know what I should look out for before I go.

So if anyone can give me any suggestions or input that would be sweet.

I would recommend maple on resell value alone. If you ever want to get rid of it you'll lose a bunch of money trying to resell an exotic wood neck.

Myself, I'd just right into the exotic wood just because I'm curious and want to know what the suckers sounds like. Then I'd take the resell hit with pride and help my wife in her shop in the evening to recover or something.

Would you go for a no-paint raw wood neck feel?

%%

The profile question is overrated and a can of worms. You cannot pick your profile without also picking nut width, fretboard radius and fret size.

After much experimentation I came to the conclusion that middle of the road in all of these is the way to go. 1-11/16th nut, "standard thin" (which is really a medium C) or Clapton, 10 or 12" or compound and medium jumbo frets.

Do not pick anything outside the beaten path unless you actively want it. You must have a good reason to do to anything unusual.

 

[orpheo]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

no maple, no mahogany, just boring in tone and boring in looks.


wenge, pau ferro, padouk, purpleheart, canary. thats the way to go. those woods sound awesome, and feel so, so **** gooood. slick, fast, well. gorgeous. Would NEVER go back to a finished neck.

 

[aleclee]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

If I were getting a neck, I'd go with a wood that didn't need finish such as Pau Ferro or Rosewood. It's a bit more costly than a maple neck but the difference gets much smaller (perhaps even going to zero) when figuring in the cost of finishing the neck.

 

[Got_tone?]

Re: What kind of wood should I use for a warmoth neck?

I would recommend maple on resell value alone. If you ever want to get rid of it you'll lose a bunch of money trying to resell an exotic wood neck.

Myself, I'd just right into the exotic wood just because I'm curious and want to know what the suckers sounds like. Then I'd take the resell hit with pride and help my wife in her shop in the evening to recover or something.

Would you go for a no-paint raw wood neck feel?

%%

The profile question is overrated and a can of worms. You cannot pick your profile without also picking nut width, fretboard radius and fret size.

After much experimentation I came to the conclusion that middle of the road in all of these is the way to go. 1-11/16th nut, "standard thin" (which is really a medium C) or Clapton, 10 or 12" or compound and medium jumbo frets.

Do not pick anything outside the beaten path unless you actively want it. You must have a good reason to do to anything unusual.

I don't know about the raw wood neck feel. Warmoth says that unfinished necks tend to warp more than finished necks. I would rather play with a finished neck that have the neck warp on me. I tend to like "played in" neck than new ones... so once I break them in I would prefer to keep them as long as possible.

I have might my choice for the neck. I'm going with a 1-11/16th nut, 10"-16" compound radius fretboard, and medium jumbo frets. The strat has a amber maple top so Malagasy Rosewood would go with the top. The back is going to be flamed maple with binding. I like how maple looks with a vintage tint so I have that with a satin finish on it.

Here's a link if you guys want to see how malagasy rosewood looks like:

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/Strat_WarmothPro.aspx

Go all the way down until you see the different wood options.