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  • Hobo 63 February 3, 2012 at 3:03pm
    Thank You all.Lot of good information :)
  • Dan Sleep February 3, 2012 at 8:47am
    OK, someone help me out here. I don't understand how the type of wood used for the neck impacts the tone of the instrument.

    I know that the material used for the nut or bridge can affect the tone since the both touch the strings. And the type of material and thickness of the box lid will alter the resonance.

    I guess I just don't get why using "tonewood" as opposed to any other wood would make a CBG sound better.
    • Seaman Jay > Dan Sleep February 3, 2012 at 9:17am

      The fretboard is actually the "other end" of the sound loop (bridge->string->fret->fretboard->body->bridge). Hard woods transmit the vibrations better than anything soft. So - if you fret (not as important when sliding, I presume) the hardwood is your friend. If you "fret" fretless - it's no more just "important"...

      But, OTOH, we're still talking good vs. better, not good vs. bad or correct vs. incorrect.

      • Ron "Oily" Sprague > Seaman Jay February 3, 2012 at 2:20pm
        As my buddy the Seaman sez...hardwoods have a denser cell structure, due to their slower growth, and also tend to have straighter grain. Denser = better sound transmission. Straighter = less warping, and the easier transmission of certain frequencies down the neck. Using hard wood for the neck was originally, I suspect, the luthiers' way of just getting a straighter neck, prior to the development of internal truss rods. And you've seen or read about the use of extreme metal necks. It's trying to get to what Les Paul said in an interview about 20 years ago: he wanted only the string to vibrate, nothing else, and so the Log ( which IIRC was a thick piece of pine) was born - as was proper electric guitar sustain. I've done tone comparisons on Strats having the standard alder or basswood body, with maple necks and fretboards, maple necks with rosewood or ebony fretboards, mahogany necks with ditto, and I can tell you that, subjectively, to my ears, they do sound different. The maples sound brighter, the mahoganies and rosewoods sound warmer and fatter.

        This is why I now cap my plywood necks with mahogany finger boards - to at least get a warm-sounding hard wood closest to where the strings are fretted, noded, and vibrating. Also, my frets stay in better. That said, several original relic CBGs I've read about had pine necks. I think that yes, you can maximize as best you can the opportunities for great tone by using every luthier's trick available. But in the end, these are still cigar boxes - which may be cedar (lovely tonewood), birch or mahogany plywood, or even pasteboard. And oddly enough, a fair number of these, even the pasteboard ones, sound good, both acoustically and amplified.
  • Brian "Pork Pie" Anderson February 2, 2012 at 2:58pm

    Necks made from plywood have terrible tone compared to a tone wood, with the grain direction crossing each other on every ply its just not going to provide the tone of a solid hard wood. I don't even use poplar anymore, Mahogany, Maple, Mesquite are what I use for necks, makes all the difference in the world, much easier to sell too...

    • Hobo 63 > Brian "Pork Pie" Anderson February 3, 2012 at 2:09am

      I have one small problem...In Finland its very difficult to get Mahogany, Maple, Mesquite or poplar...white oak is only what I can get from my town and its realy expencive,One neck cost more than all other parts to one cgb :/ and have to order that oak and wait 2-3 weeks.

      • Ron "Oily" Sprague > Hobo 63 February 3, 2012 at 4:09am
        Janne,

        Can you get birch? Or is white oak literally all that's available?
        • Seaman Jay > Ron "Oily" Sprague February 3, 2012 at 8:46am

          we're cool, we get all the birches.

          sorry, couldn't help it...

        • Hobo 63 > Ron "Oily" Sprague February 3, 2012 at 7:29am

          Jes,we have birch and alder and pine.Those are most common.Hardwood is difficult to get.On Southern Finland is some wood shops but only shipping of one neck is about 15 USD and neck wood about 20-30 USD.One music shop in my city have rosewood finger boards about 10-15 USD.Next I buy one and glued it to alder neck,have to learn freting...

  • Ron "Oily" Sprague February 2, 2012 at 11:14am
    Guys,

    I make my necks from 3/4" laminated 5-ply lauan plywood, which is pretty cheap here. I take a 4' x 8' sheet, rip it in half along the short side, and laminate the halves together with carpenter's wood glue, edge clamps, and some heavy weight in the middle, to give me a 4' x 4' sheet that is 1-1/2" thick. Then I rip that sheet into 2" wide, 48" long neck blanks; this gives me ample for scarfed headstocks, build-up shims and heel blocks. So far, they remain strong and unbending, with no need for a truss rod. I round off the neck, which ends up looking a lot like Randy's Spectraply bridges.
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