My first three builds were made using maple for the necks, which was fine except that the maple costs a small fortune. So my last build I decided to try poplar. Looking at the finished product, it seems very stable (no bowing or twisting). I do laminate a fret board to the top of my necks (also poplar). I'm thinking that I will use it more often. Does anyone have any experience using poplar? If so, what is your opinion?
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Thats all I use.Then Ive used purpleheart,oak and poplar for fretboards.
No probs w/ 4strings in a few years.I only have 1 fretted,but none of the sliders have any probs either.
The principle effect the neck has on 'tone' is stabilizing the nut end of the standing wave the vibrating string makes. A very stiff neck allows a fuller return of the wave's energy giving longer sustain and more of the harmonics. A floppy neck absorbs the wave's energy cutting down on sustain and harmonics.
think of throwing a baseball at a concrete wall versus a mattress.
the secondary effect the neck has on 'tone' is returning some of the vibrational energy through the neck to the body to constructively and destructively mesh with the vibrational energy the bridge is imparting into the body. Pluck an open string and you will feel the vibration in the neck.
think of holding a piece of steel pipe versus a pool noodle while your friend whacks the other end with a baseball bat.
so we now have the stiffness of the neck affecting sustain and harmonics, and the density of the neck affecting the nut-end feeding back to the bridge end and mixing in the body.
On an acoustic or with a piezo/mic pickup this meshing is very pronounced.
With a mag pickup, the sustain and harmonics effect are more pronounced, but the feedback does come into play, since the body of the instrument is carrying a vibration as well as the string, this subtle body vibration is moving the mag pickup around at the same time the string is, adding/subtracting to what the pickup is getting from the string.
think of holding the string still and moving the pickup toward/from the string 220 times a second (um Flash, could you help us with an experiment, please?). the mag pickup doesn't care if the string moves through its magnetic field, or if its field is moved across the string, it responds to the relative motion.
AND...this is where all the arguments and debates about tonewood necks comes from, subjective impressions about which species of wood does these things better.
the fact is that although each species has an expected RANGE of stiffness and density, each stick is unique. Was it from a slow growth tree with tight rings or a faster growth tree with widely spaced rings, are the rings perpendicular to the face of the board (quartersawn) or do the rings 'salad bowl' to the face (flat sawn) so the end grain looks like a stack of smiley faces. necks from two different parts of the same tree can have subtle differences and may or may not make a noticeable difference to the git's sound.
and the last and probably most important impact to a maker is long term stability. Is the neck going to stay straight or will it warp/flex/curve over time under the tension of the strings? is the board well cured and set in its ways, is there hidden internal stresses that cutting into the board will expose?
um, er, yeah, ok, enough of Mr Science's afterschool special....sorry
So the question was poplar neck, it's stiff and dense enough to enjoy being a CBG maker, heed the experience and wisdom of the other commentators about how to minimize the chance of it twisting/warping and turning your CBG neck into an archery bow.
Correct.
Laminated fretboards help keep a neck stable, but I put a trussrod or stiffener in every neck I make so I most likely won't have to deal with ramping or warping. Most of the wood we end up with hasn't dried long enough and is likely to ramp/warp while drying under string pressure. It's not as hard to cut a channel and add a trussrod/stiffener as it may seem, but it does add some weight to the neck and you have to work out the overall balance of the instrument to get away from neck dive. but the result is a neck that will stand up to punishment and more likely to stay stable.
You can cut the channel with a table saw, router or drill with a Forstner bit the length of the fretboard. Clean up with a small chisel if needed, add the rod and glue the fretboard on. If your using a adjustable trussrod, put some tape over the length of the rod and then glue the board on so the rod will remain adjustable. Easy peasy.
For a 3 string with a laminated fretboard, it'll probably be okay.
I've used Poplar(can offer a great tone) on a 6 string with a trussrod and Red Oak fretboard with good results. Wouldn't recommend doing a 4 or more string neck out of Poplar without a trussrod or stiffener rod. Quarter sawn pieces are always better for making strong and sable necks. Danelectro made guitars with Poplar necks and bodies for years.
Don't recommend Pine for necks at all, even with a trussrod and laminated fretboard. Made one myself and it slightly ramps on the headstock. Can't fret the thing, but slide is good. Pine is great for bodies and offers a great tone though. Leo Fender's first guitars had Pine bodies.
Poplar (green), basswood or aspen makes great trim, easy to cut and nail and takes glue, paint and stain well. But is one of the softest and weakest hardwood’s to chose from. Please see web site http://www.workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow/Design/Nature_of_Wood/3_Wo... Well seasoned ash, oak, maple, cherry. walnut and many more are much better choices. If you are using poplar for necks I would recommend laminating a hardwood fretboard to the top, poorly seasoned poplar can twist and warp unsupported as it dries out. The use of poplar necks in three string cigar box guitars is very popular because of its ready availably at lowes and homedepot, just don't count out your local sawmill or other local sources. They just might have wood scrap laying around for low cost or free, besides it takes so little wood to make a cigar box guitar. My latest batch of cigar box guitars have well seasoned black (swamp) ash necks and two tone tiger maple and black walnut fret boards. If the guitar has four strings or more I embed a stainless steel bar in the neck just to make sure.
poplar is very popular . and for good reasons .
I've made a few 25" scale 3 and 4 stringers out of poplar 1x2 with 1/4" poplar fingerboards glued on top. I think it works if your only goal is to stay as absolutely cheap as possible. But I'm not really a fan.
In the long run, I think red oak is more economical because there's less waste, is only a couple bucks more, and sells better (if that's your goal) because it looks much better.
First, it's usually a pain for me to find an 8' length of 1x2 poplar that doesn't have a twist or bow or warp in it somewhere. I've got several 2' lengths of not very straight poplar lying around which is not very useful. I always get two complete necks out of an 8' red oak board, and any left over is useful for offset necks and good bracing. At around $7 a board for poplar and $11 for red oak, the savings doesn't make sense for me.
Second, there's the natural color and grain pattern. Poplar always seems to turn out a sickly two-tone slimy green for me. Red oak looks like furniture.
I'm also beginning to convince myself that the neck wood, and almost certainly the fretboard wood affects the sound of the instrument. Maybe I'm nuts (or I've read too many 'expert' opinions), but I swear my maple neck/maple fretboard guitars sound bright, my oak neck/oak fretboard guitars sound warm, and the poplar ones just have a dull thud sound. The disclaimer here is that all the poplar guitars I've made are fretless, so I'll give you that.
I found 4' lengths of poplar, both 1x2 and 1/4x2, at Lowes.
Roy..............from what I have noticed in my builds the harder the wood the brighter the sound. Think Fender vs Gibson.........Fender uses Maple for their necks and Gibson uses mahogany. Of course pickup placement has an effect on the sound as well..............closer to the bridge will give a brighter sound and closer to the neck will have more of a bass sound.
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