Redwood for neck and fretboard...

[g'ter guy]

Hey all. I'm planning on entering the 2011 Tele Build contest and I'm using Redwood for my body. Was wondering if I could also use it as the neck and finger board. I want to do a one piece neck, which is why I'm considering it for the fingerboard. Thanks again.

[axedaddy]

Seems to me that redwood is not hard enough for a fretboard.

[bajaasdad]

Ebony is cheap enough and you can dye the ebony a rich black using Fiebler's Black Ink or nearly anything that isn't oily.

I know one guy who painted his Fretboard Black and used a 2 pack epoxy... all over red oak(soft-ish, kinda brittle wood) to get a fine result.

Redwood is too soft, like Pine for all intents and purposes. but its a great wood for bodies, and acoustic/classical backs and sides.


Bajaa's Dad

[Maricopa]

Fingerboard no, neck no.
There's a reason you don't see redwood, or pine used for necks unless it's also covered (or filled) with carbon fiber.

[Mojotron]

Fretboard - likely would not do well unless you used really big frets and used something like epoxy to glue them in place.

For the rest of the neck - you would have to reinforce redwood to keep it from splitting or wearing where the truss rod put pressure on the wood. To do the reinforcement you would need to run a strip of maple or bubinga... down the middle of the neck or laminate a piece in. That's very likely not what you want to do for your first neck.

I would just make it easy on yourself and use a well dried piece of maple for your first neck - having to deal with special wood characteristics is just going to make your build far more convoluted. If you have not made a Maple neck - that's a better place to start.

[Nick JD]

There's been a lot of "can I use this wood that no one else uses" questions lately!

For a solid body electric guitar most would agree the neck wood ideally should be between 600 and 700 kg/m3 (or 0.6-0.7 specific density). Sure, you could easily go a little under or a little over. Most would agree it's best that the fretboard material is at least 0.65.

Since Redwood is in question: google it and click on the Wiki page to find out its scientific name. It's Sequoia sempervirens.

Go here:
http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.o...s/AFDbases/WD/

...and find it. You'll see that it says 400. That's nowhere near all the other neck woods. It would make a very light body wood.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be adventurous in choosing woods for guitars - but it's best to follow the well trod path for your first few.

[richinva]

Originally Posted by bajaasdad

Ebony is cheap enough.....

Huh?

Rich (always confused) in VA

[Maricopa]

Compared to Brazilian it is....

[g'ter guy]

Alright, good to go. Is there a good neckwood that I can make a one piece with that is a similar color to Redwood then? Maybe Rosewood?

[Maricopa]

Rosewood is fine (skip the Brazilian stuff). But I have to ask, do you know what goes into making a one-piece neck? A 2-piece is much easier.

[Mojotron]

Originally Posted by g'ter guy

Alright, good to go. Is there a good neckwood that I can make a one piece with that is a similar color to Redwood then? Maybe Rosewood?

I would not make a first neck out if these, but here's some options:

Tulipwood - Dalbergia decipularis http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-...ods/tulipwood/

Pacific Yew - Taxus brevifolia http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-...s/pacific-yew/

Cherry - Prunus serotina is a favorite and is relatively easy to find http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-.../black-cherry/ but you will need a harder fretboard wood.

Madrone - if you have a lot of time to let it dry and move around before you use it - http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-...woods/madrone/

Koa may work...

Your first neck likely going to have a lot of flaws, so you don't want to make it out of wood that is too expensive. You can always stain Maple.

[bajaasdad]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

Rosewood is fine (skip the Brazilian stuff). But I have to ask, do you know what goes into making a one-piece neck? A 2-piece is much easier.

One piece neck = log with one flat side for frets!!


Bwahahahaha

Bajaa's Dad

[g'ter guy]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

Rosewood is fine (skip the Brazilian stuff). But I have to ask, do you know what goes into making a one-piece neck? A 2-piece is much easier.

All my knowledge of woodworking has come from reading, re-reading, studying, and scrutinizing threads mostly from this forum, but there were other inspirational ones on other forums, over the last year. I still have much to learn about it, but I feel I know enough to pull it off. However, I have much less time in practical application of my knowledge. I have built two bodies from plywood, both have been scraped; one becasue the finish was total crap and developed alot of discoloration and crackling in the clearcoating stages. Other than that it turned out OK, not great. the pickup cavities, done completely with a less than par powerdrill were excessively large, though they were covered by the pickguard. they were not clean looking at all and the edges of the body were at a slant because the cheap jigsaw couldn't cut through the wood straight. for the second I picked up a file/rasp set and a chisel set. The cavities came out much better on the second build cause I was able to chisel the edges, but they still din't have that awesome look to them. I was also able to coerce the bodie's edges to lat relatively flat rather than at the angle left by the jigsaw. Also I built trussrod-less neck from a Douglas Fir 2x4 with nothing but the jigsaw and a rasp and file. it turned out pretty well concidering I didn't plan on making it an actual neck. As of late I picked up a used router to try and help out a buddy build his axe. I didn't use it right and almost took my big toe off trying to rout out a pickup cavity (thank god for steel toes!), so I've been looking at a lot of YouTube instructional videos and guitars builds and paying closer attention to the routing jobs and how they were done. I will be picking up a few forstner bits, and I also picked up this anciet power drill, which is suprisingly in perfect operational condition for its appearance, that has a height adjustable frame attatched to it making it like a poor-man's drill press that I will be utilizing as well. So I am learning as I go and I feel more confident that I can pull this off. The workshop that I am going to be going to is on a Naval Air Station and they have a Band Saw, 24" planar, a joiner, table saw, and the rest of the stuff I cannot afford. They have real carpenters there that can instruct me on safety procedures, techniques, and such as well.

[g'ter guy]

Originally Posted by bajaasdad

One piece neck = log with one flat side for frets!!


Bwahahahaha

Bajaa's Dad

Very funny! but as far as knowing what goes into to it, like I said, I have a pretty good idea as to what goes into it on paper, but I've not had a lot of experience actually building them. The way I plan on doing it is first, after having templates made for the slotting, truss rod rout, tunning machine holes, and overall shape (I have PDFs), using a band saw cut out the shape of the neck in a 1" thick piece of wood. Then I plan on cutting the Fret slots and after the slots are cut, I'll radius the fretboard with a pre-radiused 8" sanding block, starting with 80 grit and going to 320. Then I'm going to rout for the truss rod by making several passes with my router and a 3/8" router bit. After that I'm either going to use a rasp, band saw, or an angle grinder to take off the meat of the neck and start shaping it, finishing the shaping with a file and sand paper. then I'll use some Maple scrap I have to make a skunk stripe, which is why I want to use a darker wood and not use Maple. A rounded file, some sand paper, and maybe a belt sand would be used for the contours at the headstock and heel. Going back to the Truss rod, I'd be using a Martin style that I plan on making myself with a 1/4" threaded rod, a 1/4" hex screw, a t-nut, an aluminum u-channel, and a rod connecting nut. once that is complete I'll install it with epoxy, making sure to keep the epoxy off of the rod's threads. I have several preslotted nuts I can utilize as well.

[Picton]

+1 on the advice to make your first neck a two-piece, especially if your woodworking knowledge is as limited as you're saying. A lot can go wrong, and a one-piece puts everything in one basket.

[Maricopa]

Not saying you can't do it and you may be a fine woodworker, but when someone starts a discussion asking if they should use redwood for a neck and fingerboard I automatically assume this is their first rodeo so-to-speak.
My point on the 1 Vs 2 piece neck is that you'll need to build some jigs to do a 1-piece. Specifically to route the curved truss rod slot and drill the end holes. Not impossible of course, but a lot more work.

As for using a Martin-style rod in a 1-piece neck, I don't think that will work.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

Fingerboard no, neck no.

+1

Of all the 40+ bodies I have from USACG, the only one that scares me (I'm fearful of breakage/damage) is a T Thinline body with a 1/4 inch redwood cap. You can indent this wood with an errant fingernail. No way a redwood neck is gonna work that well.

[g'ter guy]

Ok, I'll concede to do a 2 piece. It'll be easier anyway.

[bajaasdad]

Originally Posted by g'ter guy

Very funny! but as far as knowing what goes into to it, like I said, I have a pretty good idea as to what goes into it on paper, but I've not had a lot of experience actually building them. The way I plan on doing it is first, after having templates made for the slotting, truss rod rout, tunning machine holes, and overall shape (I have PDFs), using a band saw cut out the shape of the neck in a 1" thick piece of wood. Then I plan on cutting the Fret slots and after the slots are cut, I'll radius the fretboard with a pre-radiused 8" sanding block, starting with 80 grit and going to 320. Then I'm going to rout for the truss rod by making several passes with my router and a 3/8" router bit. After that I'm either going to use a rasp, band saw, or an angle grinder to take off the meat of the neck and start shaping it, finishing the shaping with a file and sand paper. then I'll use some Maple scrap I have to make a skunk stripe, which is why I want to use a darker wood and not use Maple. A rounded file, some sand paper, and maybe a belt sand would be used for the contours at the headstock and heel. Going back to the Truss rod, I'd be using a Martin style that I plan on making myself with a 1/4" threaded rod, a 1/4" hex screw, a t-nut, an aluminum u-channel, and a rod connecting nut. once that is complete I'll install it with epoxy, making sure to keep the epoxy off of the rod's threads. I have several preslotted nuts I can utilize as well.

My necks aren't much different than a log with frets. I don't use a truss rod, I use thick dry quartersawn wood. Truss rods interfere with tone, IMHO.

Think about it, forget what's commonplace for a moment. If you take a known tonewood like mahogany and run a channel down it. Will it tap tone the same?

No. It becomes higher pitched and dissonant. Now add a uchannel where the rod is surrounded by air and glue and cover that with a thin skunk stripe from the back.

Still think that neck is going to tap the same? nah.

People take perfectly good pieces of wood and make them bricks.

Better to carve a neck that is super meaty and get used to it, IMHO, than a wizard thin neck that needs a piece of metal buttressing the strings.

I wish I had a caliper to measure the thickness of my necks. by eye with a t- square my neck at the nut is 1 and 3/8ths and a good 2 inches at the body join.

The nut width is 2 inches, 2 5/8ths at the 24th fret.

bajaa's dad

[Jack Wells]

If you're trying to make the body and neck match, you could probably make a mahogany neck match a redwood body. But then why not just do the body in mahogany too.

Guitars have been built for many years. How many redwood guitars have you seen? There's a reason for that.