Cedar for a neck
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RomanS
Poster Extraordinaire
Probably way too soft - I've got a Thinline with a cedar top on the body - it already dents when you look at it for too long...
Shepherd
Friend of Leo's
What they said, way too soft. You would be able to pull the frets out just using your fingers.
camatillo
Tele-Meister
Really fast re-frets though!
zoppotrump
Tele-Afflicted
i´m not 100% sure, but i think that talking to alan tomkins of Tomkins Guitars, he mentioned that he uses australian red cedar, which he described as much harder as regular cedar...., btw great sounding and playing guitars.....and he´s a really nice guy
I've seen acoustic guitars with cedar necks so there is no reason you can't make an electric guitar neck with cedar as well. Some cedars are a lot harder than others. But for a fretboard... forget it.
Pretty sure he uses Australian Red Cedar just for the bodies. Necks seem to be made of Queensland Rock Maple.
RocknDrTom
Tele-Holic
The two lap steel on the right were both made out of solid cedar. I would not make a regular guitar neck out of this wood, but it's perfect for lap steel necks.
You could use cedar if it's cut from the center of the tree where it's harder. Then you'd need to reinforce it internally with a hardwood core for the truss rod to sit in, and a perhaps thicker harwood finger board.
I would also suggest laminating the top and bottom of the peghead with hardwood.
I would also suggest laminating the top and bottom of the peghead with hardwood.
piece of ash
Friend of Leo's
Martin uses "Spanish Cedar" for many of their necks.
piece of ash
Friend of Leo's
It ain't from Spain either!
Lyin' b____rds...
Lyin' b____rds...
Spanish cedar
Cedrela odorata
Is the aromatic wood of the cigar boxes, and it is not spanish, its from central america.
I heard interesting things about his tone in guitar making, and light weight too, but a neck... perhaps a more fat classical neck with nylon strings... well I have not the experience, but there are better woods for that.... I think.
Cedrela odorata
Is the aromatic wood of the cigar boxes, and it is not spanish, its from central america.
I heard interesting things about his tone in guitar making, and light weight too, but a neck... perhaps a more fat classical neck with nylon strings... well I have not the experience, but there are better woods for that.... I think.
jpbturbo
Tele-Afflicted
http://kauerguitars.com/
makes bodies and necks out of spanish cedar and it seems to work fine.
Very similar to mahogany from the reviews.
ievans
Tele-Meister
Why is that? Mahogany is fine as a neck wood for electric guitars and steel-strings, and Cedrela odorata is a slightly lighter-weight wood in the mahogany family.
melomanarock
Tele-Holic
It's pretty soft.. would be ok for a neck with a propper truss rod.. not for a fretboard..
Al Watsky
Tele-Afflicted
I made 1 cedar neck for a SS electric solidbody.
It was a replacement neck. I built it out of curiosity.
Cedar with an ebony fretboard. Spanish Cedar. The aromatic type , not Mahogany. The type they make classical necks out of. Not the Red Cedar used to make tops. Its a different species for sure, but still not Mahogany as far as I can tell. If this stuff has anything to do with Mahogany wood taxonomy is even weirder than I thought.
It was very light and stable but it was very dark sounding in comparison to the neck it replaced.
In this case it was not especially desirable. It was on a Mahog body with a maple cap.
It was a replacement neck. I built it out of curiosity.
Cedar with an ebony fretboard. Spanish Cedar. The aromatic type , not Mahogany. The type they make classical necks out of. Not the Red Cedar used to make tops. Its a different species for sure, but still not Mahogany as far as I can tell. If this stuff has anything to do with Mahogany wood taxonomy is even weirder than I thought.
It was very light and stable but it was very dark sounding in comparison to the neck it replaced.
In this case it was not especially desirable. It was on a Mahog body with a maple cap.
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RomanS
Poster Extraordinaire
Guys we have to make a clear destinction:
"Spanish cedar" (cedrela) doesn't have anything at all to do with "real" cedar - it just got the name because it smells slightly similar... And as has been mentioned, it is closer to mahogany, and is used a lot, both as a body wood as well as for acoustic guitar necks.
So, using that for necks shouldn't be a problem at all.
"Real" cedar (actually, there are quite a few different kinds in that family - red cedar being a very common one) is a completely different story, it is a VERY soft wood, it is used for acoustic guitar tops, but I doubt that you could use it for a neck...
So, as long as we don't know what the OP has, it's hard to give advice, because we are talking about two completely unrelated and different kinds of wood that, unfortunately, share the same name!
"Spanish cedar" (cedrela) doesn't have anything at all to do with "real" cedar - it just got the name because it smells slightly similar... And as has been mentioned, it is closer to mahogany, and is used a lot, both as a body wood as well as for acoustic guitar necks.
So, using that for necks shouldn't be a problem at all.
"Real" cedar (actually, there are quite a few different kinds in that family - red cedar being a very common one) is a completely different story, it is a VERY soft wood, it is used for acoustic guitar tops, but I doubt that you could use it for a neck...
So, as long as we don't know what the OP has, it's hard to give advice, because we are talking about two completely unrelated and different kinds of wood that, unfortunately, share the same name!
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