What is this grain pattern on my maple neck?

Wow, that is cool! I dont know, not seen that... I wonder if it's a cut through a flame ripple?
What does the back of the neck look like?
Looks a bit like bamboo...

 

It's a quartersawn neck, it's the medullary rays of the wood, I think they're called.

 

quartersawn, what you see are medullary rings.

 

Well, if it's quartersawn, then they oriented the grain 90 degrees to the usual method?

 

no.

medulary rings only really show up on the face with a TRUE quartersawn cut.

Quartersawn cuts are a range, the photo you used may be in the "range" of quartersawn which I *think* is 0 - 20 degrees.

for instance, on a flatsawn neck the medullary rings show up right next the the fretboard in a really thin line.

 

The medullary part refers to the name assigned to the part of a tree that transfers fluids from the pith to the bark. They are little tubes. Medullary tubes are present in all wood, but as far as the rays go, it's a matter of angles and circumstance how it presents, if at all, in any given piece of lumber or working stock. If it appears at all, usually appears in quartersawn, but not all quartersawn has it and varies in look and occurrence by species.

Luck of the draw with the Squier CVC 50's models - seems like it was present in a few of the runs. I lucked into one in 2013, I think. Here's a detail of what mine looks like:



on the face of the fretboard, the dots represent the tube in cross section and the "lines" are tubes along the axis. Sparkly!

 

It's called the supercool pattern.

 

That is cool. My CV '50s Tele neck grain is pretty clear and a lot more amber in color.

 

That's awesome....count that as a great find....normally quarter sawn necks are only accessible via the custom shop!!!

 

BINGO .......


this phenomena is exactly what I like to see on my Gibson style necks because when this is seen it means the neck is nearly perfectly quartersawn. This is much more important on a Mahogany neck because Mahogany is an open grain lumber.

It can bee seen across nearly the entire width of the neck on this custom order Bacchus BLS-59

 

I've seen this occasionally and always wondered the same thing, thank you all for the explanation. I think it looks crazy good.

 

There's a lot of Rift sawn being sold as Quartersawn out there now days. But if it's good true quartersawn the parallel lines will show on the fretboard and back on an all maple neck.

 

Again. The range of knowledge on this site never ceases to amaze me.

 

Yes, and when the grain is truly 100% perpendicular you get the medullary rings a hair either way off 0° you have straight grain lines.

Again, "quartersawn" is commonly sold within a certain tolerance.

 

Flatsawn neck so the rings show on the sides



Another flatsawn neck, again the rings show up on the side.



Neck that is slight off perfect quarter, so the rings show down this angle.

 

Riftsawn neck as you can see.




But the medullary rings peek out sort of on the fretboard edge.

 

Yes, they are the medullary rays that extend out from the core of the tree, radially, and at a cut perfectly 90° to the grain, which is the annular rings, the medullary rays show prominently. I love that effect and you can see it in many different woods. You'll see it, although a little more subtly in spruce tops on acoustic guitars and I always think of it on white oak furniture and architectural woodwork, mostly from early 20c, where they exploit that effect and the medullary rays are big and fat and you can't miss them. White oak cut that way is often referred to as "tiger oak." Same effect as the wood grain on your neck - - - which is VERY nice by the way!!!

 

Those are the medullary rays, not rings. The annular rings of a tree are the grain. When a board is sawn so that a surface is perfectly perpendicular to the annular rings, the grain, that is when the medullary rays are noticeable and they are indeed rays, they extend from the core of the tree outwards to the bark.

 

Rays*