Official Luthiers Forum!

Does quarter sawn maple work well for an acoustic steel string neck? Should you consider what the B&S wood should be in order to complement the tone of a maple neck? ...or should maple necks be reserved for fender style electrics...? ...or maybe flamingo style guitars...?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

My Taylor jumbo 12-string has a wonderful Maple neck and my old Guild F412 had a Maple neck with no issues at all (other than being as thick a baseball bat).

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Paul - hmmmm... both 12 strings...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Yes - just coincidence in my life.

The Gibson J200 also has a Maple neck.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Most arch top acoustics have maple necks, and it seems to work fine. A few years ago (I think) there was a similar OLF thread to this one, and people posted some really inspiring pictures of maple necks with all kinds of B & S woods, including rosewoods. It creates bold contrast that was shown to give very nice look.

For flamingo style guitars, I think pink ivory would be a good choice. ; )

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

I have a blues creek kit Gibson L1 waiting to be built and it has a lovely figured maple neck with a walnut ? stripe. I reckon it's going to sound lovely. You may want to consider laminating to increase strength?

the main thing I would consider in choosing the maple is weight. If you go with say sugar maple your neck will get heavy. Doing a center strip of another lighter wood will help but sometimes its not enough. I would look for a maple species, other than sugar maple, that is less dense. you might research the gibson necks or ask archtop guys and see what species of maple they prefer. I just consultert benedeto,s "arch top guitar" and he agrees that rock maple is heavy but says european is to soft. sounds like he uses rock maple but isn't entirely happy about it

I've used curly maple for a laminated acoustic neck, but used a slotted headstock to help with the balance.

The guitar feels very comfortable and is definitely not neck heavy.

Bob

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http://www.bobmatthewsguitars.co.uk

Bob, Thats one hell of a great looking headstock!

Steve, I've only used mahogany and Spanish cedar myself, but I've seen plenty of acoustic guitar with maple necks posted on this site. Seems to be fairly popular choice for necks.

Bob, I agree with Bruno; have to say that I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful and graceful slotted headstock.

Son!!

That is one great looking headstock.

I've only made a couple of steel string guitars (I mostly do nylon) and, oddly enough, my original headstock design that I drew out was almost identical to that. I was concerned about getting the tuners to lay flush (and, yes, I used those exact tuners, too) so I ended up changing to flat instead of swept sides and more standard ramps. I like what I ended up with but it doesn't quite have the wow factor of yours.
Good job.

Very nice, beautiful design and execution.

It's a little harder to carve than Mahogany and I suppose that would make it heavier. I have a hard time noticing a difference in weight. And it looks cool.

For Steel Strings

and Classical Guitars
I wouldn't put too much thought into the tone of the neck wood. I use it more for the visual compliment of the back and sides.

Have Fun,
Danny