Official Luthiers Forum!

+1 for POC, never used it,Am sure that once spanish cedar an h mahog become less available and more expensive that luthiers and manuf. will be looking for alternative woods

Thanks Alexandru. I meant lighter in color, not lighter in weight.

Ernie, I was haveing a hard time visualizing how the rays would express themselves once carved in a neck profile. Your pic helped alot. I was not thinking about the fact that (unless the blank is 100% bang on quarter) you won't be able to keep the figure running exactly down the back of the neck once you start carving. I now have a better idea of what type of neck construction I should use (depending on the effect I want for a particular project). the wood itself seems perfect for necks -- especially if you want to use midwestern woods -- and I anticipate using it a lot in the future.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Here's a Bashkin with a Port Orford Cedar neck. I'd love to be able to find some flat-sawn stock for laminated necks like this. I'm a big fan of maple for the look, but almost never use it because of how heavy it is. Port Orford Cedar offers the same look while being substantially lighter in weight. Sounds like the best of both worlds to me.

Santa Cruz sycamore:

_________________
John

Considering weight and stability I feel I can pretty safely say I'll never do a sycamore neck...but WOW, that looks sweet.

The sycamore I have handled (not a huge smaller size) has not been too dense -- lighter than walnut and maple. I think it gets a bad rap on stability too. I think that comes from it being difficult to dry properly especially if not quartered. The stuff I have in my shop doesn't seem to have moved. Admittedly, i have not yet used it for a neck so I could be in for a rude awakening.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

John love the gorgeous figure on that gtr . Bryan I/m a believer in syamore especially 1/4 sawn.I have stock that is 16yrs old and stock that is 6mo. old .Once it dries out abt 1 yr to the inch,it seems to get more stable

Prima vera AKA "white mahogany" might be worth considering, if the idea is to make a mahogany looking neck that happens to be blonde. I'm not sure why no one has mentioned this.

POC has better stiffness to weight numbers, but no doubt either timber could be made to work.

Alexandru Marian wrote:
""Naturally lighter than Spanish cedar" - that's the likes of WRC...balsa...paulownia...you don't want these for a neck. "

I think he's using 'lighter' in the sense of color: not as dark rather than not as dense. It's confusing sometimes...

I decided to go with the POC, ordered it this afternoon. I'm looking forward to working with it, although I understand the smell is bad. At least I won't be making a lot of dust by thickness sanding like I would if it was a top. Wendy