What wood is best for guitar necks?

Mahogany is the most common wood used for building necks for acoustic guitars. It is strong, dense but light and easy to carve.

Does guitar neck wood matter?

The neck wood affects the tone of a guitar by impacting the way that the vibrations produced by the strings behave. Denser neck woods, like maple sound brighter and have less sustain. Mahogany on the other hand, produces a warmer and darker tone with better resonance and sustain.

Is mahogany a good wood for guitar neck?

Mahogany is a great tonewood for electric guitar neck construction, thanks to its medium-density and stable nature. Just as it's used in electric guitar bodies, mahogany is one of the most popular tonewoods for necks (perhaps only bested by maple).

What wood are Fender necks made of?

For the necks, Fender chose maple.

The neck was either a single piece of maple or later with a rosewood fretboard. Except for a few models that were different due to the wood used, such as the mahogany models, Fender's choice of woods was pretty much the same. Neck made from a single piece of maple from the 1970s.

Is Oak good for guitar neck?

Oak would be plenty fine for a neck as you won't find many domestic hardwoods stronger than oak.

How To | Types of Wood for Guitar Necks

Is a maple or rosewood neck better?

Compared to maple the difference is notable, as rosewood will soften the sound, even for guitars with maple necks. This is one of the reasons some guitar players prefer Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters with the option of a rosewood fretboard. The rosewood takes a bright guitar and mellows it out a bit.

Is maple good for guitar bodies?

Maple is an excellent tonewood for acoustic and classical guitars and is the only commercially-viable tonewood to be used in guitar bodies (tops, backs and sides), necks and fretboards. It's a beautiful-sounding tonewood with a bright tone, and the figured pieces look stunning as well.

Is alder better than basswood?

The mids of alder aren't as pronounced as basswood, but there is more emphasis on the highs and a bit more breathing room for the lows. Alder is overall a bit more dynamic than basswood, making it suitable for a wider range of sounds, but it's mostly found in Fenders and Fender style guitars like Squiers.

Is ash better than alder?

Sonically, Alder will produce more attack and presence with its emphasised upper-mids, resulting in it sounding a little bit punchier than Ash. Ash will give you a comparably rounder and slightly mellower tone with chiming highs that aren't too bright.

Is Walnut a good guitar neck wood?

Walnut is a dense and heavy tonewood. It offers a bright tone with tight low-end, and good sustain. Walnut is typically used as laminate tonewood in electric guitar/bass bodies or the sides/back of acoustic guitars, as well as in guitar necks and fretboards. It's too heavy for practical solid bodies.

Is maple better than mahogany?

The stiffness of this tonewood makes it an ideal choice for guitar necks as well, as it is very stable and will resist warping. Maple will also often produce richer overtones than mahogany, which tends to favor the fundamental pitch.

Is Cedar good for guitar neck?

Guitar neck wood for a classical guitar must be stable and strong without being overly heavy. The traditional choices have been mahogany and Spanish cedar. Both are very stable and have a good strength to weight ratio. The main difference is that you will find that mahogany is a bit more dense then Spanish cedar.

Is maple cheaper than mahogany?

I'm not a builder but I took a quick look and figured maple (which is the norm in maple guitars) is 4-5 times the price of non-figured mahogany (which the norm in mahogany guitars). Just because maple is abundant doesn't mean figured maple is equally plentiful.

Is Walnut a good fretboard material?

Walnut for backs and sides yes, for fingerboards, no ! Good material for bridges though, it's light and tough enough. I have had good luck using walnut for the top half of banjo bridges on a maple base. Rings a long time and very loud.

Is alder a good tone wood?

As a tonewood, alder offers a full-bodied, clear tone, balancing low, mid and high frequencies. Though it's somewhat lacking in the treble, its upper-midrange really shines through. Overall, alder is very balanced through the fundamental frequencies and critical overtones of guitar and bass.

Can you use any wood for a fretboard?

Some guitarists may over-exaggerate the effect on the overall sound, but no one can deny that each type of wood looks uniquely different. Next to rosewood, maple and ebony, there are of course lots of other woods, as well as synthetic materials, that can be used for fretboards.

Why did Fender stop using ash?

In an interview with Guitar World, Fender's Executive Vice President of Product, Justin Norvell, revealed that the difficult decision was made largely because of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, a non-native invasive pest that has been destroying the unique "swamp ash" found in the American South - favored by Fender for ...

What wood does Gibson use?

Gibson's signature tonewood of choice is Mahogany. It uses this almost exclusively for its solid-body electric guitar model's bodies and necks. Mahogany yields the focused lows and rich mids that Gibson guitars are so renowned for, with its density contributing to the long sustain that they can also achieve.

Does Fender still use ash?

Fender used ash for electric guitar and bass bodies more or less exclusively from 1950 to mid-1956, and to the present continues to use ash on a relatively small number of instruments. Guitars and basses with blonde finishes typically have ash bodies because the wood “takes” that particular finish especially well.

What is better basswood or mahogany?

As far as necks go, there is little debate that mahogany is better. Not only does it resonate better, but it is much harder and stable. Basswood necks simply aren't a thing due to the tonewood's softer properties.

Is poplar good for guitar body?

Poplar is a superb solidbody wood, even though there's nothing particularly impressive about its tone. Tonewoods matter much less in electric guitars, which rely on the pickups, string, and gain stages for the overall tone. However, the balanced sound of poplar can make a decent-sounding body.

Is poplar the same as basswood?

Poplar is a closed grain wood that accepts finish well. Its weight generally runs about one half pound more than Alder. Tonally, it is similar to Alder as well. Basswood is a lighter weight wood normally producing Strat bodies under 4 lbs.

Is basswood a good guitar body?

Basswood is generally considered too soft and not strong enough for use as a laminate tonewood for electric guitar bodies. However, it made a superb solidbody wood, keeping the weight of the guitar low and its tone neutral.

What type of wood is used in a Gibson Les Paul?

Its typical design features a solid mahogany body with a carved maple top and a single cutaway, a mahogany set-in neck with a rosewood fretboard, two pickups with independent volume and tone controls, and a stoptail bridge, although variants exist.

What makes a good guitar neck?

For a guitar to play properly, its neck needs to have a slight bow. This is called relief, and it allows the strings to vibrate over the fretboard without hitting the frets. Something else to consider: While you're playing, different parts of your thumb contact the back of the neck.