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This one seems a fair bit off quartersawn - useable or no?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I take it thats a one piece blank, requiring a scarf headstock and add on heel block ???

when purchasing large mahogany boards, you never get perfectly quartered (or flat) grain across say 12 or 14 wide timber ... some blanks will have rift sawn grain. If you want to make that more stable you could always rip in half and flip one piece, glue it back togther. While you are at it, add an accent line in there. You will see all kinds of factory guitars with neck stock like that. If its properly dried and seasoned, it will be fine IMO.

personally, I wouldnt have an issue with it.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Tony, OK I may do as you say. I've been spoiled - having got well quartered neck wood. This time I thought I would try one of the sponsors and got this piece.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I would also use it.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I asked Warmoth about flatsawn mahogany necks they said they could only get honduran mahogany in flatsawn these days and they use it all the time. So I guess it should work.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

What Tony said. I once bought a mahogany blank with grain oriented exactly like your blank. I ripped it down the center, flipped one piece end for end, re-glued it with the grain orientations offsetting each other in either half, and built the neck. Fifteen years later, no problems whatsoever. (At least with the neck!)

Another thing to look for in neck blanks like that is the grain fairly consistent down the neck or is it changing a lot. Resawing and flipping is the way to handle it for sure.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

What Tony, cphanna, and Jim said!

I'd make it a 3 or 5 piece neck. Makes for a really cool looking and stable neck.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Ricardo,

Are you using this for your classical? If so, I'm sure that you'll be fine using it as is. If in real doubt, then rip in half and balance the grain.

Using a multi-piece laminate is often seen in steel string guitars but not so much with classicals. Actually, I've never seen it, and it would raise many eyebrows.

What is seen from time to time is a dark hardwood strip laminated in the center, like many Ramirez guitars, including the 1a. If you do this no one will ever know that you did it to flip the grain.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Looks OK to me. If you visualize what is left of it in the end product, it might even be perfect since the center looks nicely quartered. Of the cedrella necks i bought so far, all have been slightly skewed so i simply gave up hope on getting really quartered wood.

As Doug said too, for a classical you can use a (not too wide) strip of ebony or rosewood in the center. I've seen necks that also had thin "purfling" lines flanking the strip and I don't like it. Keep it simple looking.

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Build log

Alexandru & al, I went with it. I think it will turn out fine. Thanks for all the input and good ideas!

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Ricardo, That board is a tough call for me, if the other end looks the same and the grain is straight throughout I might go with it as is.

If you decide to flip you might consider a technique that uses three pieces of wood. I learned this from a 2001 post by David Schramm where he explains a method taught to him by John Gilbert:
Link to classical neck post ---scroll down through the post.

It's a standard flip with a thin piece of quartered laminated in the middle. You get a stable strong neck out of a marginal piece of wood, but with the drawback of a noticeable line down the middle of the neck.

I have seen a number of classicals with multi-piece necks. I don't think it's Taboo!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks Marc, Waddy et al. My neck will be thinner than normal for a CG since I will have a nut width of 1 7/8. I will put in a truss rod to add some mass and hopefully keep the proper relief.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA