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Does anyone have any experience with White limba for acoustic necks? I have a myrtle baritone I am making and the mahogany color is not what I am looking for. Something lighter like the white limba color would be perfect. Gilmer advertises it as suitable for acoustic necks but then this is a baritone (28.5") and I am not sure. If anyone has any thoughts I would very much appreciate it. Even myrtle as a neck could be an option. It seems wrong to me, but maybe it would work. LMI is even selling Port Orford Cedar as a neck wood now. I think that would be beautiful but again I am wary. Thanks guys,

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Burton,

With carbon fibre, laminations and a stable wood I think almost any wood, again as long as it is stable, will work. You don't want it to twist on you but structure can be built into the neck. I have been doing a few yellow cedar and couple of spruce neck blanks of late for flamenco makers. Those are nylon string guitars mind you. But awhile ago I replaced a Brazilian Rosewood fretboard on a Yamaha custom shop electric bass. Once I had the fret board off I couldn't believe how flimsy that maple neck was! I added a couple of Jim Watts fine carbon bars (1/8 x 3/8) on either side of the truss rod. It added an amazing amount of stiffness and the owner (who is a fanatic bass wizard!) states the bass never sounded so good. More restorative energy back to the strings with a stiffer neck. So I think you are fine! Of course this opinion is only humbly offered!

Shane

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Canada

Burton, I'm glad you asked this. I have a couple big billets of limba I've been planning to cut into B&S sets and matching necks. I generally agree that many different woods can be used for necks if the wood is carefully selected, sawn, and dried, and used with appropriate reinforcement and a good (stable, stiff) FB. However, even with CF rods, truss rod, and a stiff FB, I think we still depend on the neck wood to not only be reasonably stable, but reasonably strong and stiff - a concern that is far greater for a steel string guitar than an electric or a classical. For this reason, I have been very hesitant to use the limba for necks since I saw in the wood handbook (http://www.scribd.com/doc/8372590/Wood-Handbook) that limba has one of the lowest moduli of elasticity of all the woods in their extensive list, i.e., according to their data, it has VERY low stiffness. If that is correct, it certainly gives me pause. I've been trying to find another source to corroborate that, but no luck so far. I haven't yet tried doing any testing of the wood on my own.

If you LOAD it with CF and/or laminate it big time, you probably wouldn't have an issue even if it is as flimsy as the wood handbook says it is. Personally, I don't like laminated necks, and don't believe they are generally advantageous given what I said above (that the neck wood is carefully selected, sawn, and dried, and used with appropriate reinforcement and a good FB).

I am very interested to hear what you find if you run some tests on the wood or go ahead and use it on a guitar. Please keep me posted.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Chris, please let us know how the limba neck on the Grand Aud works out, and tell us whether you laminate it, what kind of truss rod and CF reinforcement you use, what kind of FB you use, and whether it's a 12 fret or 14 fret neck. Thanks -

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

An acoustic guitar with medium gauge strings will have nearly 190 lbs of string tension, whereas an electric guitar typically will have as little as 70 lbs or as much as 100 lbs or a little more, depending on gauge and type (that's in the same range as a classical guitar, btw). That's a very big difference. I wouldn't make a decision to use a given wood or neck construction for an acoustic based on what works on electrics.

OTOH, if there are people such as Daniel using limba successfully on steel string guitar necks, that's the kind of news I want to hear. I'd like to be in touch with him and anyone else who's done this. Thanks for telling us about his guitars, Chris. The matched limba body and neck look freakin' fantastic, I think.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Those limba guitars are gorgeous!

Fantastic wood! Imagine doing a variation on a Spanish (classical) neck but using wood from the same billet as the back...so the grain from the neck flows into the grain on the back! ...Just cramped my brain a little on that one.

-Matthew

About 5 years ago I spoke with Marc Culbertson at Gilmer Woods who had built an all limba acoustic. It was limba top, back, sides and neck. He said it was a great little blues guitar and at the time it was a few years old, so I guess no problems with stability then.

Burton, Marc was a nice guy, give him a call. He has been dealing with limba as a tonewood for a while.

Good Luck-

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all of your feedback. Chris, those guitars look great! John, that is excellent advice, I am going to give Marc a call. and Todd, I will report back when I hear from Marc. Hopefully with some positive news!

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I built an 8-string electric with a limba neck - 0.9" at #1 and 1" thick at #14. CF bars on either side of an Allied truss rod. 0.3" birdseye maple fretboard on top. Multiscale 28" to 25.5" - the instrument is 1 year old last month and the neck is as solid as the day I set it up.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Well I spoke to Marc and it sounds like it will work fine. I am going to give it a go. He spoke about having limba necks on acoustics that he had built and having full confidence in them. He said something to the effect of the difference between black and white being described as warmer vs. crispier. I'm not sure what he meant really as I don't have a ton of experience with either version of the tree. I am excited to do it though, I think it will look great and if it really does work(and I can't imagine it won't) it is nice to have more options I can trust.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Sounds good, Burton. I can't wait to see this guitar.

It would be simple to do a stiffness test, and one of these days I'll get around to it. I have mahogany and walnut bindings. All I'd have to do is make a few pieces of limba binding, then do some comparative deflection testing. If you decide to do any tests like that, please let us know your results.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/