Official Luthiers Forum!

Last week I heard someone say that a maple neck on an accoustic is a "tone killer"(whatever that is)
I've seen plenty of electric necks in Maple but less often on accoustics so I wondered if there was any detriment to a maple neck.?

I own a Marc Beneteau Maple Jumbo that has a maple neck. Sounds pretty awesome to me...

Neil

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.. That being said I'm a firm believer the vast majority of people are generally biased, or flat out wrong, about pretty much everything

Then again by my own logic my opinion on opinions is probably wrong..

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Here is the correct answer: No one has a freaking clue.

The good news is that if you build this thing right it'll sound, feel, and look pretty darn good. The bad news is I think we're in for another brutally pointless philosophical debate.

re:"tone killer". No one knows really what "tone" is either. That word is so ambiguous in the luthiery world it makes me sick, but to each their own, build ya a cool guitar, play it, sell it, whatever you want, just HAVE FUN

I've played several different acoustic instruments that sound great with a maple neck. Here are some that have sounded phenominal:
-Acoustic Guitar with Cedar top and Koa back and sides and flamed maple neck.
-Violins-any of them
-Mandolins - any of them
-Banjola with a cedar top and maple back and sides
-I'm currently building a tenor uke with cedar top/maple bs and flamed maple neck. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Bottom line...I haven't heard a instrument that sounds bad just because of the neck material. Sure it may change the sound a little, but I don't think it will be a drastic change.

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Thanks for those thoughts...
Sounds like a cedar/Redwood prefence so far for the top
Wondering what the top is on your Beneteau Neil?

That's an awful lot of Violins that sound duff. Still, I guess the Guitar and Fiddle are different animals.
Find someone who has built an exact same model with consecutive cut wood, save for necks made of Maple and Mahogany. Times that by 10 and I might start to take notice.

I have played quite a few Gibson J200 both old and new with maple necks and they sound fine, a maple neck on a rosewood guitar might look a little strange to some people.

Fred

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A maple neck is heavier than mahogany.

Aside from that, I would would bet quite a bit of money that only an oscilloscope could tell the difference
in a blind test.

Oh, and maple is not as stable as mahogany.

Maple is the standard neckwood on archtops. We would all do well to make as much money on our guitars as Robert Benedetto has with his maple-necked jazz boxes over the years. I hear they sound pretty good.

I can say for sure, without a shadow of a doubt that it will make the neck part of the guitar a lot lighter looking than if you were to use something like Mahogany or Walnut.

Right on Ian.


Walk in to a music store, play dumb and ask a lot of questions...

You will be amazed to find that Luthierisem seems to have as
much B.S.* as politics and religion.

In fact, we should start a B.S. thread to refer the newbees to. Could probably write a book
with all the diss info out there.

Tone killer ...right!

As the Silver Surfer once said "Dumb humans! Wish they would learn to think for themselves!"

Oh well.

blessings
Padma


*B.S. ~ belief systems

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"I wondered if there was any detriment to a maple neck?"

The answer is no. Some people just think that Maple is an inferior wood. I build with Maple necks on acoustics all the time, I love the sound I get. I could explain the sound I get, but you are better off listening for yourself and coming to your own conclusions. Sound, tone, whatever you want to call it, is purely subjective.

To be blunt, maple necks on acoustic guitars are just so darn sexy .

Filippo. I think you totally missread the Padma. I think he is reffering to those that says Maple is a tonekiller !!

Lars