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If it's 3.5 tall 2.75 wide, I would expect the grain to be vertical 3.5 inches, otherwise it would be 3.5 wide 2.75 tall.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

That's kind of what I would envision in my expectation based upon the description.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

that would be my thought as well.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

"Quartersawn" does not necessarily mean "vertical" grain.
With quartersawn lumber the grain orientation would likely be the opposite of what you wanted for your neck blank.
Quartersawn lumber has the grain perpendicular to the surface of a board and the surface would be the widest side.

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Lance Peck

But if the vendor claims to be a "tonewood supplier", you would assume they have an idea of desired grain direction in a neck.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I would go with that assumption too.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Stewmac shows it pretty clearly on their site.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_nec ... lanks.html

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I would assume the same as well.
But now days assuming usually does not work out well.
Maybe the vendor figured the blank was for an electric guitar? Or to make 4 mandolin necks?

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Lance Peck

But notice in their picture they show a square blank that has equal sides and not a rectangle with one side wider.

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Lance Peck

Dang...hope you get it worked out.

Being a hunter of wood.... I've found these conversations go in one of two directions. A) The person that knows exactly what you are talking about and communicates the information back to you so you know that he knows what you are looking for. That was the craziest sentence I've ever written.

...and B) The person that suddenly looks as though he has bees flying around his head. He doesn't feel the need to swat at them...he's just distracted by HIS sudden understanding of the fact that he has absolutely no clue what you are talking about.

I can't wait to hear how this turns out.

Chris

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

A couple of years ago, I got some curly maple neck wood from LMI that had been cut wrong (grain vertical to the wide face), and they had it marked down as a result. The blanks were 3X4, and since I only needed a 3 inch tall blank anyway, they seemed to be a good deal. For every three one piece necks I'd get a "bonus" three piece neck with what I ripped off of the original blank. But they were up-front about it and priced the wood accordingly, understanding that most folks would expect the grain to be vertical to the narrower face for instrument making.

Dave

They should be sending you a strip of walnut to make a skunk stripe, that should make it wide enough.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

There is lumber yard here in town with a big stack of 4X4's that really are nice(pretty)fairly old growth honduran(smallish looking pores), but I have looked carefully and I beleive the grain is almost always rift in the pieces. Still, I keep wanting to buy them because they seem pretty and cheap(8 per foot), for the quality I think they are. I don't see why they couldn't be angled somehow to make 1 quartered piece out of each section. Is this crazy or just a bad idea?

Flippo,
I know exactly the ring in mahogany you reference. Even if I can't hear it as well at my age, you can feel it in your fingers- some pieces seem born to be musical. I keep thinking this mahogany that rings would make good bracewood, but I can't seem to see if it used that way ever. I see mahogany linings, but not really top/back braces. Some pieces just seem to keep on vibrating.

Apparently the supplier that Filippo bought his blank from missed that thread? My point in mentioning the quartersawn vs vertical grain thing is to point out that when you order wood you should not "assume" anything. Believe or not some builders want grain orientation flat in the neck. Siminoff discusses the merits in his book.
I'm not trying to say any method is correct or incorrect just pointing out points for discussion.

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Lance Peck

I know they are not the subject of this thread, but Fender electrics and violins nearly always have flat cut necks.
I have built many flat top guitars with flat grain in the neck. The woods include mahogany, maple, cherry and walnut. No problems so far.
I know it is commonly assumed that vertical grain is stiffer, but I just have not found it to be true.
If I was inquiring from a supplier, I would use the term vertical grain, rather than QS. But you may still not get what you want unless you draw a picture.

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John

Well, Geez, Filippo! What do you expect, then!?

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I'm always trying to learn ways to please customers so these types of discussions are of great interest to me.



I get the idea and it is a big obstacle for wood suppliers. If all of those things are important enough to you that it would cause you to send the wood back then you should inquire about them before you order. That is unless the merchant has described the conditions already.



Logically yes but in reality the blank you received sounds like a perfect blank for a one piece electric neck. Maybe the vendor needed to decide what type of instrument the blank was for? It's not really like top wood grain orientation where there is only one way to use the wood.



Would you pm me a link to the vendors listing? I would like to see how it was presented so I can avoid the same problems in the future.

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Lance Peck

I'll buy it from you if you want, I build neckthroughs, if it's not too much.

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Old growth, shmold growth!