Official Luthiers Forum!

Friends,
I'm thinking of trying maple for an acoustic guitar neck, but I've only used mahogany previously. I'm wondering how this choice might influence tone, as well as the overall weight and balance point. Anyone have any thoughts to share? Your replies would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

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George :-)

Here is a guitar I used to own (and wish I still had it!) It is a Greven Nick Lucas with maple everything, including neck. I thought this was a killer guitar. Very well balanced, lots of pop, and great for piedmont blues. I am not sure how much the neck solely contributed, but thought I would post to show that it has been done successfully. And looks awesome with a sunburst .


Glenn

Thanks, Glenn. I love the look of maple! I'm just not a fan of guitars that feel too heavily weighted toward the headstock and hope to avoid that result.

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George :-)

I've only made one flat top guitar with a maple neck. It happened to be a red spruce/white oak small guitar that I call a jumbo parlor. It's quite loud. I don't know if the neck has anything to do with that. I'm sure it's not hurting the tone at all. The balance is a little off but not excessively so. I would think that a larger guitar would have less of a balance issue. It's an European maple neck from LMI that is creamy white. A big leaf maple neck might be lighter.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Wow! That's a lovely guitar, Ken. Your work is always inspiring. Thanks so much for your response. That's just the kind of insight I was hoping to find.

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George :-)

Gorgeous!

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Build log

My experience is hard maple will make a guitar brighter.

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Billy,
This is your experience with hard maple necks? I just want to make sure I understand your comment correctly. I found a quote by Dana Bourgeois where he says, "Maple necks can impart a bright, poppy tone that can do much to reinforce the top end of a large-bodied guitar..."

This stuff fascinates me.

Thanks,

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George :-)

I've used maple as a neck wood but can't really comment on the tonal difference as I would need an identically made guitar but with a different neck wood to be able to compare the two.

As far as balance and weight issues go, I used a heavily slotted and slender headstock to try and alleviate any neck heaviness and the guitar ended up feeling nicely balanced.

Bob

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http://www.bobmatthewsguitars.co.uk

I would consider carbon fiber rods to lighten it too.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Nice, Bob. Super nice! Good idea, Nick. Thanks for the replies, fellas.

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George :-)

Umm, what?

Carbon fibre is heavier than maple - about twice as dense. You can probably make it thinner while preserving stiffness, but adding CF means adding weight.

Interesting, Mattia. I've yet to work with carbon fiber and always assumed one of its attractions was that it helped reduce weight.

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George :-)

Off topic, but Bob, that headstock is the most amazing slotted headstock that I've ever seen. Exquisite.

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Jason McGowan
M&S Guitars
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United States of America, looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children....
Casting Crowns

That is an amazing headstock!! And that oak guitar is beautiful as well. Such a fine blend and choice of woods.

I've used maple as necks on a few guitars. Not enough experience with it to make any definitive argument one way or another. But it does seem to not soak up as much string energy which may impart more of that energy at the bridge. I've used it a lot more for electric guitars and acoustically when playing the electric unplugged, the maple neck guitars seem to reflect a lot more neck noise or sound from the actual area off the fret board.

Like I said, pure conjecture on my part.

A quick google gives about 1750Kg/3 for cf, 3x maple or twice rosewood.

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Build log

It can be used to reduce weight but to do so requires using the correct geometry. Substituting one material with one set of properties for another with different properties doesn't always have the desired effect and sometimes can be catastrophic!

e.g. if you replace a steel tube with with one of aluminum of the same geometry, you will end up with a much lighter but weaker tube. However, if you replace the tube with a tube of larger diameter, you can end up with a tube that's just as stiff as the steel one but half the weight. The same is true with CF if used in such a manner.

Lining the sides of the truss rod is not such a manner but it might have some other desirable effects. Using CF in the manner to add stiffness while shedding weight might also have some negative impacts as well. e.g. the most effective spot for CF in a neck would be on the back of it, kind of like the skunk stripe on Fenders. However, how do you shape the neck and get a nice finish with CF right there?

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