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Anyone ever used it? My local depots best looking wood is meranti, but I've never tried it...

I've made a 00 with a meranti neck... it was a salvage project, the meranti was a dry as hell piece of window frame i found in a Domino's Pizza dumpster and was teamed up with engelmann that had dark stains on the sides (if using for an OM or dread), spalted padouk and wormholey ebony.

It actually worked out very well, the meranti is a it denser/heavier than mahogany and therefore - i theorise - it made the guitar more sustain-y.

I still have another necks worth of wood left over from that window and am thinking about putting it on a dread to see what happens there.

Oh... Its was also darker than regular mahogany... Pics here -

https://www.leddingtonguitars.com/0007

Theres probably people who will say don't do it... but it worked out great for me and i had a lot of good feedback on that guitar.

If you are going to do it though... make sure the wood is dry enough.

G.

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

I've used the red meranti variety for guitar necks and also an outdoor bench. The wood was originally bought for a different project. The necks I have made with it have held up fine. It is somewhat coarse grained compared to mahogany. It also had white resin streaks which pretty much disappeared under finish. It was cheap to buy and I think a lot of Asian imports use it for necks. Meranti comes in a lot of varieties with noticeably different properties. It goes by a multitude of names, which can help sort out what type of wood it is. Google the wood database for better information on the various types.
I bought a couple of hundred board feet of kiln dried walnut for $1 a board ft (many years ago) and have been using that for guitar necks, which I like a little better than meranti. I've been whittling away at my wood stash so my wife doesn't have to deal with so much of it when I croak. At some point we all have to realize we aren't going to live to 150.

I think I lined up some khaya. It was 39$ for a single necks worth of meranti, though the grain looked nice...

Here is a picture of a meranti neck on an OM travel guitar. The neck heel is Khaya.

Why not give Sapele a try? It averages only 2 pounds per cubic foot more that Khaya, carves well, is easy to get, is relatively inexpensive, and looks great under finish.

M

I have a few Sapele blanks leftover from cutting backs and sides, but they are very heavy...

I've also run into hondo that was super heavy. I've never had any complaints about my head stocks being heavy.

I'm not arguing at all... Just chatin.

Best, M

No worries. Mahogany definitely varies, but these pieces are outliers for sure, I'm scared to use them even though I'm always desperate for neck wood...