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Is there a significant difference between Honduran mahogany and Sapele? Structurally?
Any alternative woods to Honduran to suggest? I'm looking for a large enough piece not to need to stack the heel block.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Sapele works just fine. Most of our sponsors can supply you with blanks. Hibdon and Colonial come to mind, but othyers should have them as well.

Al

I intend to buy from a sponsor, but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with them or had preferences before I purchased anything.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Sapele's stronger and stiffer (and usually a little heavier) than Honduran. On average. Khaya's the tricky one, and can be all over the map (some pieces perfectly good for necks, others, well, no way).

Honduran and Sapele are (in that order) my favourite necks woods. And the order is mostly because Honduran is nicer/easier to carve...

Ive found the opposite to Mattia with the wood Ive had in my workshop. I find the Sapele a little easier to work than the Honduras Mahogany.

I like Sapele a lot. It is a little stiffer, and heavier as Mattia mentioned(of course always speaking generally, there are always exceptions). I find Sapele is a little more brittle and can be a bit harder to work(but that would be expected)than Honduran Mahogany. I do think Sapele is a wonderful bargain though, and has an amazing look.

Just to stay perfectly in sync with Mattia. I also find Khaya to vary quite. I also find it can be a bit stringy as you carve and smooth a neck. Not such a big deal on say a solid body guitar, but gets old on necks.

Good luck!Rich

You all might want to try good old cedro, aka Spanish cedar.   A favorite wood of Flamenco builders, a traditional neck wood for Martin in the old days...now coming back. Add a bit of graphite, and it's way wonderful.

I've had a ton of Spanish Cedar stacked in the bottom of the pile for years.  The MC was very low (less that 7%) when it came in and it has never stopped sweating out resin.  Does this stop after it's under finish?

Spanish cedar is great to work with and dont you just love that smell!

Rick: I've got a big pile of Cedro boards waiting to be used as bodies (electric), necks, some of it kerfed linings. Thing is, my local yards aren't importing any more of it, and it's about as expensive (and difficult to find) as good Honduran.

Sapele as others have said is a perfectly good neck wood. My favourite at the moment though is cherry, again it's a little heavier than Honduran, but works nicely and finishes beautifully with no need to pore fill. My recent OM that I posted has it as a neck. I started using it as a neck wood for my lutes.

I also, as Rick said like cedrela, using it on classical necks, but it would be better reinforced for a SS. I too love it's ease of working and the smell of it when but not the aweful bitter taste if you get dust in your mouth, Urrggh!

John Kinnaird and others also like ash as a neck wood. I think this is one area that can have a great efect on things like sustain, but because Honduran has been the default wood, has lacked the experimentation.

Mattia, Cedrela is cheap as chips at Madinter and the quality of the last batch I got from them was amazing. In fact I think I'll order some more.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I have some nice ash from John K that I am sure will make a fine neck; beautiful curl too. I like to use ash for many general woodworking projects, and in things like long bows, sledge handles and so on. It is a great wood for this with tremendous strength in the long fibres but usually a bit on the heavy side, as is good old maple wich of course is another of the "old standard" neck woods.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

And as time goes on we'll have to find more alternatives to Honduran Colin.

We can still get Fijian plantation mahogany here in Oz but it is variable in quality. The last plank I bought for necks ended up yielding around 20% due to worm holes.

I'm in the middle of a Tas Myrtle/Maple/Jarrah neck at present and the myrtle, like Cherry, is great to work with and also no pore filling.

African Mahogany, Sapele, Queensland Maple, Blackwood, Sassafras and Narra are the other alternatives that we can get hold of readily so let the experimentaion commence.

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

...It seems the summer has done little to improve my spelling. When did you say that edit button was due back?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Bob, the mahogany I get now is also plantation grown but in India and Sri Lanka, same as a lot of the EIR and it is of very good quality. I've probably got enough good mahogany to last out my building lifetime, both as neck wood and B&S sets but I still think that alternative neck woods are a good place to experiment.

Arnt as I think has been said before, your English spelling is a lot better than our Norwegian spelling would be!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Well that is a comfort I guess!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I'm building two with Narra necks right now. The Jury is still out until I get one finished. It works very much like Honduran and weighs about the same (might be a little more brittle), there's a fair bit of variation in density from piece to piece - the denser pieces tend to have nicer colour and some figure. Most of it rings like a bell. Gerard Gilet has been using it for necks for a few years and has been getting good results.

I hope it's good, I've got enough for 4 or five more necks, but at about $US10 per neck it's not much of a risk.

Dammit, Colin, stop pointing out Madinter's website! I need to wait until everyone else who lives in the house is off on vacation, and time the delivery accordingly, so nobody notices the extra zoot creeping into the house.

Thanks for the reminder re: Cherry, though - my local-local (new discovery!) wood yard stocks exactly 12 species of hardwood, and Cherry is one of them. Have my first cherry neck build planned to commence soon, though.

Speaking of Ash, is anyone familiar with Black Ash?  I had never heard of it, but someone offered me some, and I wasn't sure how to respond.  I said yes, and I'm still not sure it will happen, but she said she has a friend that cuts a lot of it, and was sure he would be glad to let some go.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Black ash: Fraxinus nigra. In some recent correspondence with a tonewood supplier about neck woods, he suggested black ash, which he called "northern swamp black ash". I was asking him if he had any black limba, which is another wood that's been used for necks and whose properties seem to lend themselves well to that purpose (I don't have personal experience with instruments with limba necks, but I'm soon going to be building one). He said he didn't have any, but that black ash has very similar properties, and that he recommended experimenting with it as a neck wood. He also suggested that it may be easier to carve and sand than white ash (Fraxinus americana).

So, to add to the list of suggested neck woods: black ash, limba, and let's not forget walnut.

I am refraining from naming the tonewood supplier I was referring to, since he isn't an OLF sponsor. PM me if you'd like to know.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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

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

[QUOTE=bob_connor] And as time goes on we'll have to find more alternatives to Honduran Colin.

We can still get Fijian plantation mahogany here in Oz but it is variable in quality. The last plank I bought for necks ended up yielding around 20% due to worm holes.

I'm in the middle of a Tas Myrtle/Maple/Jarrah neck at present and the myrtle, like Cherry, is great to work with and also no pore filling.

African Mahogany, Sapele, Queensland Maple, Blackwood, Sassafras and Narra are the other alternatives that we can get hold of readily so let the experimentaion commence.

Cheers

[/QUOTE]

Bob, I am working with some Oregon Myrtle at the moment. It's an absolutely wonderful wood to work with. Planing it is an enjoyable task, and seems incredibly similar to walnut. I have some chunks of greenwood cherry I'm waiting to air dry for a few necks.

Forgot to add, I'm also working with African mahogany- seems a little more coarser than Honduras. Still nice stuff though.

Excellent info. I will be using on a steel string, just to clarify.

-j.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy