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I'm really new to the area of luthiery and am looking at buying a dense wood to make a fender type neck out of. Mostly locked into buying online as I don't know many local lumber yards that carry a lot of the more "exotic" types.

Is it advised to stay away from general online "lumber" sellers? Or should I stick with "tonewood" suppliers as I can't inspect it? Is wood inspection/grading more or less important when it comes to the denser woods rosewoods, wenge, bubinga, etc.?

Thanks.

The grain and runout are of paramount importance to me when selecting lumber for necks. The neck must withstand 140 lbs and more of load at a final dimension of roughly 3/4" X 1-3/4" and it's rounded at that. It must do this without twisting, warping or even really moving much at all. Personally I buy no neck wood that I have not picked out in person. I travel a ways every year just to buy my neck woods for the coming year. So I would definitely not just order any old piece from an online lumber yard. Stick to the Luthiers suppliers until you gain some insight and experience.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Google hardwood & lumber in your area & ask if they have 4/4 Hard Maple
Mill it down to 3/4 on a planer
buy some slotted fretboards
your all set.....

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https://www.facebook.com/Funkguitarsusa

I am very stingy when grading neck woods... they really need to be very dimensionally stable, free of any defects, and really straight grained. All it takes is for the neck to move just a smidge and playability can be compromised.

Take a drive over to Youngblood lumber and take a look at their stock. They have lots of hardwood lumber.

Yeah. Thinking of doing thinline strat guitar, so EIR.

Weight could become an issue if the body is hollow.

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I've got a few nice Indian neck boards listed on my site if you're interested... if you find EIR locally it will likely be plantation grown from Indonesia and should be cheaper than the good stuff from India. The plantation grown stuff is usually coarser grained and not as dark in color, but if you find a good piece it can make an excellent neck.

I'd go with Mahogany on a first time neck build.
Easy to carve and light weight for a hollow body.

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wah
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You won't find EIR at Youngbloods. It's not very dense anyway. Sugar maple is dense...

well, the body would probably be a rosewood too. Basically a thinline strat version of the George Harrison Rooftop Rosewood telecaster.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips and knowledge. Really cool to have such a resource available.

How about for fretboard blanks? Does grain, etc. matter more/less in comparison to necks?

With normal density necks (maple, mahagony) folks interested in stiff necks take the time to make sure that the grain is vertical. A piece of wood in about the correct shape for a neck but with slab grain can be cut in strips, then glued back together with each strip rotated 90 degrees: instant vertical grain neck.
If you make friends with fine cabinet makers or some types of contractors, you'll find that they don't think you are weird for wanting to hand pick pieces of straight grain exotic woods. In my experience, these people are busy making money and if you can help them out for a minute by sweeping the shop, unloading a truck, washing a toilet, etc they will be happy to give you a great price on wood, especially if it is from their scrap pile. There are a lot of species and names of dense tropical hardwoods besides the famous ones. For example, a contractor friend of mine gave me a bunch of long strips of Jaca, also called Brazillian Walnut.