Tassie Blackwood neck

[Chalks]

Hi Guys,

How suitable is Blackwood as a neck. An archtop back I have has been quite active. Moving around, but it seems to have settled. Another colleague was asking me what I thought of this as he was about to build and use TB for the neck and was a little apprehensive. I have no experience with it.

Can someone educate me?

Chalks

[Allen]

I use it for necks on ukes and haven't seen any issues with it there. There's lot's of variation in it's density and workability on pieces that I've used, or the students building with blackwood in my classes have used. It's a fair bit more work to shape and sand than mahogany for example.

[Bob Connor]

I've used it quite a bit in necks and never had any trouble with it.

If you are apprehensive then slice it down the middle and add some laminations.

Regards

[woodrat]

Yes, as Allen alluded to the weight is the main concern. I have made a neck with blackwood that made the instrument neck heavy but having said that I have other blackwood neck blanks prepared that I will use because the wood is much less dense than the first piece I used. Interestingly the said pieces came from different trees that grew within a couple of kilometres of one another. Therefore judge each stick on its merit.

The WoodRat

aka John

[Daniel_M]

Hey Chalks,

We are in the process of building about four different acoustics using Blackwood for the necks. As the others have noted, there seems to a dramatic difference in weight in some of the pieces- so I would select myself. Some of them are really quite heavy. We have had a few pieces come from Tim Spittle which are very heavy (I think they may work out to be far too heavy – but that is just my opinion) but they have some figure in them. In contrast, I have purchased some from a local timber supplier, their stuff is perfectly on the quarter, far cheaper and lighter but with no figure (I prefer no figure in neck woods). They also only sell in substantial boards so you need to process yourself. I purchased one of their smallest boards the other day 2000mm x 200mm x 50mm!!!

Having said all that, it seems to be very stable and relatively easy to work. I like it

I have also tried silky oak – which was nice (although I got a rash from the saw dust). It was perfectly on the quarter as well but needed to be plugged as it was just too soft. It is quite pretty though.

I am currently building an electric using Victorian Ash. The same supplier also sells this in large pieces and it is all on the quarter – it is just perfect. It reminds me a lot of rock maple. I am very keen to see how this turns out as it seems that the vast majority of their supply of Vic Ash is high quality and all perfectly quartered. I have been told that this is the only way that they stock it – because of warping when flat sawn. Either way it will be a good source of neck woods if they sound good.

If you find a nice light piece of Blackwood and want to laminate – try Jarrah – I think that it complements quite nicely and I have found it to be very stable. I have a preference for figured Jarrah fingerboards. It darkens up quite nicely over time as well and it keeps the Australian wood theme if that is what you are going for. Just my preferences

Daniel

[woodrat]

In contrast, I have purchased some from a local timber supplier, their stuff is perfectly on the quarter, far cheaper and lighter but with no figure (I prefer no figure in neck woods). They also only sell in substantial boards so you need to process yourself. I purchased one of their smallest boards the other day 2000mm x 200mm x 50mm!!!



Daniel

Hi Daniel, What timber supplier has quartersawn 200 x 50 Blackwood? Does it have luthiers vehicles lined up outside?

[Daniel_M]

Hi John,

Matthews Timbers they are located in St Marys in Sydney's west - they wont go through it for you but will let you go through it if you 'know' them - I am just polite and keep out of their way. If you go, just ask to have a poke around out the back – there are pretty good guys. They don’t seem to like taking phone calls about guitar wood though. Ha ha ha ha.

They seem to mostly supply to the building industry and cabinet makers so are very reasonably price. The stuff that I get from there includes blackwood, mahogany, myrtle, rock maple, Victorian ash, silky oak, Queensland maple, NG Rosewood. Mostly for electrics. Only the neck wood can be used for acoustics.

There is no figure in any of it – I suspect that this goes at the mill. None of it has prices on it so it is a bit of unknown until it gets measured. That board that I purchased was about $50.

Also buy from Trend Timbers in Windsor – although they are more expensive. Having said that I have found some nice pieces for bargain prices. I found a very tight piece of perfectly quartered king billy for $45 which I will resaw for a soundboard – it is gorgeous. A nice slab of figured mahogany, a large slab of highly figured blackboard, some ‘almost’ golf ball jarrah. These were priced at market value though

And I also get smaller pieces from Tim Spittle.

[ozwood]

Hi ,

I have two guitars with BW necks, both are stable and stay in tune, releif is also stable , maybe I got lucky , one is laminated one is not , Must say though it was a Bitch to carve !.

Paul

[vandenboom]

Hi ,

I have two guitars with BW necks, both are stable and stay in tune, releif is also stable , maybe I got lucky , one is laminated one is not , Must say though it was a Bitch to carve !.

Paul

ditto for me but no difficulty to carve with sharp spokeshave and scraper with good edge.
Frank

[Kamusur]

Further to what Bob said, I have some and it will have to be laminated with Balsa (about 90%) to help lighten it a little cos its bloody heavy and and guit made from it will need to played in a stand. And thanks Daniel for the tip on the yard at St Marys.

Steve

[DarwinStrings]

Hi Guys,

How suitable is Blackwood as a neck. An archtop back I have has been quite active. Moving around, but it seems to have settled. Another colleague was asking me what I thought of this as he was about to build and use TB for the neck and was a little apprehensive. I have no experience with it.

Can someone educate me?

Chalks

Hi Chalks I was wondering if the "archtop back" is on a instrument or just the back sitting on a shelf?

To try to alleviate your friends apprehensiveness I would point out that I use American maple for necks as Fender have done since the 50's, I can't say that maple is the best neck material available but I can say that the majority of blackwood I have worked with has a stability that exceeds that of American maple. From that I reckon I would say that blackwood is very suitable.

Jim

Someone please turn up the Tele!

[Chalks]

Hey thanks Guys (gender non-specific). Heaps of replies.

Jim:
I bought the back probably two years back and Bob in Tassie will be disapointed if he reads this. I had some pressure to build and just as soon as I started getting hardware in and getting organised, everything went south. At the time it was moving and I also purchased some nice Blackwood for the neck. Thought I might laminate with some flamed Eucalyptus as a contrast.

Jim it is "on the shelf". Happy though and the back is fairly steady now. I also said similar about maple to this fellow. He is English and I could not answer with experience. Thanks.

Thanks Daniel for the suppliers. Here in Melbourne we also have a Mathews.

Thanks again. I must post a guitar or two for your appraisal.

Chalks

[Tonxi]

I use it for necks on ukes and haven't seen any issues with it there. There's lot's of variation in it's density and workability on pieces that I've used, or the students building with blackwood in my classes have used. It's a fair bit more work to shape and sand than mahogany for example.

Does it have to be 1/4 sawn to use in uke necks?

[woodrat]

Martyn, if you have a thick enough piece of flatsawn stock you can rip it and turn it at 90 degrees and rejoin it and it will be quartersawn when you join it together again in the new orientation. If the piece is dead flatsawn (and out of a very big tree) it will become dead quartersawn. Thats a nice trick you can use if the wood is the right dimension.

The WoodRat

[Tonxi]

Martyn, if you have a thick enough piece of flatsawn stock you can rip it and turn it at 90 degrees and rejoin it and it will be quartersawn when you join it together again in the new orientation. If the piece is dead flatsawn (and out of a very big tree) it will become dead quartersawn. Thats a nice trick you can use if the wood is the right dimension.

The WoodRat

Why didn't I think of that? Thanks!