Macrocarpa for neck

[Pat.Hawkins]

Hi Folks,
I found lots of older discussions on using macrocarpa for the body, but is it suitable for a steel string acoustic neck (Dreadnought)?
Cheers

[Mark McLean]

Hi Pat. Which “macrocarpa” species are you referring to? Macrocarpa is latin for “large fruit” so it is used as a descriptive term in the botanical name of many different trees. I Googled it and found a few. There is a Eucalyptus macrocarpa in Australia, or the so-called “Monterey Cypress” in the USA which is Cupressus macrocarpa, or the Natal Plum Carissa macrocarpa which looks great for bonzai but probably useless for luthiery, and a few more.

OK I have now read a bit more and I am guessing that you mean the cypress, which is used for lots of purposes, including some guitars and ukes!

There is an old thread about it here, sounds good:
http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?t=7827

[Andos]

Interesting stuff Mark. There is a whole world of macrocarpa I never knew existed.
I always regard macrocarpa as good old mac. Knotty, twisted and only good for fire wood. I've spent eons looking for monterrey cypress, only to find out I've been burning it for the last 50yrs. Since all the covid nonsense I've been hunting down some straight grained mac for tops. Spruce is getting stupidly expensive with freight costs, if you can find someone to ship it over here. (NZ)

[jeffhigh]

I would not use it for a neck, too soft, not stiff enough.