flatsawn black cherry necks

[phavriluk]

I bought a pair of black cherry necks from a luthier who lived near a whole lot of cherry trees (no joke). Price was right and I wanted to make my mistakes on inexpensive materials while I learned to build up necks. I got the impression that flatsawn wood is seriously frowned on for neck material. I need some education and explanation about this. I thought that adjustable trussrods and quartersawn fingerboards would go some distance in negating the drawbacks of a flatsawn neck. My goal is to build up serviceable necks to install on guitar bodies made from solid wood, but not flashy exotic tonewoods.

I'd appreciate any insight that anyone can bring to this topic.

Thanks very much.

[Darryl Young]

You can make flatsawn neck work fine. There are a lot of ways to build a neck. Some people use flatsawn material and make a 2 piece neck (meaning split down the middle) with bookmatched sides. This looks nice and some folds add purfling strips down the middle.

[darren]

Do you have 3x4 or 1x3 blanks, or pre-carved necks?

Fender has used flatsawn maple for (approx.) millions of necks. I've used it as well, both in flat orientation and turned on it's side to make QS stock as Darryl has mentioned (you'll probably have to add wings in this case)

Don't know about the stability of Black Cherry, someone else will be able to chime in regarding that...

[phavriluk]

Folks, there are two pre-carved necks.

[B. Howard]

Flat sawn is fine. Most Fender necks are flat sawn.

[phavriluk]

I think I'd better qualify what I've been discussing. 'Solid wood' refers to acoustic guitar bodies not made of laminated stuff, but tonewoods, like mahogany and sapele and black walnut. NOT a reference to an electric guitar plank.

[darren]

a flatsawn neck that is properly cut, dried and assembled with an equally well prepared fretboard and truss rod and/or cf inserts would do just fine on a solid wood acoustic guitar. i brought up Fender because of the amount of necks they've done in that fashion, not because they build primarily electric solid bodies. I imagine Brian had the same reason.

If these guitars are for you, and you like the necks, and they don't move all over the place with the humidity, then use them.

[ruby@magpage.com]

Stanley (the tool maker) started using cherry for their levels before the turn of the last century. They claimed in their advertising that it was the most stable wood for the purpose. Checking a few of the levels I have in my accumulation, it appears that they did not pay attention to grain orientation. While these tools are not subject to stress, they have to stay straight.

Ed Minch

[songman101]

Hi everyone I have a question . Is straight mahogany a good neck wood, mine is well seasoned for 3-4 years the wood piece is 3"x 1-3/4" ? Please drop a ;line or two thanks.
Stephen

[Dan Bombliss]

The only reason why flat sawn is frowned upon, as far as stability goes, is that it moves more than quarter sawn. I don't remember the exact figures, so I'm going to make them up, but it was something similar to- flat sawn wood can move up to 10% across grain, and quarter sawn moves 2%. Like I said that figure might not be exact, but it's something along those lines.

The flat sawn wood does move more than quarter, which is part of the reason why it's frowned up. The other reason is looks, generally. Ripping a board in half, and flipping the grain orientation is sure way to ensure some more stability. Any time you laminate, or flip and reglue, you are helping ignore the grain orientation of the wood. If you have a piece of cherry that is running like //////// You'd might want to rip it in half and run it /////\\\\\\. That way the grain somewhat combats it'sself and cancels out the natural tendencys of moving or natural twist that grew in the tree. You'll also see alot in laminated woods something similar to ///||||\\\.

Only thing with necks is you have to know it's stable. If you square the block, and let it sit for a month or two, if that block moves much, or at all, I'd be hesitant to use it, as it's not stable enough.

One last side note; The truss rod isn't for strength, it's merely there to control the neck, so you can adjust it. Alot of builders inlay a graphite rod, which is for srength and stability, but no part of a trussrods job is for strength. They are actually the reason why Gibson headstocks always crack. Removing all of that wood for a rod that only contacts on each end is by no way adding strength.

-Dan