Maple is an extremely popular wood for necks and fretboards. Recognizable because of its bright tone, grain patterns and moderate weight. It's tonal characteristics include good sustain with plenty of bite.
Guitar related woods and their Janka ratings
Many desirable Ebony Species come in above 3000 on the Janka Scale while Basswood comes in at just 410. Considered the hardest wood by many is Australian Buloke (or Bull Oak), whose rating varies from 3700 to 5000. The softest wood is Balsa coming in at just 70.
Maple - Acer saccharum
This is the most traditional Fender neck wood. Dense, hard and strong, offering great sustain and stability.
Ebony. Ebony is the hardest and heaviest of common fingerboard woods, adding snap and clarity to the sound. Crisp attack and fast decay contribute to ebony's open (as opposed to warm) tone.
In the end, the choice between a maple or rosewood neck will largely come down to personal preference and playing style. Maple necks are ideal for players who value durability, bright tone, and fast playing, while rosewood necks are favoured by players who prioritize comfort, tonal complexity, and a warm, rich sound.
Spruce is highly available, thanks to the large population, the quick growth, and the enormous tree size. The excellent strength-to-weight ratio of Sitka spruce is behind its durability. Acoustic guitar tops made with this wood can last many years, keeping their carbon storage role.
Honduras Cedar is one of the best tonewoods in order to build classic guitar necks. The main reason is that it is a light and strong wood at the same time, with a great resistance to environmental changes.
There are 5 main factors that can cause a guitar neck to warp, and those are excess/uneven string tension, broken truss rod, incorrect humidity, exposure to extreme fluctuations in temperature, and sadly time.
What Does a Fast Neck Mean? A fast neck is a guitar that has been set up to make it easier to play fast parts. The neck tends to have a thin and flat shape to improve fret access. Low action height and larger frets can also help a guitar neck feel fast.
So why are maple fretboards still harder and smoother feeling compared to rosewood fretboards? This is because most maple fretboards have a lacquer over the top, whereas most rosewood fretboards are unfinished.
Pine is a good yet rare tonewood for solid electric guitar bodies and acoustic guitar tops. However, it's largely too soft and weak for use in necks (unless laminated with other wood), back and sides, or fretboards. It's lightweight and offers a warm tone with clear highs and decent projection.
True oak is relatively porous and prone to warping, making it a difficult choice for guitar necks. Of course, if proper patience is applied to the work, oak can sound great as a neck tonewood. Its overtone profile and clear high-end can help add definition to the overall sound of the guitar.
Mahogany is a great tonewood for electric guitar neck construction, thanks to its medium-density and stable nature. Just as it's used in electric guitar bodies, mahogany is one of the most popular tonewoods for necks (perhaps only bested by maple).
Walnut is a hardwood that is strong and durable, making it an ideal material for guitar necks. In addition, walnut is a very dense wood, giving the neck a solid feel. The wood is also very smooth, providing a comfortable feel for the player's hand. American black walnuts are softer than maple, but they are stiffer.
Birch is relatively strong and stiff and is certainly dense and hard enough for guitar neck construction. Its stability is superb, too.
In general, spruce is lighter, but with a thicker, more complex sound and longer sustain. Cedar is “more powerful”, often with more headroom, and is sometimes described as “darker”. It may seem louder to the player, but in large rooms spruce often sounds better, perhaps due to its clarity.
Most inexpensive instruments use Alder, Agathis or Basswood bodies. These are perfectly adequate woods, as the body of a solid electric guitar is almost entirely inconsequential to the tone of the instrument.
The most expensive of all the tropical woods.
Macassar Ebony, Maple and Walnut deliver very similar acoustic results at a fraction of the price of African Blackwood. African Blackwood is a member of the Rosewood familyhas long been credited by guitar builders as the ”holy grail” of tonewoods.
Our recommendation. The favorite guitar wood of luthiers is spruce for almost all musical instruments that work with a soundboard. Although we prefer cedar because of its stability, because we like the pasty sound, with long lasting harmonics and stable volume.
steps are completed by hand to ensure the highest quality products possible. Quality always comes with a certain price-tag. Expensive fingerboards require a lot of attention, which is why you end up with a high quality and long lasting product.
Ebony is a harder wood compared to rosewood and is actually about 35% more dense by comparison. This makes ebony more resistant to general wear and tear. However, ebony is more susceptible to changes in humidity compared to rosewood.
Ipe and other tropical hardwoods such as cumaru, tigerwood, massaranduba and garapa are a high-end, long-lasting choice for decking.