All maple body. But the neck, Canary or Rosewood?..... Ordered Goncalo Alves

[televinklad]

Hello All, newbie from Sweden here.

Got my first Warmoth Strat a couple of months ago. Alder body with Quilted Maple top and all Macassar Ebony neck.
I really love that feel and playability of the Ebony neck :icon_thumright:.

Am now ready to build a second one from scratch.

Found a used (as new) Warmoth Maple with Flame Maple top Strat body on Ebay which is in it's way to me right now.
Gonna use a OFR trem and dual humbuckers (D-sonic in bridge and Tom Andeson H1+ in neck)

Only need a neck now. It will be Strat Pro neck, standard thin, 10-16 compound with 6100 frets and it shall be "raw" wood.
I have narrowed it down to either a Canary/Canary or an Rosewood/Rosewood neck.
(Another Ebony neck will not fit the budget and I´m curious of trying some other wood)

So what is your experience, which will tonewise match an all Maple body best out of those two? (My worries is if it's gonna be too bright with a Canary neck)
And which one would remind most of the very slick feeling of Enony?

Your advises are highly appreciated.
Thanks/JL

 

[Cagey]

Ebony 'board over a pau ferro neck. SS 6100 frets. Pure sex. This one...

Regularly $387, now $283 in the Showcase. By the time you put frets and a black TUSQ nut on it, it's $323.

Pau Ferro is a very dense, slick wood that doesn't need a finish. Feels a lot like ebony.

That particular neck isn't a Warmoth Pro, but it's nice enough that I'd forgive it. Besides, like ebony, pau ferro is kinda heavy because of its density. Add the dual-action truss rod of a Pro and you've got a neck with some heft to it. The Vintage Modern design has a single-action truss, so you lose some weight there.

 

[Stew]

WOW, That pau ferro neck is beautiful! But I'd be worried it (and canary for that matter) would be too bright with an all maple body  :dontknow:

I don't have any experience to base it on (I do have a canary neck that I love, but it's on an alder strat body) but I'd be leaning toward the rosewood.

 

[m4rk0]

Ebony 'board over a pau ferro neck. SS 6100 frets. Pure sex. This one...

Regularly $387, now $283 in the Showcase. By the time you put frets and a black TUSQ nut on it, it's $323.

Pau Ferro is a very dense, slick wood that doesn't need a finish. Feels a lot like ebony.

That particular neck isn't a Warmoth Pro, but it's nice enough that I'd forgive it. Besides, like ebony, pau ferro is kinda heavy because of its density. Add the dual-action truss rod of a Pro and you've got a neck with some heft to it. The Vintage Modern design has a single-action truss, so you lose some weight there.

That will be waaaaay to bright!!
I have a pau ferro neck on a walnut body and that is almost borderline too bright...

 

[televinklad]

Ebony 'board over a pau ferro neck. SS 6100 frets. Pure sex. This one...

Regularly $387, now $283 in the Showcase. By the time you put frets and a black TUSQ nut on it, it's $323.

Pau Ferro is a very dense, slick wood that doesn't need a finish. Feels a lot like ebony.

That particular neck isn't a Warmoth Pro, but it's nice enough that I'd forgive it. Besides, like ebony, pau ferro is kinda heavy because of its density. Add the dual-action truss rod of a Pro and you've got a neck with some heft to it. The Vintage Modern design has a single-action truss, so you lose some weight there.

That will be waaaaay to bright!!
I have a pau ferro neck on a walnut body and that is almost borderline too bright...

Oohh, that Pau Ferro/Ebony looks really nice. But I guess it will be even brighter than the Canary option.

 

[Cagey]

You can always roll off the highs with either your guitar's tone control, the amp's tone controls, or some sort of EQ thingy. But, you can't create them if they don't exist in the first place, no matter what you do with your EQ thingys. It's better to have highs and suppress them, than to need them and not have them. Nothing worse than trying to cut through the mix when all you have is a bent butter knife. And who says pau ferro is such a bright wood anyway? And how much difference does it actually make?

'Tis a poor workman who blames his tools...

 

[Cagey]

It should also be considered that the perceived "brightness" is often just an increase in articulation, which some people don't like because it makes the flaws in their playing more obvious. Clarity is not necessarily bright. It's just clear. There's a difference.

 

[AutoBat]

'Tis a poor workman who blames his tools...

I love this quote, because it's true and a lie at the same time.

Some jobs can be extremely frustrating without the right tool, or a poorly crafted tool.

 

[Cagey]

That's true, and I hate to use it for that very reason. But, sometimes it fits.

 

[televinklad]

It should also be considered that the perceived "brightness" is often just an increase in articulation, which some people don't like because it makes the flaws in their playing more obvious. Clarity is not necessarily bright. It's just clear. There's a difference.

Yes, clarity and articulation is preferred. My fear with "too bright" is if it will give that screamy, spike-in-your-ear type of sound.

 

[m4rk0]

yes, in my case it is a tele, they are supposed to sound like an ice pick in the ear...
but before i switched from 500 to 250 pots it was a little painful..

 

[B3Guy]

well, pau is an absolutely amazing wood. I've tried it on Warwick bass necks, and it is INSANE! Sustains forever, vibrates in your palm, smooth and hard, very fast, sounds similar to maple. I'm going for an all-pau neck when I spring for a Warmoth, that's for sure. Canary as I understand it may be slightly less bright, and slightly less "slick/smooth" of a texture.

And I agree that its better to have lots of high tones and to roll them off with a tone or your EQ, provided the lower tones are still present.

 

[televinklad]

And I agree that its better to have lots of high tones and to roll them off with a tone or your EQ, provided the lower tones are still present.

Ah, thanks. That's maybe a better way to describe it

So with the all Maple body, will a Canary/Canary or Pau Ferro/Ebony neck give enough lower tones?

 

[televinklad]

On my Warmoth HH-strat I first had a Pau Ferro/Ebony neck:

And that came out with too much treble for my taste, so I switched out the neck for a Goncalo Alvez/Pay Ferro-combo instead which gave the more balanced sound I was looking for.

I tried an all rosewood neck on another strat:

and that was very full sounding but also had a strange "compression"-like attack ... and oh ... the SS-frets made the usual "zingy" fretbuzz that ss-frets do and that does not cope with my taste in low action. So that had to go.

But Goncalo Alvez and Rosewood would be contenders in my opinion.

I haven't tried Canary yet ... I'm still waiting on that neck from Warmoth  :icon_biggrin:

Thanks!
May I ask what type of wood you have in those bodies.

 

[Cagey]

I tried an all rosewood neck on another strat: [pic] and that was very full sounding but also had a strange "compression"-like attack ... and oh ... the SS-frets made the usual "zingy" fretbuzz that ss-frets do and that does not cope with my taste in low action. So that had to go.

If you had a "zingy fret buzz" with SS frets, you had a setup problem. There's no difference in character/tone between nickel/silver and SS frets. I don't know where that myth ever got started, but it's been repeated all over the place, mostly by guys who've never even had SS frets, and it's pure horse pucky. A lot of people on the various forums use the Parker Fly as an example of how strange SS frets sound without ever mentioning the other 1,829 wild-assed differences those guitars have from any others. Like having carbon fiber necks and weird headstocks, for example. They're not comparing apples to apples to start with, then they've secretly replaced one of the apples with a plate of potato and cheese pierogi, and come to the conclusion that it doesn't taste like like buttermilk pancakes at all.

Of course, most guitar mythology is based on logic like that. "I put the humbucker of doom in my favorite Paul, and it sounded like shit when I played it through a Fender twin, but then I put it in my buddy's crappy old Strat and strung it up with stainless strings and when we played it through a Marshall, man! What a difference! Obviously, those Grover tuners on the Paul are junk!"

 

[Tipperman]

I tried an all rosewood neck on another strat: [pic] and that was very full sounding but also had a strange "compression"-like attack ... and oh ... the SS-frets made the usual "zingy" fretbuzz that ss-frets do and that does not cope with my taste in low action. So that had to go.

they've secretly replaced one of the apples with a plate of potato and cheese pierogi, and come to the conclusion that it doesn't taste like like buttermilk pancakes at all.

"I put the humbucker of doom in my favorite Paul, and it sounded like shite when I played it through a Fender twin, but then I put it in my buddy's crappy old Strat and strung it up with stainless strings and when we played it through a Marshall, man! What a difference! Obviously, those Grover tuners on the Paul are junk!"

The best two examples I have ever seen. Bravo!  :hello2: Can't stop laughing at the buttermilk pancakes.

 

[m4rk0]

Cagey is the Ed Roman of the UW forum!   :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Well Cagey - even thou your posts are entertaining reading you tend to be somewhat dealing in absolutes and not really reading into what other people says. So if you could stop being that condescending .... Just for you I like to elaborate on this. I have owned and tried several SS-equipped necks - no Parkers thou. Liking a low action I'm used to some fretbuzz that is inevitably byproduct of low action. However this fretbuzz is acoustic only and does not print through the amp on normal frets.

But on SS-frets the buzz has some "zingy" quality which do sound through the amp. This is not something I read somewhere - this is something I have experienced. And yes I can do a setup thank you ... 

I don't deal in absolutes so much as fact, but there's often little difference. Things are what they are, not what we wish they were. And I do read what people say, because I have no choice. There's nothing else to go by when they're trying to communicate via written language. You might want to review your own practices in that regard. I never said you didn't know how to do setups - how would I know? What I said was you had a setup problem, and you do. You tell us as much in your rebuttal, although you didn't need to. Buzzing strings are a primary and unmistakable symptom of that problem.

Now, here I'm guessing, but I suspect you like a heavily distorted and compressed sound. It's the only way anyone could accept that sort of performance issue on an ongoing basis, because it wouldn't be very obvious under those conditions. Most of your tone and clarity is gone if you ever had it, and if you don't have it to start with, you don't notice it's missing. If you played clean on a regular basis, those buzzing strings would drive you batshit insane. Plus, there's your screen name - sustainerplayer - which is another clue <grin>

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, it's not how the pros or the masters do it. It takes a lot of work and practice, but you don't need your strings to be within a frog's hair of the fretboard. What you need it accurate finger placement. Not to disparage your guitar playing ability, because I sense a certain sensitivity about your talents, but your methodology is probably just something you've grown accustomed to and aren't about to change at this point. That's fine. Whatever works and makes you happy. But, you may be limiting yourself. Just saying.

All that said, I understand how/why you've had problems with SS frets. And while I said there's no difference in tone and stand by that assessment, I have noticed that there's a slight difference in response to fretting. Hammer-ons and pull-offs tend to sound more pronounced than they do with nickel-silver frets, almost as though they've been picked. I suspect that's due to the hardness of the metal creating a more abrupt impact, which causes the note to speak a little louder. On nickel-silver frets, a hammer/pull is usually a slightly diminished sound, sound pressure-wise. Not like it's been muted or anything, but just a tad weaker. This is actually a Good Thing because if you're a shredder, it becomes less obvious that your cheating half your notes. It's sort of a "natural compression" in that note intensity doesn't change as dramatically as it does with nickel-silver. But, that could just be my imagination.  Anyway, if it's true, then a buzzing string due to a sub-optimal setup would sound "zingy" because everytime the string hits an unfretted fret as it's vibrating, you get more attack out of the deal.

 

[back2thefutre]

I think ss frets sound diff. :glasses10: seriously though I do.

 

[televinklad]

Hmmm, I think we somewhat lost track of the original questionary here....... :icon_scratch: