Bamboooo?

[Rickgrxbass]

Say, how about laminated bamboo as a "wood" choice?  Emmett Chapman is using it on his Sticks, I reckon it'd make a rock-hard neck.
Just have to keep those pandas away, though... :tard:

 

[Shmoopie]

isn't bamboo technically a grass?

my dad is getting a couple Osage treas, and im planing on making a neck from that  :blob7:

he's making bamboo backed Osage take down bows.

 

[kboman]

If Warmoth did bamboo necks, I can't imagine why I would buy anything else... really cool stuff, seems very sturdy and is also probably the most environmentally friendly "wood" (yes it's a grass) one can use in a guitar.

The bamboo Sticks are way cool looking...

 

[JohninSC]

being that bamboo is hollow, i doubt it would make a very strong, and therefore good guitar neck. Laminating it might fix this, but the pieces would be round and hard to laminate.

 

[tfarny]

Cmon you guys, guitar necks need to be made out of hardwood. Dense, slow-growing trees. If not hardwood, then metal. Necks need to withstand substantial string tension (it's really a lot of tension) and environmental variations for decades and remain totally straight.
Don't you think cheap guitars would all be made of bamboo and fir plywood if that were possible? Bamboo is the cheapest 'wood' on the planet. What WILL happen sooner or later is that cheap guitars will be made out of those new harder, more durable plastics.

 

[kboman]

Cmon you guys, guitar necks need to be made out of hardwood. Dense, slow-growing trees. If not hardwood, then metal. Necks need to withstand substantial string tension (it's really a lot of tension) and environmental variations for decades and remain totally straight.
Don't you think cheap guitars would all be made of bamboo and fir plywood if that were possible? Bamboo is the cheapest 'wood' on the planet. What WILL happen sooner or later is that cheap guitars will be made out of those new harder, more durable plastics.

Well, no. Guitar necks need to be made out of an appropriate material, whatever that may be - there is no rule saying "thou shalt use nothing but hardwood". There are already several makers using various fiber materials, including Stick Enterprises with their graphite Stick XG.

Regarding bamboo, this is from www.stick.com:

Laminated bamboo is an ideal natural material for making Sticks. It's lighter in weight and more rigid than hardwoods, and also has a very tough surface. Three tiers of 3/16" wide "vertically" laminated strips form an attractive "breadboard" construction with maximum strength in the direction of string tension.

Ignoring sneaky sell words like "attractive", I doubt they'd sell these expensive instruments without knowing it works.
Personally I think the tricky part with bamboo is to come up with a construction method that works and is cheap - the bamboo itself certainly can't be very expensive.

 

[tfarny]

Well, live and learn. That's what these boards are for. I stand corrected.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

I have a laminated bamboo blank that will get turned into a fretboard/fingerboard when I get relocated. from what I see, the only significant concerns I have are if it will easily burn when routing an edge and if it is subject to significant tearout when cutting the fret slots

all the best,

R

 

[llama]

Why just the neck? Yamaha made a laminated bamboo acoustic six string a few years ago. There was one for sale on Ebay UK a few months back.