Jazzmaster baritone conversion

[Pelagaard]

I've decided I need a new project, and I think I need to have a baritone.  I was able to pickup a Blacktop Jazzmaster for short money, and I plan to use that for the body/guts (at least to start). Any suggestions for neck wood combos?  I'd prefer unfinished, and I'm leaning towards wenge (possibly one piece).

I've played bass for years, and I'm doing this to branch out a bit while staying low.

 

[AprioriMark]

What a fun project.  Is it the black finish?  I have one of these and love it.  Currently rocking a Quarter Pound JM pickup in the neck as I found that it balanced better while still maintaining that Jazzmaster-y-ness. 

I own, habe owned and have built guitars for other people with many of Warmoth's exotic woods for neck shafts.  Wenge is ok, but overrated.  My issue with it is the open-grained nature of the wood.  It gets gunky on me.  I would suggest:

Bloodwood (hard, smooth, fast, beautiful, piano-like tonal qualities)
Canary (sounds close to maple, also can be beautiful, tight grained)
Pau Ferro (close to ebony in hardness, very balanced tonally, also can be beautiful)
Purpleheart (great tone, nice tight grain, hey, it's purple)

-Mark

P.S.  Welcome to the forums!

 

[Pelagaard]

The one I have is the 3-color burst, but its much darker then the stock image on fender.com

After playing around with the neck builder, and looking at some of the completed builds here, I think I want to go with a goncalo/pau neck/fb combo.  Unfortunately, it seems I'm going to be stuck using either a strat or tele headstock to do this.  I was really hoping for a Warmoth or, (ideally) an LP headstock.