Matching Rosewood Dilemma

pepD

Newbie
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Hi, long time lurker posting. 

So I picked up a beautiful Warmoth Custom T Bass bod on TB and subsequently ordered a matching (construction-wise) neck. The body is mahogany with an Indian rosewood top and pearloid binding.  Gorgeous.  I immediately ordered a full rosewood neck with pearloid binding and blocks and was happy to receive it yesterday. Again, freaking gorgeous. 

Problem is, they don't match at all.  I found out from the original owner that he Tru-Oiled the body.  Could this be the reason for the difference in hue? The body has a "honey-ish" hue while the neck has more of a traditional rosewood chocolatey hue (oh great, now I'm getting hungry).

Sooo, do I Tru-Oil the neck, or do I sand down the top?  Will the brand new rosewood neck age and change hue (the body is a couple years old). Any and all suggestions appreciated!

Thanks!
 

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That's a really gorgeous looking neck and body! If it were me I'd leave them the way they are.

Rosewood can show a lot of variation in color. From the grain on the body it looks like it could be rosewood, but it's either an exceptionally light colored piece or it might actually be a different wood.

Tru-oil wouldn't make the wood lighter, it actually makes wood look a tad darker, and rosewood shouldn't turn lighter with age. I would leave the neck raw, as it feels great and a finish won't make the color any lighter.

If you're dead set on getting them matching you could try to sand back the body, stain it darker, and refinish
 
Thank you for the input.  I really don't want to finish the neck.  I might just leave it alone.  Once the strings are on it probably won't look that different. 

The original owner swears that that's an Indian rosewood top.  I wonder if Warmoth could confirm this.
 
I completely agree with Ragamuffin. If you hadn't said that body top was Rosewood, that's not what I'd have guessed it to be. But, as he pointed out, Rosewood color/texture/grain pattern can be all over the place. I have an all Rosewood neck here that was sold as Indian Rosewood over Indian Rosewood, but you'd swear it was Brazilian over Indian. The difference is dramatic.

In any event, you're not going to get those to match by any finishing tricks on the neck. Besides, Rosewood doesn't like to be finished. It's a pretty oily wood. Best to leave it alone. Since both of your parts are quite attractive, that shouldn't be a hardship.
 
I would also leave it as it is. The binding gives continuity to the body and neck. And the difference is complementary.

Even if you tried to get the body to match you would do a lot of work and not achieve it. And the closer you sort of got it the more apparent it would become that it was an attempt to match that didn't.

How it is now is a nice complementary as I mentioned, put some nice hardware and strings on and it will look good.
 
Yeah, Rosewood is all over the place. Even if you showed Warmoth the body, they might not have had a stock of wood the right color.

Note that when you put finishes on Rosewood, it gets darker in color. The wood you have is already darker than you want it to be, so you would only be making your problem worse.

Personally, I would leave it as it is. The contrast is attractive.
 
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