Neck suggestions for this flame koa beauty...

[griffin]

Hi,

I have been planning a tele build for quite some time and have just ordered this (added stuff using photoshop, but you get the idea)
It will have a Floyd, a humbucker (BK Abraxas) a strat single neck (BK Mother's Milk) - so hardly a traditional tele for sure! This will be a good few weeks in the making.

I will be using Tru Oil on this. The selected laminate:

So the question is what to pair up with this for a neck?

I always imagined a lovely flame maple neck, but I think it will be too light/busy looking with the body, so now I am thinking something dark looking (and I really fancy a raw burnished neck...and I do not want to risk unfinished maple) - Roasted maple might be an option I guess, but might still be a bit light/plain?


I think ideally I might like ziricote on burnished pau ferro - but pau ferro seems pretty unavailable as a neck wood from what I can tell

Maybe ziricote on wenge as per the custom builder (I will do the inlays myself) - but I am nervous that due to my sweaty hands, wenge will just gunk up and be a PITA - and I really do not want it sounding dark either (as the body will lean that way as it is), it would look nice though:

Any suggestions??! Thanks

 

[stratamania]

Pau Ferro, with an ebony board, no inlays would be my choice.

Nice bit of Koa by the way. Would also look good with gold hardware and black pickups.

 

[Fat Pete]

I'd go with an ebony board too, maybe black ebony to keep it as plain as possible. The focus should be on that koa top. If you're concerned about rosewood being too 'warm' and pau ferro isn't available, you could go with a lighter wood for the neck shaft - roasted maple or canary maybe - possibly with an ebony peghead veneer?

If you have the pockets for it, how about an all ebony neck?

 

[Cagey]

+1 on black Ebony. I think that would look/feel/sound great with that body and what you have planned for it. As for what to put the Ebony on, I'd probably choose something like roasted Maple, Bubinga, Aframosia or Canary. Any of those would match the body color-wise, and none of them require a finish so they'd burnish up nice.

 

[pabloman]

There's always mahogany and koa. I really don't see that guitar sounding too dark even with those neck woods. You've got a Floyd with some great tonal pickups. You'll be ok any way you go. The only downside is you'd want to burnish with tru oil. It's not much of a downside though.

 

[griffin]

Thanks for the quick replies - all great suggestions!

I was concerned that ebony would look tooo dark, but does seem like a great option - that bod needs something clean 'n' dark - a veneer opens up some possibilities too.

I probably won't be ordering the neck until the body actually arrives anyway, so I guess I have a bit of time to think/look.

 

[DangerousR6]

I'd go with something like a roasted maple or birdseye maple or canary. I do love the ziricote, I have several necks with ziricote boards, but with such a stunning top you don't want the neck to detract from the body. If money isn't an obsticle, could go with jet black ebony as suggested with a flame koa neck. Then you got a headstock that matches the body and a fretboard that doesn't distract from the body. And NO DOTS... :icon_thumright:

 

[Great Ape]

I'd go with something like a roasted maple or birdseye maple or canary. I do love the ziricote, I have several necks with ziricote boards, but with such a stunning top you don't want the neck to detract from the body. If money isn't an obsticle, could go with jet black ebony as suggested with a flame koa neck. Then you got a headstock that matches the body and a fretboard that doesn't distract from the body. And NO DOTS... :icon_thumright:

  +1 !!

 

[bagman67]

Permit me to suggest a more pedestrian approach - this maple and dark rosewood part would very likely be quite suitable for your application, if you are up to finishing it yourself.

But if you want to go with ebony, this one's also a beauty:

And finally, this pau ferro 'n' flame maple job might also do the trick:

For any of them, I'd recommend a black-painted headstock to go with your black hardware and to keep the maple from contrasting too much with the darker koa body.

 

[Glimmer]

I'll add my voice to the ebony vote and second DangerousR6 on roasted maple for the shaft wood.

 

[stratamania]

I'm curious why would you go for roasted maple when there are perfectly good natural exotic woods that don't need a finish ?

Exotics to me seem to be more in keeping with the Koa and the potential vibe of the guitar.

 

[DangerousR6]

I'm curious why would you go for roasted maple when there are perfectly good natural exotic woods that don't need a finish ?

Exotics to me seem to be more in keeping with the Koa and the potential vibe of the guitar.

True, but roasted maple needs not a finish either... :icon_biggrin:

 

[stratamania]

I'm curious why would you go for roasted maple when there are perfectly good natural exotic woods that don't need a finish ?

Exotics to me seem to be more in keeping with the Koa and the potential vibe of the guitar.

True, but roasted maple needs not a finish either... :icon_biggrin:

Ah the old circular saw logic trick  :toothy12:

 

[musicispeace]

That is going to be awesome. I would have to vote for roasted maple with EITHER ebony or the ziricote. If it were me and going with ebony it might be worth going with a unique choice Macassar Ebony fretboard that won't compete with the body but that would compliment it. Just a thought.

 

[Great Ape]

There's more than enough going on with that body- another exotic for a neck may just wind up being overkill...that said, it's all yours to do with what you will, and this is just another squeak from the peanut gallery... :icon_biggrin:

 

[stratamania]

Got it, whatever wood it is needs compliment the body not distract from it. Black Ebony for the fingerboard seems a popular choice, and the neck meat whatever it is will depend on the grain as much as species I think.

 

[griffin]

So many awesome replies - thanks guys!

Black ebony indeed appears to be the general consensus - and I think I'm leaning toward that for the fretboard (figured ziricote just looks so yum though - maybe for something else another time!) - not sure I can live without inlays though, but I might just see how that goes.

As to the main neck wood - I am reminded by a koa/pau ferro Suhr modern I tried a couple of years back - that looked sweet and felt so amazing - cost was ridiculous bucks though. I might just see if Warmoth have some pau ferro hidden out the back somewhere...if not I might go with roasted maple and work something out for the head stock (I want that pretty dark - and roasted maple probably will not take a stain - although a laminate might work)

It appears I can't order the neck until the end of the month now (the $body and $xmas has seen to that) so I will hopefully have my head together by then...again thanks everyone!

 

[Cagey]

I think black Ebony is definitely the way to go for the fretboard. Not only will it look good against that body, playing on it feels great and it wears extremely well.

As for the neck meat and the headstock, keep in mind that all Warmoth bodies are laminated now, so anything you can get on a body you can get on a headstock for a very reasonable ($45-$55) up-charge. That means the neck meat almost doesn't matter aesthetically. You could do black Ebony over roasted Maple and put a curly Koa (or whatever) face on the headstock to match the body. There's a list of what they'll do and the cost for it here, but I suspect if what you want isn't listed a call might get it for you. Roasted Maple is fairly inexpensive compared to some of the exotics, it's nice and bright sonically so you have a full-range instrument, the color will match nicely to your body, and it burnishes up like glass. Super-slick. Fastest neck you'll probably ever play.

Do it! You know you want to!​

Incidentally, getting used to not having fret markers/inlays on the fretboard takes about 8 seconds to get used to. You almost won't notice they're not there, other than the neck looking a million times more classy.

Edit: Also, be sure to get stainless frets. Otherwise, we'll have to send Guido to get your mind right. Seriously. SS frets are the only way to go. I think there's a law.

 

[DslDwg]

My two cents. Look at a Bubinga neck and if you need a dark fretboard go with the black ebony.

I did a Bubinga/Bubinga and love it. The color is close enough that it should fit nicely and of course no finish required. It's a very tight grained and smooth wood right out of the box feels great.

Picture gives you some idea of how it looks next to Mahog. for comparison.