neck wood

[Castor43]

Just wondering if anyone can help me to identify what type of wood this warmoth neck is made of..it was originally finished w/ a light coat of satin/flat poly. After sanding the headstock to apply a decal, I realized how dark the natural wood color is..before sanding, I was thinking canary wood. Now it looks more like cocobola, any thoughts?  Here are a couple pics of the neck w/ the poly finish & the headstock w/ the natural wood color.

 

[Day-mun]

Looks like indian rosewood to me, but I'm not an experienced exotic woods connoisseur.  Whatever it is, that is a lucky find for you! (-I am assuming you're not the original owner.) -Could definitely stand to be stripped, possibly burnished, and played "raw"!

Let us know whatcha do with it, and welcome to the forum!  :icon_thumright:

 

[Castor43]

Thanks Day-mun, glad to be here. I think the "raw" idea is great & will probably be my next step..I didn't even consider rosewood  :sign13: ..could be! I paid $400 for the whole guitar.. loaded w/ rio grande pups, callaham vintage trem,steel block, graphite saddles, cts pots, gold locking sperzels..the works! The guy I bought this from was itching for $..he described it as a mahagony strat, but didn't seem to be very knowledgeable about guitars in general. The body is definately african mahagony & the fretboard is dark indian rosewood. It resonates beautifully & the tone is very warm..I might throw a pair of mini-hums or p-90's in there as it doesnt quite have the natural cutting power that my other strats do(when playing w/ a band.) The only thing wrong w/ it is a 16th of an inch gap between the neck & the body's neck pocket. It doesnt seem to effect the sustain & the intonation is spot on..not even sure I need to worry about that..it could use a partial level/crown on the lower frets as well. I'll update on this as I make progress 

 

[line6man]

Pau Ferro.

0% chance of being Canary, btw. Canary is yellow with red streaks. Never brown.

 

[Cagey]

At first blush, I would have called Rosewood, too. But, the grain seems a bit too straight for that. Plus, if you look in the tuner holes, you can see the wood is fairly light. I don't think that headstock is sanded down to raw wood; I think the wood's been stained. Besides, who puts a finish on Rosewood? It's the wrong color either way for Pau Ferro. Judging by the grain and the color I'm seeing in the tuner holes, I'm thinking it may be Canary or Aframosia, which also normally wouldn't be finished, but there's nothing to stop you from doing so if you needed to change color for aesthetic reasons.

 

[Castor43]

Cagey-about the tuner holes, that is actually the residue from sanding  :doh:

 

[Cagey]

Ahh. Ok. Well, never mind  :laughing7:

In that case, I'm gonna go with Rosewood, although I don't know why anyone would have put a finish on that. It doesn't need it, plus Rosewood normally doesn't take a finish easily.

 

[Castor43]

I agree.. I'm going to sand the whole thing, I really like the raw feel. Thanks, I appreciate the input  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

You may want to read through this thread on burnishing raw necks.

 

[Castor43]

Thanks Cagey, very helpful info there..that neck looks stunning! Really nice work.. I'm gonna get to it!  ccasion14:

 

[Day-mun]

You only paid four-hundo?! -Me so jelly!  :icon_tongue:

Quite a catch for sure! The work you'll put into makin' it right will definitely be worth the while!  :laughing7:

 

[Castor43]

Yes indeed Day-mun, feelin pretty good about this..looks like you & Cagey are right  :icon_thumright: I've ruled out cocobola & pau ferro, the grain of these woods look diff & the colors are too light. Also, the tone would be alot brighter. Thanks for everybodys input on this, very helpful info!  ccasion14:

 

[stratamania]

$400 for,what you got is a great find...  :icon_thumright:

Looks like rosewood to me also. Post some pics when you get it done...

 

[Wolff05]

That is not rosewood. It looks like Pau Ferro. Pau Ferro is smooth and dense. Rosewood is porous and feels oily. You can check out the showcase and search "Pau Ferro" necks and see the variances in color. The grain and color are consistent with the PF.