One piece neck VS two piece neck

[Kostas]

I'd like to ask your opinion on this. I'm especially interested in all maple necks. Warmoth manufactures the maple necks only in one piece. I have read that two piece maple necks have better stability and they need lesser setup, so I'm wondering if there's any truth in this or just a hype. Keep in mind my question is for necks with single truss rod.

 

[-CB-]

maple necks - one piece have been made for long time.

other folks go for 2 or 3 piece necks...

Fender style necks have always been 1 piece, and "plus fretboard" if not maple.  Warmoth does fancy maple on maple necks, and other traditional fretboard woods on maple necks. 

The necks are warranted, and you hardly ever hear of a problem with one. 

 

[givememytoys]

i have a one piece birdseye maple warmoth neck thats almost 20 years old and its been a jewl

 

[-CB-]

Lets face it, single piece is fine and a Warmoth neck is like a limp johnson - cant be beat!

 

[guitlouie]

I would have to side with CB on this in that the almighty W would not sell something that is not proven to be of the utmost quality.  They have been manufacturing necks long enough, and let's face it, they are business people, so if a one piece maple neck were truly an inferior product they would have gotten enough customer feedback to know to look into alternatives.  I believe what I read on the Warmoth website and I am a confirmed skeptic.  What is good for them is good to me! :icon_thumright:

 

[Kostas]

I understand the neck would be one piece, fine by me. I was asking about the connection of the neck with the fretboard.

1 piece maple neck: Neck & fretboard are one piece from the same piece of wood.
2 piece maple neck: Fretboard is glued on the neck.

I have a Warmoth strat and I'm very satisfied with the quality of the guitar, but there are other companies who give more options on maple necks and I'm asking your opinion. So far the only guitar I have with a maple neck is a Squier '51 I bought a few months ago. I will order a maple neck in the next few months for my strat project, so I'd like to learn everything about maple necks.

i have a one piece birdseye maple warmoth neck thats almost 20 years old and its been a jewl

It's very encouraging that you mention this about the birdseye neck. I read a while ago that birdseye is a fungus, like spalted maple, and it's not so stable for necks although Warmoth mentions the opposite in their description. I learned recently that T. Anderson uses only hard rock maple for their necks. I was expecting from a company like them to use all fancy woods, a dealer I was talking told me they do it for stability reasons.

Another question: Do you think flame/birdseye have the same stability as hard rock maple? My dream maple neck is a flame maple neck and that's what I'll order, I just don't know one piece or two piece.

Last question: The neck (flame maple) will be finished in satin and will be tinted. Do you think the figure will still be visible like a clear gloss finish? So far I see the fancy maple necks finished on gloss but I can't stand the feel on my hands.

 

[jackthehack]

Your sources are on crack. Birdseye maple isn't produced by a fungus (that's spalted maple), and in fact, believe it or not, no one has actually ascertained what causes the birdseye figuring. The flames in flamed maple are caused by a distortion in the growth of the wood fiber. Birdseye/flaming can be found in many species of maple, I have one Musikraft neck that is "rock maple" that has some flames at one end of the neck.

I only use flame/birdseye maple for maple neck builds and have never seen any issue and don't believe there's any differentiation in stability or any other factor between them and a regular maple neck, other than they look pretty...

As to a satin finish, I always use ReRanch Fender Neck Amber to tint and shoot them with nitro except for one I experimented with and did a tung oil finish. The amber tint really makes the flaming stand out, and I would think that would work under satin as well as gloss and would recommend that.

I'm sure someone else here has done flame in satin top finish and has two cents to throw down....

 

[-CB-]

The satin finish will burnish to gloss very rapidly where your hand and fingers rub on it.  The effect is nice.  You might want to have them gloss finish the front of the headstock.  The flame will show pretty well on satin, but much better on gloss, tinting makes no difference or maybe even helps it a little.

 

[jackthehack]

Haven't used any other type of tint, but the Fender Neck Amber will definitely make the flaming jump out/delineate even before you start laying down a gloss or other top finish.

 

[DiMitriR33]

the eb/mm evh model had an unfinished birdseye neck. i believe it was one piece. every one i've ever seen played like butter. they all had awesome setups and you can't do that on a warped neck. alternatively a friend of mine had a maple necked guitar from the 80's or 90's. looked like an ibanez but it said hartfield on the headstock and under that it said by fender. i'd assume it was rock maple and was multiple pieces with ebony board. that neck had about .020 relief at the 9th fret and about the same amount of backbow from the 4th fret to the nut. to a machinist like me that is pretty horrible. this guitar could not be set up with out major fret board work. the reason was the thin back contour. this neck was thin with a wide nut. bottom line the back contour has more to do with warping than anything else(other than moisture). so unless you plan to get a wizard neck i wouldn't be conserned about stability.