Raw Mahogany Neck

[Shnidel]

I have a few questions for you guys. I want to make a guitar with a mahogany neck and a black ebony fingerboard. I was hoping to leave it unfinished, but there's a lot of bad publicity about that sort of thing with open pored woods like mahogany (what with warping and dirt build up). I guess my question is whether or not the possible negative outcomes are likely enough to ruin the neck?

P.S.- I'm also thinking about doing a few layers of Tung Oil to keep out grime. Not on the fingerboard, but just on the meat of the neck. Thoughts?

 

[DangerousR6]

Probably a bad idea not to finish mahogany, but hey someones gotta be the first to test it out... :dontknow:

 

[line6man]

The warping has nothing to do with the fact that Mahogany is open grained.
Plenty of open grained woods are suitable to be played raw, such as Wenge.

 

[Shnidel]

That makes sense. I guess I'll try it. Worst comes to worst it warps into a pretzel.

 

[Jack Michaelson]

Carvin offers Tung oil on mahogany necks.

 

[bagman67]

I dunno whether Carvin's necks are offered with pure tung oil, or if it's a blend.  But in any case, their necks are mighty nice.

 

[Doughboy]

I have a mahogany neck that has a raw fretboard & a tru oil back that plays great.

 

[DangerousR6]

The warping has nothing to do with the fact that Mahogany is open grained.
Plenty of open grained woods are suitable to be played raw, such as Wenge.

Well unless it's Santos Mahogany, it's not going to compare to Wenge. On the Janka hardness scale Honduran mahogany is only half as hard as Wenge, 800 for H mahogany and 1630 for Wenge. Santos Mahogany is even harder than Wenge at 2200.

But hey, I didn't put a finish on any of my maple necks, so it may do just fine with tung oil... :dontknow:

 

[thebutcher85]

  :dontknow: dunno if this helps or not, but a former buddy and bandmate of mine sanded all the finish clean off the back of the mahogany neck on his les paul studio, it's been about 6 years and his neck is still straight,

on a completely unrelated note the guy is a complete arse-whole haha

 

[Shnidel]

Hah Thanks guys. I think I'll go with the Tru-Oil. I've heard good things about it. Plus, if it can take care of guns on winter hunting trips, some mahogany in a warm studio should be fine.