Roasted Maple Question

[ben]

I've got a roasted Strat neck and love it, it's unfinished and feels amazing.

I'm GASing for a shredder build with a Slapshot neck, and I'd want roasted maple again (I understand you can request it in the comments field and you'll be upcharged slightly).

My concern is that I'd want to "lawsuit" the Slapshot by sanding the "notch" off, but will the color in the sanded area be lighter? I know roasting isn't a finish per se, but I'm guessing it's darker on the outermost layer of the wood due to the exposure to the heat.

Has anyone cut into a roasted neck?

 

[swarfrat]

I have not - but Warmoth does - they're roasted in blank form, then cut. I don't know for certain but I think that they're pretty homogeneous.

 

[ben]

Ah, roasted blanks makes more sense than roasting a finished neck.

If this is the case, it bodes well for my project idea. Can anyone confirm?

 

[line6man]

Yeah, the wood is roasted before it's cut. Not after.

 

[Fat Pete]

Yep, I recently reshaped a roasted maple headstock - no problems.

 

[ben]

thanks guys!

 

[swarfrat]

Nice to know that the old noodle isn't completely out in left field when I extrapolate from what little I do know.

 

[Cagey]

I had a roasted Maple Strat neck headstock re-cut to a Warhead, and it looks like it was born that way. Can't tell by look or feel that anything changed. The color change due to roasting is through and through.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

built many necks from roasted Maple, and can confirm that the roasting is done to the rough lumber before it gets milled and machined into a neck. when properly done, the color is consistent thru the entire piece of wood.

roasted wood behaves a bit different than unroasted when you're working it, the extent of difference depending on the roasting process used and the wood species.

 

[Casey Ryback]

Hi!

I tried starting a new topic three times, but for some reason my posts doesn't show up, so I try replying to this topic.

I have a roasted maple stratocaster neck that I've bought from Warmoth earlier this year. It has a fatback profile, which I wanted, but after playing with it for some time, I decided to shave a bit off the shoulders so it would be just perfect. I was under the impression that roasting should affect the color consistently throughout the wood, so I was a little baffled when I began to work the neck with a scraper and noticed that the wood I revealed was quite a bit lighter. The neck is unfinished. Is this normal or should it really be the same color? Or is this darker coloring on the surface the result of sunlight and time, since I have no idea when this neck was initially built and for how long it has been sitting on a shelf in the factory?

I was going to do this minor reshaping to small areas before applying a thin tru-oil finish, but I wonder do I now have to sand the whole neck to get consistent color/tone. It would be a shame because I really like that caramel brown color it has. Should I try polishing it with something first?

Here are couple of photos with different lighting.

 

[Cagey]

Welcome to the forum!

Not sure why you wouldn't be able to start a thread. I checked, and you have the standard permissions, and there's nothing in the queue awaiting moderation for any reason. Must've been a hiccup.

All wood will discolor over time. Some react to oxygen, some to UV light, but Maple is really slow about it, and Warmoth hasn't been selling roasted Maple long enough for them to have fabbed up a neck and let it sit to the point where you'd see that kind of difference.

I've worked with a number of roasted Maple necks, and the color change has always been through-and-through. I'm wondering if what you're seeing is just a change in how the light reflects off the piece due to a change in surface texture. Perhaps if you tried some finer sandpaper, like a 400-600 grit, and sanded it back a bit, then clean it off with some naphtha or alcohol, it would return to what you're used to seeing.

I never put finishes on roasted Maple, I always burnish them, and it never changes the color. It just makes them ultra-smooth. Much nicer than any finish. Roasted Maple doesn't require a finish, so if worse comes to worst, you could do that to yours and even it all out.

Another thing that occurs to me - maybe there is a finish on it, even if you didn't order it that way. Is there a little reddish-orange dot on the heel? If so, it may have a satin finish on it, which would tend to darken it slightly and wouldn't really be perceptible by look or feel (hence the need for the indicator dot).

 

[Casey Ryback]

Thank you!

I checked that finish marking you suggested, but did not find any. Maybe they just forgot to mark it, because it kind of seems like a satin finish..

Of course it could be possible that scraping and sanding somehow changes the appearance of the wood/grain colorwise. I have to try to do what you suggested, though I already sanded it with pretty fine paper when I was finishing that first round, raising the grain by wiping it with damp cloth (water) between sandings. But I could do that again and then clean it with alcohol and see if that makes a difference.

Come to think of it, if that is the case, I could probably find that out by drilling a hole in the wood but for apparent reasons I'm not going to make that experiment. But I don't remember the insides of the tuning peg holes being a different color and I imagine they must've drilled them after I made the order since I wanted 13/32". I did drill approximately 6 mm deep and 3 mm wide guide holes for the tuners, but I didn't look closely at the holes to see any possible color difference (I wasn't looking for any at the time). But probably there isn't any, so you might be on to something here.

I like the feel of the neck very much as it is, and the only reason I'm considering a thin tru-oil finish is for protection. Though a thin layer probably won't do much against moisture or prevent dents, but maybe it would help a bit and at least be easier to keep clean?

 

[Cagey]

Hmm. Well, I share your concern about what you're seeing, as it doesn't match my experience with that wood at all. If it is finished, then from Warmoth that means it's poly, and the only way I know to prove that is messy. Need some stripper that contains methylene chloride, and a hidden spot to try a drop on (the heel is a likely volunteer). If it wrinkles up, it's poly. Same test, but using acetone will show up lacquer, but it's not likely that's what's on there.

Polymerized oil finishes aren't very durable relative to modern finishes. They were used a long time ago for some things because they're fast/easy/cheap/better than nothing, but on something that's going to get as much handling as a guitar, using oil as a protection is only slightly more effective than throwing virgins into the nearest volcano in conjunction with chanting the appropriate prayers.

I think if it was me, I'd finish what you started, then do the burnishing routine.

 

[bagman67]

I believe I have read on this forum in messages posted by actual Warmoth employees that every neck, no matter its species, is dipped in a sealer of some kind.  Could be removal of that very think sealer is involved in the color change.

 

[Cagey]

I had that thought, too. But, I've never seen it happen here, and I think I've done about 10 of them now.

Of course, I'm just burnishing them, which removes very little wood. Perhaps if I'd gone deeper with scraping or something I'd have seen different results. But, we also know Warmoth buys the lumber roasted and then mills them into necks, so if it didn't have a consistent color throughout that would show up then. Plus, I've had a couple/few with Strat headstocks recut to Warheads, and you don't see any difference there, either.

 

[Fat Pete]

I suspect Cagey got it right first off. See how it looks once it's been finely sanded. I reshaped a Warmoth roasted maple headstock...

Started with this:

Used a router to make it this:

No issues with the cut surfaces once the sanding was finished.

Weirdly, the headstock face did become much darker after a while:

But that might have had something to do with the black ink I put on it.

 

[Cagey]

What did I tell you about toaster ovens and headstocks?

Sheesh! You buy 'em books and you send 'em to school, and whaddaya get?

 

[Sovereign_13]

Well, in this case...I guess you get some rather fine-looking guitars? 

 

[Cagey]

STOP CONFUSING THE ISSUE WITH FACTS!

 

[dmraco]

I have reshaped several roasted maple necks are you are correct that the sanded/cut surface does get a bit lighter.  I think this may have to do with the one or two things, either aging or oils.

Either way, after I have cut a raw neck, either roasted maple or any other variety (experience with Canary, wenge, Pau Ferro, and several others), there is always a slight discoloration.  I always give it a quick wipe down (entire neck) with Howards Orange oil.  This will both clean and add some oils back into the neck.  It also creates an even color to the neck.  It does NOT darken uncut wood, but rather bring the cut area back to the rest of the neck.

I have been using this for 30 plus years on my rosewood finger boards and seems to agree with all my other “natural” wood necks.