Roasted Maple Strat Necks in the Showcase

[Orpheo]

If warmoth is going to offer roasted maple necks with a warhead headstock and roasted ash bodies, I'm in. For sure. I will offer that as part of my official lineup. I made a proto of an orpheo strat with said woods and it's by far the finest instrument I own.

 

[aarontunes]

I'm curious about the finish requirement as well. Also, how deep is the effect? I mean, is the wood medium rare, medium or well-done? Can the headstock be recut?

The "roast" goes all the way through the wood. It can be recut, sanded, etc., and any new exposed surfaces will still look roasted.

Oh....and our wood is "medium" roasted.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

Thanks for the reply.

So... did Warmoth buy an oven/kiln, or are you buying roasted wood and machining it? I don't suppose it matters, but it probably speaks a little to what the availability of the stuff is going to be. Judging by this thread, there's some pent-up demand in the market.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

my guess: W is not roasting in-house and instead sourcing from Hans (or similar bulk supplier)

 

[Cagey]

That's probably a pretty safe bet. I gotta think such a process would require some serious power/floor space/ventilation. If you weren't going to use a ton of it, it might not be a good investment.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

yup - autoclaves, inert gas delivery systems, and the technical expertise to operate them safely don't come cheap

 

[swarfrat]

So Ken's not in the doghouse at home for this offering?

 

[stubhead]

Oh....and our wood is "medium" roasted.

-Double A - the voice in the sky.

This may be less comical than it seems. When I first saw the Music Man guitars with the toastee necks, I though "That ain't roasted - that's burnt!" It could be a near-irresistible temptation to sprinkle a judicious bit of BROWN DYE on the buggers, just to make sure everyone can see how obviously-roasted it is. It crystallizes the resins in the neck in one fell swoop, and even with all the hallucinogenic blather about vintage-this and vintage-that, I do know that reliable, real, for-sure, not-just-netty-13-year-old experts - even real guys say that crystallized resins is part of why some old acoustic guitars sound really good ( gee what do all those little lines underneath them words mean?)

But you could obviously go too far in the roasting process until the wood actually gets brittle. And because MORE-MORE-MORE is always better, I wouldn't be surprised that the degree of roastiness become a selling point, so there may an impetus to leave 'em in the oven for that Xtra Xtra ROASTED! look. Think of a neck made out of honeycombed glass.... in my omniscient mantra of -

Everything can be used to compensate for everything else -

It seems like the roasting is just taking maple further along in it's difference from, say, mahogany. I.E., if you roasted mahogany to make necks, wouldn't they just sound a lot like uncooked maple? :icon_scratch:

 

[Ace Flibble]

If you 'roast' a mahogany neck, the bugger falls apart. For guitars and basses, roasting works well with maple, most kinds of ash, alder, poplar, ebony (not that you notice much difference there) and pau ferro. In theory it'd be good for purpleheart and satine, though it would destroy the colour which is the whole point of using those woods. It'd be interesting to see would happen with pine or rosewood.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

roasted Poplar makes for a great body; all of the green hues transform into supple chocolate tones

roasted Maple has proven itself as great for necks

roasted Pau Ferro makes for a reasonable (though not perfect) looking substitute for Brazilian Rosewood if roasted correctly

would love to get my hands on some roasted Alder in both body blank and neck shaft dimensions. I'd also like to see what happens to American Cherry and American Sycamore

 

[swarfrat]

Interesting that you say that SF. I've been eying poplar lately. It has a perverse beauty actually. Sort of like Ash but with figure on a much larger scale. I should keep my mouth shut though, less I start something and it become just another expensive tonewood.

 

[croquet hoop]

Tan color, no finish required: is that not what canary already offers? Is there enough difference between the two to offer both, or is Warmoth introducing roasted maple because of demand (and perhaps of the hype)?

 

[mayfly]

Hey man,

I have two canary necks (which are really great), but I'd like a roasted neck! 

Why?  Because it's cool 

 

[stubhead]

Alder makes for a nice toney wood, but in just about all the characteristics that do that, cherry is probably a better wood. The reason there's any priciness to it is because when Leo and his ducklings were starting out, he was wise enough to realize that in a mass-production model the little tiny costs add up fast, and alder was  somewhat cheeeper than cherry when purchased in boxcar-size lots.

But in the size you need to make a guitar, the costs of labor and transportation are going to far outweigh any difference in raw wood costs. In fact I just looked a few places, and cherry and alder and poplar are priced within pennies of each other (as is hard ash, and soft maple). Furniture and cabinet makes have preferred cherry forever, they will sometimes use alder on the insides of drawers and such if they're slumming a bit. But the only reason you can't buy a cherry strat body as easily and cheaply as an alder one is because the doctrines of the Historical Re-enactment Police are so very strict.

 

[swarfrat]

Cherry has it's own police, the CWWG (Cherry Woodworkers Guild) which require it to be stained so dark it might as well be painted, so it looks like it's 1500 years old.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

mmmmm ... "Cherry - the bacon of hardwoods"™

occasionally I come across a plank of flame that rivals some of the nicest flamed Western Maple. too bad not many customers can be enticed to bond with it as the choice for their fancy bookmatched top

 

[SkuttleFunk]

Tan color, no finish required: is that not what canary already offers? Is there enough difference between the two to offer both, or is Warmoth introducing roasted maple because of demand (and perhaps of the hype)?

all of the roasted Maple I've had thru my shop has been significantly lighter than Canary - point awarded to roasted Maple

customers (think they) know what they are getting with the known quantity of roasted Maple; Canary is an obscure unknown that takes time to convince to conclusion - point awarded to roasted Maple


roasted Maple aesthetically blends well with just about any finish color or body woods; Canary requires planning and coordination - point awarded to roasted Maple


forget about any sonic properties since there is not enough Canary in use to form an educated opinion

roasted Maple - the sure and easy upsell

 

[aarontunes]

Tan color, no finish required: is that not what canary already offers? Is there enough difference between the two to offer both, or is Warmoth introducing roasted maple because of demand (and perhaps of the hype)?

all of the roasted Maple I've had thru my shop has been significantly lighter than Canary - point awarded to roasted Maple

customers (think they) know what they are getting with the known quantity of roasted Maple; Canary is an obscure unknown that takes time to convince to conclusion - point awarded to roasted Maple


roasted Maple aesthetically blends well with just about any finish color or body woods; Canary requires planning and coordination - point awarded to roasted Maple


forget about any sonic properties since there is not enough Canary in use to form an educated opinion

roasted Maple - the sure and easy upsell

10 points to Gryffindor.

 

[croquet hoop]

:icon_biggrin:

Thanks for the clarification SkuttleFunk. In any case, more choices are always a good thing, so it's nice to see Warmoth offering caramelized wood as well now.