Tonal Difference between 3A Birds Eye Maple and normal Birds Eye Maple???

[earlus]

Hi Guys,

Is there any tonal difference between 3A Birds Eye Maple and normal Birds Eye Maple from Warmoth??? A luthier told me a while back when choosing a neck make sure to get 3A Birds Eye Maple as it's not just a cosmetic thing and it will be much harder wood.. Any truth in this guys or is this just not true?

 

[Kostas]

Any piece of wood will have a tonal difference from any other piece of wood, even if they are from the same tree and even if we can't hear these details.
This applies for bodies & necks & fretboards. Everyhting affects sound, if we can hear it or not that's another thing.

As far as I know the more extreme birds or flame maple necks are, the more unstable they are considered by some luthiers. Warmoth is manufacturing parts for over 30 years, I think they know what type of wood to pick so you are safe whatever you want to order. I know I never had any problem with stability, all my necks are perfect and all except one are vintage modern. Even the vintage truss rod they use works great.

 

[tfarny]

I doubt that whoever told you that is actually a "luthier" which means a person who crafts guitars by hand from pieces of wood. You do not need to buy 3a birds eye maple to get a harder neck.

 

[Cagey]

Any piece of wood will have a tonal difference from any other piece of wood, even if they are from the same tree and even if we can't hear these details.
This applies for bodies & necks & fretboards. Everyhting affects sound, if we can hear it or not that's another thing.

All true, but more for acoustics than electrics.

As far as I know the more extreme birds or flame maple necks are, the more unstable they are considered by some luthiers. Warmoth is manufacturing parts for over 30 years, I think they know what type of wood to pick so you are safe whatever you want to order. I know I never had any problem with stability, all my necks are perfect and all except one are vintage modern. Even the vintage truss rod they use works great.

I'm with tfarny on this one. I've been woodworking for a lotta years and have yet to see any difference in stability between heavily figured woods and those that are not so well-endowed. There are differences in how it works, though. You're much more likely to get tearout from a highly figured piece than one that's more straight-grained. But, that doesn't affect the end result. It just affects how much cussing you do when you're building, as you may have to waste some pieces and re-do the work to get good pieces. But, that's just shrinkage, or yield. Apart from short supply, it's one of the reasons the best-looking stuff is so expensive.

 

[jackthehack]

None.

 

[Alfang]

If you cut down a tree today, and cut a neck out of it tomorrow, it's gonna turn into a pretzel real quick.

If you cut down that tree and saw it into slabs, and let it cure or dry in a controlled environment, then cut that into boards and let it settle for a while, then finally into a rough neck shape and let that settle for a bit, then cut it and sand it into a finnished neck, you'le probably never have problems.

I have a sneaking suspician that Warmoth has a ton of quality controll before any parts get cut out

 

[mayfly]

I'm with tfarny on this one. I've been woodworking for a lotta years and have yet to see any difference in stability between heavily figured woods and those that are not so well-endowed.

Just adding to this a little.  I have a violinist in my band these days and it's getting me into all things stringed instrument.  Here's the skinny on figured neck wood in that world:

1: it's very desirable to have a high degree of figuring on maple necks on all stringed instruments, from piccolo violin to double bass.
2: orchestral stringed instrument necks have NO finish on them  :icon_scratch: :dontknow:.  Apparently this is tradition. Or something. But there is NO finish on the necks.
3: there are no truss rods in these necks
4: some of these suckers are under incredible tension
5: a good (really good) instrument in this world is expected to last hundreds of years.

So - in the super snooty world of orchestral stringed instruments a highly figured piece of maple, used as a neck in a high tension environment, with NO freaking finish and no truss rod is expected to (and actually does) stay stable for hundreds of years.  Oh - and no one talks about different tonality brought about from neck wood figuring.  They go on and on about graduated tops, bass bars, bridge material and fitting, and many elements of what goes on in the bow - but figuring of the neck wood does not even get mentioned with respect to tone.  They just think it looks pretty.

So stop worrying and just get that figured neck.  Just pick the one that's prettiest and you'll be fine.

 

[Stratman44]

I doubt that whoever told you that is actually a "luthier" which means a person who crafts guitars by hand from pieces of wood. You do not need to buy 3a birds eye maple to get a harder neck.

exactly

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Does anyone ever want to go off the deep end about how much these things effect tone and such, citing absurd references and questionable logic?  I can't help but want to make up historical luthiers of unimaginable esteem to refer to as if everyone was supposed to know that they existed, and took their fabricated words to be the gospel truth.

For the person that started this thread, I mean no disrespect.  It really won't make a difference more than the variation between the trees you get the lumber from.  But, I do want to let the absurdity beast free and see what happens. . .
Patrick

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Standing on the sidewalk outside of my favorite live music venue, I'm hardpressed to find any tonal differences of anything of consequence, let alone make guesses at how figured their necks are. Mostly joking, but you get the point.  The further away you get from your living room and internet forums, the less these differences matter.  Case in point, P-Basses, J-Basses, and EBMM Stingrays should all sound the same if you only look at the wood the bodies and necks are made out of.  Good thing they have pickups.

 

[Cagey]

Does anyone ever want to go off the deep end about how much these things effect tone and such, siting absurd references and questionable logic?  I can't help but want to make up historical luthiers of unimaginable esteem to refer to as if everyone was supposed to know that they existed, and took their fabricated words to be the gospel truth.

Yeah, I do. But, I try to keep it to a minimum because when we're talking guitar dogma, we're generally talking about beliefs, not facts. Most of them come from the acoustic world, and have little or no bearing in the electric world.