Wenge vs Bubinga

[e_chord]

Considering Wenge or Bubinga as a neck wood with ebony or macassar ebony fretboard.  Anyone have opinions on either or good example pics?  Thanks!

 

[Cagey]

You can't go wrong either way. Personally, I'd prefer the Ebony over Bubinga, as I'm not a fan of the very open grain Wenge has.

Either way, you'll want to burnish the thing, so check out this thread...

 

[rapfohl09]

I had a Wenge/Wenge neck on a strat not too long ago. Absolutely beautiful neck, and played wonderfully.

I'm pretty sure will probably be doing wenge necks from now on, or at least that will be my new default instead of mahogany. You can never help it when you see something gorgeous or a great deal and just HAVE to get it.

As for the FB, I would do do Macassar. I am in love with the light streaking on a macassar board like most people are with ebony being jet black.

 

[e_chord]

Thanks for the feedback!  I think I'm leaning towards wenge.  I've had a few guitars with ebony fingerboards but I really dig the streaking of macassar.  One of the reasons I want to build a guitar is so it actually looks like its made of wood!

 

[riverbluff]

I have a wenge and a bubinga neck, both with ebony fretboards.  I really like both and it's a coin toss as to which I prefer.  Can't go wrong with either one.  The bubinga neck is on my LP and the wenge is on my VW.

Here are the pics of my finished LP.  Specs are as follows:

Body was from the Showcase Mahogany/Flame maple with Yellow/Red/Black burst.  I really like the ghost binding on the sides.

Neck was a custom order:

24.75 conversion scale
Bubinga/Ebony
59 roundback contour
6105 frets
Corian Nut
Custom Celtic cross inlays and Truss Rod cover (still need to drill holes and monut it during next string change)

Electronics are:
500K pots with .42 resistors
Bare Knuckle Pickups (Miracle Man in Bridge and Mule in Neck

All black hardware with Planet Waves tuners.

I couldn't be happier with the quality of all the parts.  The entire thing went together without a hitch.

It play and sounds amazing.  The Miracle Man pick up has a very aggressive sound at full volume but cleans up very nice whe you roll the volume back.  The Mule has a very warm classic rock sound.  This is very quickly becoming my favorite guitar

Thanks for all the input and help to all the members of the fourm.

V/R

Bill

It is complete.

Maghony/Quilt Maple carved top VW with Contour heel
Wilkenson V100 trem
Wenge/Jet Black Ebony conversion scale neck with side dots only
6105 SS frets
Standard thin contour
Schaller locking tuners
500K pots wired with 2 volume/1 tone with 3 way switch
BareKnuckle Riff Raff calabrated pickup set

Still need to perform final set up, but it plays pretty good as is.  Has a really balanced tone between bridge and neck pickups,  Neck pickup has a really smooth fluid tone when played clean.  Bridge has a classic PAF tone with really good harmonics.

Love the feel of the Wenge neck!

 

[e_chord]

wow, those look great!

 

[DslDwg]

Haven't tried Wenge yet - it's on my list but do have a bubinga on bubinga and I absolutely love this neck. I would do another in this combo in a heartbeat.

 

[Cagey]

That's a sharp fiddle!

I'm envious. Wish they still sold those bodies.

 

[riverbluff]

I'm actually lucky enough to have a second one.  It is a figured Koa flat top.  Still need to put that one together.

 

[Cagey]

I tend to let projects ferment, too <grin>

That carved top is really sharp. Do you get it out much? I'm finding I'm using my prettier guitars so rarely that I wonder why I keep them. One of my brothers has been trying to talk me into making a "display wall", sorta like you see in a higher-end retailer, but I can't get next to the idea. As much as I like guitars and as proud as I am of my collection, I don't want to live in a pseudo guitar store or a museum. On the other hand, what good does it do to have a pile of nice instruments if they're all stashed in cases and hidden away?

 

[riverbluff]

The VW and the LP are my two main ones.  I swap them out every month or so.  The one I rarely play right now is my splated tele.  I also cycle my Gibson LP into the mix about every few months.

Well, here it is...

All that is left to do is perform the final set up. 

Specs are:

Spalted Maple/Alder body finish by Warmoth in Clear Gloss
Pau Ferro/Pau Ferro neck 1 11/16 standard Thin Contour 6105 SS frets
Planet Waves locking tuners
250K pots and .22. cap
BareKnuckle Piledrive pickups in Bridge and Neck.

It sound great.  Very tight driving sound with the gain on the amp cranked up and the volume on the guitar at full, but really has that tele sound when you roll off the volume a bit.  Super clean on the clean channel.

Very happy with the neck so far.  It feels fantastic and it appears to be about perfect with just the bacis set up.  Once the strings went on, it pulled to the correct relief, and there appears to be no dead spots on any of the frets.  The Warmoth installed nut is about as perfect as you can get.  As long as it all stays that way through the rest of the set up.

V/R
Bill

 

[AutoBat]

Here's a nearly in-focus back shot of my wenge/bloodwood neck, (bloodwood is quite similar to ebony (my other neck has an ebony fretboard))

 

[Cagey]

That is one spectacular piece of spalt...

Haven't seen a lot of that lately. For a while there, everybody was building spalted Maple guitars.

 

[Ddbltrbl]

Yo Riverbluff, If your having trouble finding time to play that Tele, you can send over here and I can keep it company!  :toothy12:

Nice collection!  ccasion14:

 

[Vol. Knob]

I can't speak to Wenge necks.  But I have a Bubinga with Ebony fingerboard neck on a P-90 loaded thinline (Mahogany with bubinga top) that I play raw.  It's comfortable, stays in tune, sounds great to my ears.  Looks fantastic, too.  Been using this one since December of 2010, no plans to get rid of it or swap it out. 

From it's beginnings..