Wood Combo - Mahogany Body/Quartersawn Maple Neck

[Jestremera1]

I've always been a big fan of The Music Zoo's Natural Series Charvels and decided to build my own from Warmoth parts. I ordered the parts but have since found that there are reservations about using quartersawn maple necks with mahogany bodies. Can you guys chime in with your thoughts on this combo, whether based on experience or otherwise?

I'm happy to join the Warmoth family, BTW. It's been a long time coming.

 

[Strat Avenger]

'Nothing wrong with it at all.

 

[CrazyGrain]

I've always been a big fan of The Music Zoo's Natural Series Charvels and decided to build my own from Warmoth parts. I ordered the parts but have since found that there are reservations about using quartersawn maple necks with mahogany bodies. Can you guys chime in with your thoughts on this combo, whether based on experience or otherwise?

I'm happy to join the Warmoth family, BTW. It's been a long time coming.

Shh, quiet, don't let the secret out! Keep letting those guys shell out $2000+ for a mahog/maple strat. Lol, seriously though, I just put together a "War Dimas". I got some used parts from a couple of different places...about $600 total, one of the best guitars I've ever had. I'd put it up against any guitar in the $2000 range. Not to mention, with Warmoth you get to pick your own specs...that would probably push the Charvel up closer to $3000 if you had to do a custom shop build. For example, I went with a TOM bridge (no tail piece though). Not even sure if Charvel would do something like that these days...although I did see a 90's custom shop model with a TOM bridge not too long ago on ebay. Too bad it had the shitty 90's headstock shape.

What have you read about qs maple with mahogany? I know people love to debate things like quartersawn vs. flatsawn, etc. I think it's probably more hype or opinion. I just like the way quartersawn maple looks most of the time. Charvel has used it for ages as has Ibanez (yeah, they usually use basswood bodies but they have had plenty of mahogany bodied guitars over the years).

 

[Jestremera1]

CrazyGrain,

This is just between us. LOL

After all is said and done, the cost will be in the $900 range for my "Warvel". I was quoted $2160 for a Music Zoo Natural Series Charvel 2-H/Floyd Rose model with the same wood combo...with an 18-month lead time, to boot. My only concern is the neck profile. I got a thin C profile on my neck. I hope that's close the famous Charvel neck. Generally speaking, though, Charvel's custom shop shop stuff starts at about $3000. I'm guessing The Music Zoo has a special deal with them. They are barebones guitars after all

You're right about options. I was able to use the bridge I really wanted (Gotoh 510T-FE1) along with the 24.75" scale.

On other forums, there are threads about how the two woods cancel out certain frequencies and just don't "sound right" together. From what I've heard, mahogany and maple sound pretty killer together.  :headbang:

 

[Strat Avenger]

CrazyGrain,

This is just between us. LOL

After all is said and done, the cost will be in the $900 range for my "Warvel". I was quoted $2160 for a Music Zoo Natural Series Charvel 2-H/Floyd Rose model with the same wood combo...with an 18-month lead time, to boot. My only concern is the neck profile. I got a thin C profile on my neck. I hope that's close the famous Charvel neck. Generally speaking, though, Charvel's custom shop shop stuff starts at about $3000. I'm guessing The Music Zoo has a special deal with them. They are barebones guitars after all

You're right about options. I was able to use the bridge I really wanted (Gotoh 510T-FE1) along with the 24.75" scale.

On other forums, there are threads about how the two woods cancel out certain frequencies and just don't "sound right" together. From what I've heard, mahogany and maple sound pretty killer together.  :headbang:

Yeah, what a load of crap. The pickups don't know the difference, and some Norlin-era Gibson Les Pauls had maple necks on mahogany bodies and sound real good.

 

[DavyDave53]

The 2014 SGJ has a Mahogany body and Maple neck.  What were the guys at Gibson thinking?

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2014/SGJ.aspx

 

[Cagey]

The 2014 SGJ has a Mahogany body and Maple neck.  What were the guys at Gibson thinking?

I'm not sure even the guys at Gibson know what they're thinking. They seem bound and determined to provide the least product for the most money possible. I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for 90% of what they turn out these days. I bought a Melody Maker from them a year or so ago, and had to dump a lotta money into it just to make it playable. I'd still feel somewhat guilty selling it. Says "Gibson" on the headstock, so I know I could get a few bucks for it, but it really is a piece of crap.

 

[Jestremera1]

Good stuff, DavyDave53. I actually like that SGJ.

Cagey, sorry to hear about your troubles with the Melody Maker. Gibson is definitely hit or miss. I love Les Pauls; their tone and looks but it's tough to find a brand new one that's truly playable, IMO. The best ones are untouchable from a price perspective, it seems.

I'm petty confident my future axe will be awesome. Thanks guys.

 

[stubhead]

Some people on some forums? I hate to use the too-old cliches, but these guys are at least the spiritual heirs to the 34-year-old chubby guy, coke-bottle glasses, playing "Dungeons & Dragons" in mommy's basement. We fuss and snark some here, but: just about everyone on this place has put together their own guitars, in some cases a few are past the 25 count and closing in on...100? So there's a filter here, peeling off a goodly percentage of the netbots who're endlessly "learning" stuff off of one forum and repeating it on another. As scientists are closing in on true "artificial intelligence", the internet got here just in time to provide the counter-balance - "artificial stupidity."

The reason those two woods are used so readily for guitars is because they DON'T "cancel frequencies." I understand what they're trying to say - they had borrowed/bought/stole a guitar with a maple neck & mahogany body, plugged it into their 1982 Peavey Backstage 10, hit a few chords and said "This sounds like crap!" And they were surely correct - but we need the control group, i.e. THEM playing a mahogany/mahogany Les Paul Jr., a maple/swamp ash Stratocaster... I will bet you seven 5/32" locknuts that "That sounds like crap!" and, respectively, "That sounds like crap too!" And then we must isolate the independent variables, i.e. "Everything that guy touches sounds like crap!" Hmmm.

Maybe he needs a new guitar pick! Oh Yeah, Baby, there we go.... :toothy12:

 

[MikeW]

I got a thin C profile on my neck. I hope that's close the famous Charvel neck.

The Warmoth Standard Thin is closer to the Fender C shape that you find on the American Strat series. I have an '87 Charvel Model 2 and have played many of the newer, modern Charvel San Dimas series guitars. The Wizard shape that W offers, if you get it in the 1 11/16ths width, is almost exactly the shape of those necks.

 

[Great Ape]

"Issues" with mahogany bdy/Qtr sawn maple necks? Sounds like a young-wives-tale...pay no attention, build your guitar, play it, love it--Do NOT worry! :icon_thumright: 

 

[Cagey]

What Mr. Hominidae said.

If it was a Mahogany neck on a Maple body, we'd probably have concerns. But, the body has a lot less influence on the tonal character of a guitar than the neck does, so the neck is the thing you have to be careful about. A Maple neck is going to be somewhat "bright", meaning it will absorb less vibration than some other species (such as Mahogany) will.

You have to understand that tonal character is all about absorption. Contrary to popular belief, you don't want a wood that's "resonant". That just means it's absorbing the vibrations of the strings in certain ranges. That's NFG. You want the strings to vibrate freely across the range they're tuned to for as long as possible. If there's too much of some frequencies, you can always filter them out later either with the guitar's own tone control, or any of a dozen places after that. SFX, amp, mixing board, etc.

Finally, the pickups are the thing. Wood? Fuhgeddaboudit. You can change an electric guitar into a whole new thing just by changing pickups. They don't listen to the guitar, they respond to the strings. So, use a stiff neck, and the world is your oyster.

 

[LushTone]

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=21877.0

Here's mine and I love it. Though the mahogany body is chambered with a quilt lam top. I chose a quartersawn maple neck because the idea of having a straight grain always made more sense structurally. Also, maple is smoother with the 'raw' oil finish I went with, as well as harder/more durable. As far as tone goes, mine is outstanding. But, just about everything else on my guitar is probably different from what your Charvel target will be. I'd say go for the quartersawn maple. It's the tits.

:headbang:

 

[greywolf]

It's a wonderful combo , I've built a few

 

[Jumble Jumble]

They seem bound and determined to provide the least product for the most money possible.

That kinda sounds like "business" to me, with the most egregious abuses being dealt with by simply letting the majestic open market have its say. It just works!

Sarcasm aside, I'm sure if you or I could sell those guitars, for that money, we would. The only reason not to do so, when you could, would be charity. Equally I'm sure W charges the highest price they think they can - the sweet spot between maximum profit and minimum off-putting-ness.

 

[Jestremera1]

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=21877.0

Here's mine and I love it. Though the mahogany body is chambered with a quilt lam top. I chose a quartersawn maple neck because the idea of having a straight grain always made more sense structurally. Also, maple is smoother with the 'raw' oil finish I went with, as well as harder/more durable. As far as tone goes, mine is outstanding. But, just about everything else on my guitar is probably different from what your Charvel target will be. I'd say go for the quartersawn maple. It's the tits.

:headbang:

Stunning guitar. Congrats!

 

[LushTone]

Thanks! ccasion14:

 

[john_p_wi]

I got a thin C profile on my neck. I hope that's close the famous Charvel neck.

The Warmoth Standard Thin is closer to the Fender C shape that you find on the American Strat series. I have an '87 Charvel Model 2 and have played many of the newer, modern Charvel San Dimas series guitars. The Wizard shape that W offers, if you get it in the 1 11/16ths width, is almost exactly the shape of those necks.

I have a real American San Dimas from '82 or '83 (I bought new back then) that has the most amazing neck profile and birdseye maple.  I hardly play it anymore due to the amount of wear on it and have been doing a large amount of "profile research" to recreate it using a Warmoth neck. 

The standard thin from Warmoth does indeed have the same back profile as the Charvel neck that I have and thickness wise the Charvel neck is halfway between the Wizard and Thin. 

The major differences are: 1) the Charvel has the entire fret board / neck shoulder rounded, not just the fret board edge "rolled" giving it a oval shape and 2) the heel of the neck where it joins the body is a parabolic shape (think of cutting off the dove tail joint on a les paul neck).  The Charvel neck is 1.7 in at the nut, with the fret board edges radiused (not rolled) the actual fret board width is around 1.65 in with the outer edge distance of the E string to E string measuring 1.45 in.  Finally, the Charvel is not compound radiused, but very flat (I have not measured) but I'm guessing 16" or more (I'll try to measure next weekend).

 

[Jestremera1]

Thanks, john_p_wi

That's a ton of good info. I love the old Charvel necks. I had a Music Zoo Natural Series HH that I loved but had to sell, unfortunately. My next build will have a Wizard profile. Dimension-wise, I think I can live with the thin for now. I just bought a Model 2 and it's on its way home. Should be fun playing the two new babies.

 

[john_p_wi]

Measured the '82 or '83 neck, mentioned above, and it is a straight 16" radius over the length.