Nice weather for necks?

Islandape

I have two nice electrics, a Suhr and a 335.  I've not had the latter very long but I've noticed that it doesn't have the tuning stability of the Suhr - or even my cheapo Hofner shorty when we have hot weather.

Given the Gibson has locking tuners and the Hofner's are about as cheap as they come, I can't see why the Shorty seems to hold it's tuning quite well whereas the Gibson tends to have gone sharp when I pick it up the next evening.  The Suhr incidentally is amazingly stable and maybe it spoiled me.

I can think of two possibilities, either the Gibson needs a good setup or maple necks are naturally more stable than mahogany.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

WezV

Islandape said:

 maple necks are naturally more stable than mahogany.

this

TTony

WezV said:

Islandape said:

 maple necks are naturally more stable than mahogany.

this

Presumably because maple is harder/denser and therefore less susceptible to changes in temperature/humidity?

Islandape

Thanks Wez
:-bd

meltedbuzzbox

I thought mahogany had a higher density than maple? 

My mahogany necked Godin is super stable, I can leave it for a week+ and it will still be in tune.

jaygtr

My les Paul stays in tune well, as does my danelectro whereas I don't bother playing my tele without a tweak as a know it won't be in tune when I pick it up.

WezV

maple is almost always denser than mahogany.  obviously wood varies, and mahogany varies a hell of a lot.

maple will be fairly stable no matter how its cut whereas mahogany is only really suitable as a guitar neck material when quartersawn, a high percentage of mahogany is completely unsuitable for necks

there are quite a few variables in this but the most quoted is janka hardness.  certainly tells us something about density but not really stiffness - but that is massively affected by the way the wood is cut

Janka hardness:

WezV

oh, and lets not forget the actual neck dimensions either.    you would be a bit daft to try and get a super thin neck out of mahogany (well, you could do it with carbon fibre reinforcement)    

fyi when I talk about mahogany I am referring to the traditional south american varieties.   but mahogany is a generic term.  it includes things like sapelle which is a stiffer wood  and more easy to find straight grained quartersawn planks so it makes it more suitable for necks