Mahogany for a tele guitar neck?

axisus

would it work as a bolt-on tele neck? I don't particularly recall seeing any as aftermarket?

I really fancy building a guitar from scratch, including the neck, and I would like a 'dark wood' neck. As it happens I just found my old mahogany fireplace mantle in the garage, and it looks big enough to use.

I might try it anyway just to see if I can cut the right shape out of it.

rpr

Seem to remember @TTony used a Wormoth one on his tele build.I had always thought that they didn't work with bolt ons  

ICBM

You just have to be careful not to strip the neck screw holes - mahogany is a lot softer than maple. Ideally you need screws with a deeper threading and use a slightly smaller pilot hole.

TTony

rpr said:

Seem to remember @TTony used a Wormoth one on his tele build

That was a Rosewood one.  Which was yummy yum, but silly pricey too!

One option would be to use the screw-in inserts in the heel of the neck, and then use real bolts (rather than screws) through the body.  Then you can screw in/out as many times as you like without weakening the normal screw holes in the heel.

 

This sort of thing ...

axisus

TTony said:

rpr said:

Seem to remember @TTony used a Wormoth one on his tele build

That was a Rosewood one.  Which was yummy yum, but silly pricey too!

One option would be to use the screw-in inserts in the heel of the neck, and then use real bolts (rather than screws) through the body.  Then you can screw in/out as many times as you like without weakening the normal screw holes in the heel.

 

This sort of thing ...

Interesting idea, I may go for that.

ICBM

I don't like them really. They add another unnecessary interface and aren't any stronger than using the right sort of screws directly into the wood. The only benefit they have is if you do want to take the neck on and off repeatedly, like for a travel guitar. If you must use them, get brass not zinc alloy - it's stronger and less prone to wear - and epoxy them in.

ChrisMusic

Hey Axius, just following on from TTony's comments, take a look at Roman Guitars page on "DIrect Coupling" and see what you think.

http://www.edroman.com/techarticles/directcoup.htm

Main tech articles index:

http://www.edroman.com/techarticles.htm

Take some time and explore the site, I think you will enjoy the experience, lots of useful and some intriguing information on there.

May even stimulate some new ideas or projects (as if you needed that)  

ICBM

Ed Roman

)

WezV

Indeed.   please don't take anything you read on Ed Roman's site seriously. 

ChrisMusic

That smilie / laughie thing worries me ICBM, what could it mean? please put me out of my incipient misery.

edit:  OK explained by WezV, thanks.   But why? Some of it seems to make sense to me, but maybe that's not saying much.

ThePrettyDamned

ChrisMusic;44197" said:

That smilie / laughie thing worries me ICBM, what could it mean? please put me out of my incipient misery.

edit:  OK explained by WezV, thanks.   But why? Some of it seems to make sense to me, but maybe that's not saying much.

Ed roman was... Well, he was a salesman. Very opinionated and... Gawd, so annoying. He makes good points sometimes, like how a bolt on isn't inferior to a set or thru neck, but he doesn't often support his arguments with real facts. He was also quite racist (really), and even went as far as saying it's better to pay more for an inferior American product than to buy a high class Japanese instrument. Er... What? Japan is part of the western economy in a huge way, but he seems to lump them with China and Korea as being inferior in quality and just expensive (and there are arguments against this, but we won't go there...).

His own guitars built to order were often late, overpriced by the time they finished and varied greatly in quality. He would even refuse service if he didn't think you would spend enough.

What else was there...?

Oh, he would completely slate any modern guitar not built by him because they were always better in the old days. Always. Again, he might make the odd good point (prs neck heels are not the same, but access is still great and they churn out a lot more of them!) but then he'd ruin it by throwing the rest of his thoughts into it.

And at every opportunity, he seemed to be throwing in "my mate *insert legendary guitarist here*...".

Basically, take everything he says with a dead sea full of salt.

ThePrettyDamned

As far as the neck thing goes, wudtone do screws and a neckplate that are basically bigger, so might be a bit more suitable for mahogany.

ChrisMusic

Hey @ThePrettyDamned, wisdom definitely earned, thanks for that.  I do get it now.

My Mrs always says men don't take the hint and get subtlties, (what can she mean?)

but that smilie / laughie thing spooked me.

I will read through the "snake oil", bad attitude, etc on the site.

TBH I am always sceptical and questioning anyway.

Thanks for the explanation.

ThePrettyDamned

No worries. It's worth reading, because some of what he says is true, and worth listening to. But he'll say how incredibly flawed designs like the les paul are, when it clearly isn't. Feline guitars have improved the neck heel on it, but that's a... Modification. The design was spot on first time!

He was (I believe he has passed away?) an interesting character. They also stock some really unusual, rare guitars so it's fine to drool just don't take his "knowledge" as gospel

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

What else was there...?

He also got sued by Ernie Ball/Musicman for selling (if I remember correctly) "upgraded" OLP licensed copies of MusicMan John Petrucci guitars as the real deal or mixing and matching parts in some way (I don't remember the exact detail), and had to publicly apologise in print to EBMM and Petrucci, and refund the customers.

As ThePrettyDamned said, he did occasionally make good points or at least raise things to think about... but by and large he was one of the most "colourful" characters in the guitar world, with all that goes with it. I would certainly never take anything he said at face value without checking with another source.

ChrisMusic

Thanks guys, guess that applies to many things in life...

"I would certainly never take anything he said at face value without checking with another source." - ICBM

FX_Munkee

Manchester Guitar Tech has the inserts in Stainless as another option:-
http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/neck-fixing-screws-inserts/
TBH I'd be tempted to use them on a mahogany neck they've got to be stronger than ordinary screws IMHO simply due to surface contact area (massive difference in diameter).

ICBM

FX_Munkee said:

Manchester Guitar Tech has the inserts in Stainless as another option:-
http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/neck-fixing-screws-inserts/
TBH I'd be tempted to use them on a mahogany neck they've got to be stronger than ordinary screws IMHO simply due to surface contact area (massive difference in diameter).

They're very short though. What you gain in diameter you lose more of in depth, and depth is more important when you want to stop threads tearing out.

I honestly think these are all a solution in search of a problem, the correct solution of which is to use nice deep-threaded wood screws and not try to over-think it.