stability of wenge/maple/ebony

noam · #1 11-29-2007, 10:06 PM

Hi Everyone,

I'm planning to have a Warmoth neck made, and am wondering about wood choices and stability: would an all wenge neck (neck woods plus wenge fingerboard) be significantly more stable than a wenge neck with an ebony board? Similarly, I'm wondering about a maple neck with ebony board... more or less stable than a wenge/ebony neck? I realize that it may depend quite a bit on the particular pieces of wood, rather than the types, but a general opinion would be appreciated.

BTW, it's for a gecko 6 string fretless -- I know ebony might be the 1st choice for hardness, but I'd be willing to forgo some hardness for the sake of stability.

Thanks

Noam

Jonsbasses · #2 11-29-2007, 10:50 PM

All 3 of those woods are extremely stable. The only unstable wood I have worked with is Zebrawood, it seems to change quite a bit over time. That's about the only neck wood I would stay away from from personal experience. Wenge is an excellent neck choice.

Yellow · #3 11-29-2007, 11:51 PM

Also remember that any wood is going to be as stable as it is sealed and finished. Also grain orientation is good thing to keep in mind for laminations. You probably know all this, just a thought. I would opt for a quartersawn neck and fingerboard for max stability. I think those guys charge a bit more for qs options. and vice versa if you like plainsawn neck get a plainsawn fingerboard too so that whatever orientation is it is the same and wood would move in the same direction even though it may move at a different rate thats minor.

waseok · #4 11-30-2007, 06:01 AM

I would go for wenge neck with ebony fretboard.... oil finished wenge neck plays like dream!

Mon Rominee · #5 11-30-2007, 06:46 AM

I play wenge raw. no problems, most stable neck I've ever played. And it has an ebony board.

noam · #6 11-30-2007, 08:58 AM

Thanks for the insights. I'd wondered about unstable ebony, but perhaps I should just give it a try.

PaleMelanesian · #7 11-30-2007, 09:34 AM

Any time you have two different materials together, like a neck and fretboard, you will get some degree of shifting. They expand and contract at different rates. I find that ebony changes more than maple, mahogany, rosewood, wenge... It's not UN-stable, just a bit less than the others. It'll work just fine, but wenge/wenge would be more seasonally stable.