Are multi-wood necks more prone to warping?

I disagree with your colleague. A properly built multilaminate neck has more stability than a single-piece neck. Laminating a neck from strips of the same wood or from different wood species works the same way, both methods enhance stability. Maple, walnut and padauk should be a good combination.

For this I assume that all parts of the neck are properly dried and the laminating pattern is symmetric. That includes both the species pattern (ABABA) and the wood grain with every other piece flipped, for example ||//||\\|| or //\\||//\\ if you look at the end grain. If there is one strip that wants to bend upwards, there is a corresponding strip that wants to bend downwards. The neck as a whole stays straight.

 

AFAIK, multi-wood necks have improved stability which is the main idea.

 

The exact opposite: a well built multi-lam neck is likely to be more stable than a single piece for the same reason plywood is more stable than solid wood, the plys can be arranged with opposing grain to counteract movement, and the increased glue surface area is much stronger than the wood itself. Any single piece neck is a crap shoot, might be stable, might not. I'm guessing your colleague has never actually built a bass?

 

I’d agree with the above. Any piece(es) of wood can have hidden issues and attempt to do an imitation of a pretzel but if the wood is dried well, selected and oriented properly you’ll have a better chance of getting a good, stable neck out of a laminated billet.

 

A solid maple neck is the least stable and stiff construction. Maple isn’t the best material / species for structural strength in my opinion. Compared to wenge or purple heart…it’s really not the stiff at all. It’s why you see a lot of carbon rods in maple necks. A multi laminate maple neck will be a lot stiffer than a solid billet, but to really stiffen it, put some purple heart in there!

 

You are correct any carpentry apprentice will tell you glue two pieces of wood together so that the tendency to warp is opposing in each piece. This is how you make the newell post on an oak staircase!

 

Like the other guys have said, multi-laminate necks are not more likely to warp or be unstable than one-piece necks. If the other things are done correctly, they will be more stable.

Quick summary:

There are four things that you must do to make a neck stable. Plus one bonus thing. And that includes both long term stability (permanent warpage) and short term stability (moving with the weather).

• Select boards that don't have internal stresses
• Dry the board evenly down to a moisture level to fit your working conditions
• Align the neck on the board so that the grain lines go straight down the neck and the rings are concave up, symmetrical side-to-side.
• After the neck is made, it must be completely sealed up against moisture with some kind of penetrating finish. All over, every corner.

The bonus feature is multi-laminate construction. If you build the neck as laminated strips, and pay close attention to the alignment of the grain and rings on all the strips, it will be more stable. Any tendencies to move will be countered by the other strips.

But.....Multi-lam construction doesn't allow you to cheat on the other four basic things. If you use a bad board, don't dry it properly, or get the grain and ring alignment wrong, then a fancy multi-lam neck will warp too.

And the same is true with using quarter-sawn wood and adding carbon fiber bars or other stiffeners. They will help improve the stability if you do the four fundamentals right. If you cheat on the fundamentals, they won't do enough to stop it from warping.

If you want to dig further into all this, here's a classic thread all about grain and ring alignment in bass necks:

About That Quartersawn Maple.....

 

Phil Kubicki ( RIP damn it ) pretty much pushed the laminate neck thing to the max, with legendary success.

Check out a butcher block table top - nuff said.

 

I played multi-piece laminated necks for years, Yamahas with maple/mahogany/maple/mahogany/maple with an ebony fingerboard, and the Alembics with maple with three 1/4" purpleheart strips between the maple plies, with Alembic's standard 1/4" ebony fingerboard on top. Movement was minimal, and one of the Alembics (the older of the two, an '86), I'd check once a year with the feeler gages out of curiosity, and it never moved. Eerie.

With a tip of the hat to Bruce's tips above, and I'm sure Yamaha and Alembic observed them and then some, IF done right, my experience is that they are exceptionally stable.

 

It's true as long as you are only playing "hard rock". You can't use it for Country, Jazz, Polka, Or Klezmer.

 

In general, laminated necks should be more stable, not less. Of course, that's not counting balsa

 

I could be remembering this incorrectly… in the 90s, G&L instruments had quarter sawn maple necks by default (probably still do), and the boards were cut down the middle and glued for additional stability. I assumed this was to relieve internal stresses, and to give the neck a neutral centerline.

Edit: I can’t find evidence of this, so likely I’m wrong. I had a Climax and an L-2000 in the 90s. Unfortunately I don’t have either to inspect today…

 

Are multi-wood necks more prone to warping?

 

And his claim was based on?

 

It doesn't really matter how many different woods are in the neck. Being multiple pieces is the main benefactor of increased stability.

 

Saying a multi-laminated neck is more prone to warpage, is like saying plywood has less strength and stability than an equivalent size piece of wood.