How much of a difference does quartersawn really make?

[Fender32]

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Thanks, that one makes more sense to me .

 

[GlennW]

By what metric?

I read that in a book about making guitars by Melvin Hiscock. I figured he knew what he was talking about. The was in the pre-www days when info was more reliable.

 

[GlennW]

I'd also add that quartersawn and flatsawn only apply to how the grain orients to the finished product and it's not a type of wood. For example if you take a flatsawn board and spit it and and glue the faces together you can make a quartersawn neck.

That's a good point. I've read about people having the grain go like

ll=ll (you get the idea)

so the outside two resist bending one way and the middle one resists bending the other way.

 

[BobXboB]

I read that in a book about making guitars by Melvin Hiscock. I figured he knew what he was talking about. The was in the pre-www days when info was more reliable.

I love that book, built my first basses from it. Funny story about the left handed guitar, I was at NAMM chatting with Pete Stevens and Roger Giffen (pardon the name dropping) and they told me he wanted to make a right handed guitar but put a template on the wrong side and had to make a lefty

 

[BobXboB]

That's a good point. I've read about people having the grain go like

ll=ll (you get the idea)

so the outside two resist bending one way and the middle one resists bending the other way.

I don't know if I'd do that since the mixed orientation would have swelling and shrinkage not as synchronized as it could be. Though I do have a bass with a 1/2" flatsawn walnut in between quartered maple and it seems ok, I wouldn't recommend it.

I do like the concept of bookmatching necks, in theory if the board had a tendency to bow up at the 12th fret bookmatching the board should split that tendency into half bowing left and half bowing right. But then if the boards tendency was to bow left after bookmatching it would be one side up and the other down making it twist. So much for that theory

 

[GlennW]

I don't know if I'd do that since the mixed orientation would have swelling and shrinkage not as synchronized as it could be. Though I do have a bass with a 1/2" flatsawn walnut in between quartered maple and it seems ok, I wouldn't recommend it.

I do like the concept of bookmatching necks, in theory if the board had a tendency to bow up at the 12th fret bookmatching the board should split that tendency into half bowing left and half bowing right. But then if the boards tendency was to bow left after bookmatching it would be one side up and the other down making it twist. So much for that theory

I wouldn't do it either. I was hoping the fretboard would discourage any sideways bending; so far so good. Plus, by the time you profile the back you loose a lot of wood and strength, and if you had the middle piece sideways the TR channel would weaken that as well. It took me about a week to make that neck in my spare time. The TR channel was routed with a round bottom and on an arch. I just used a 3/8" straight face bit for the nut slot at the heel.

That jig Melvin made for Fender necks is major project in itself.