Oak bass neck.

[Lizooki]

Please provide a source for this assertion.

My research has turned up that allergic reactions to oak are rare; are of moderate severity; and are generally caused by fungal matter in the bark, not by the wood. I have never found a mention of toxins in oak. It does not appear to be a species that self-protects by producing toxins, as many tropical species do.

I don't have an allergy problem with oak, but i do with oak dust. I have to wear a make when sanding or I end up with a migraine the next day.

Just like some are allergic to nuts and some aren't ... wood will be the same way.

Matt

 

[Beej]

It seems to me that the only reason that Oak isn't used for instruments is the difficulty in the woodworking (which is simply laziness if you ask me) and the fact that the grain is quite open and doesn't respond to a heavy finish. Now I have to get a custom bass with an oak top with a dark stain, just so I get the uniqueness vote.

I actually find oak very easy to work with, and my own guess would be that it's not terribly commonly used because it is so commonly used in furniture and woodworking that's it's almost passe when it comes to guitars. I agree with it's use in guitars though, it can be a stunningly beautiful wood...

 

[Chaddycakes]

I actually find oak very easy to work with, and my own guess would be that it's not terribly commonly used because it is so commonly used in furniture and woodworking that's it's almost passe when it comes to guitars. I agree with it's use in guitars though, it can be a stunningly beautiful wood...

Good reasoning, but maybe that isn't a very good argument for makers anymore with so many expensive exotic woods being asked for and this beautiful, potentially tone-inspiring wood is growing all around us. Lets make more American guitars.

 

[groooooove]

i'm bumping this old thread,

i had an instrument that needed a new neck due to a broken truss rod.

the new neck is 3 pieces of oak. it's utterly spectacular. the old neck was one piece of purpleheart. i like the oak more (though the PH looked a lot nicer!)

the only negative i could ever say about the oak is that it does look pedestrian comared to something like wenge, purpleheart, or any other of our favorite exotic neck woods. i think there is something to the arguement that wood floors, tables, ext are made of oak.

the oak has proven itself to be highly stable, it feels good, and i can definitely feel it resonanting when i play the instrument unplugged.

this neck was made by a seasoned master luthier, so the workmanship and wood selection are on a high level. nonetheless, i see no reason why oak shouldn't be used as much or more than maple.

 

[buldog5151bass]

I also think that part of the reason maple is such a popular neck wood is that because it is not a coarse grained wood, such as ash or oak, it makes for a smoother neck, without tons of finish.

 

[kodiakblair]

Glad I used the search button

Last few weeks I been tripping over 5 length of oak lying up the stairwell. 9ft long and 4.5" x 1". Just the other night I thought about building a bass
with it,use up the 30" length on Wenge I got for a fingerboard too.

You folks got me convinced I ain't crazy.

 

[Will_White]

I was just looking at this thread earlier today, I'm planning on doing an oak neck and ebonizing it, i might try doing a ceruse finish like this:

I'll have to try it out on some scrap.

 

[yoshi]

Check out @SamanthaCay 's Oak necked and fretboarded build: 0 some kind of bass.

 

[kodiakblair]

Samantha's build diary is fantastic. Thanks for the link.

 

[SamanthaCay]

This is a neat thread thanks for the tag yoshi!
One thought in this topic is that people tend to generalize all oak as being very much alike however there can be massive differences from piece to piece.
It's also sold in massive quantities and depending on where you live/get it from may or may not be very dry/stable. (I think old broken furniture is a great place to fine stable pieces)
I saw a kitchen table the other day with a super flamey piece among it's laminates unfortunately I wasn't allowed to free it from it's table entrapment, I felt bad for it cause I am truly weird lol

 

[kodiakblair]

The Oak I have was destined as rails for schoolkids coats. With me in Scotland I imagine it's English oak,most of our oak trees were felled 500 year back

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I've built a good bit of furniture from quartersawn white oak, and it's bloody hard and heavy! I often wondered why it isn't used more for instruments. The weight might be an issue if it isn't balanced well against the body. White oak is considered to be more stable than red oak, as it has a closed pore structure that doesn't absorb water as easily, that's why white oak was used for barrels and casks, water will weep right through a red oak board. In either case, i'd use quartersawn lumber, maybe multiple plys with alternating grain. Don't touch it with steel wool unless you want black rust flecks showing up later (ask how I know this!). You can actually make an ebonizing stain out of steel wool if you want to go that route. Exposure to anhydrous ammonia fumes will turn it a deep chocolate brown, but that stuff is nasty and toxic. It's so hard you can polish it to an almost glass-like finish, but it will always have that open grain with big pores showing, so it has to be grain filled for painted finishes.

 

[kodiakblair]

Cheers G.I.G.

It's white oak I got here. The steel wool and rust I've known about for years. Saw a guy do a mahogany tabletop, sand then coat with plaster of paris,sand again and paint
with old rusty water. Plaster seeped into the grain and rust reacted with the tannin in the mahogany to turn black. Striking effect.

The old painters at work would collect rust flakes from the cast iron down pipes.

Glad you mentioned the alternate grain as I was thinking that way myself.