Only roasted maple in the future?

[dlmarquez]

My gravel bike..... gonna replace the aluminum frame with a roasted maple frame.
View attachment 7225897

don’t know about a roasted Maple frame, but Craig Calfee in NorCal can build you a spectacular Bamboo frame!

 

[Ric Vice]

Theirs this funny thing about wooden bass necks, if you leave it out in the air in about 25 years the become “naturally roasted.

 

[JimiLL]

Roasted maple board with non roasted flame maple inlays and markers

 

[logdrum]

My gravel bike..... gonna replace the aluminum frame with a roasted maple frame.
View attachment 7225897

He @matthewbrown has a point though.
Not fast enough for the road or randonees, can't do gnarly things, rock gardens and anything looser than a gravel road like a mountain bike and the geometry will make it slow for cyclo cross and the bottom bracket is too low. Plus most of them at least the one are tried are not equipped like true long haulers or all season commuters

 

[blowinblue]

Whenever I see basses with roasted maple necks it makes me think of the turkey that I wish was roasting in our oven (but is not).

M. M.

 

[JIO]

That's only if they go through the "correct" process.

I guess that's true about most things...

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I think each manufacturer has their own recipe for roasting. I own one and it is not any darker than its non-roasted counterpart from the same manufacturer. Some seem to come out really dark.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

A friend owns at least two dozen basses, including 3 or 4 with roasted necks. He's done some testing and is convinced that roasted maple has a softer tone, with less edge/presence/brightness as non-roasted. I haven't seen much talk about this, but if he's correct, I'd prefer non-roasted for tone alone, even though I think roasted looks gorgeous with the right build.


I fully believe that both roasted and non-roasted maple will remain available going forward. However this won't be true for every model of every bass. Meaning: some models will only offer one or the other, rather than a choice.

I have half a dozen basses. 5 of them are maple. 3 of these are roasted . The notes on the non roasted have more pop and presence. The notes really sing and jump off the fretboards. I think your friend is correct.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Torrefaction (aka roasting) is not a new process - the Vikings - not the football team, the actual Vikings (who relied on their hardware for constant warfare and pillaging) torrefied the wood they made their warships out of, because it held up better in the environment. So, the knowledge about what the correct process is (and the experiential knowledge that properly torrefied stuff holds up just fine) is over 1400 years old.

If you want a neck to survive physically, making it like a Fender (straight grain through the non tiltback headstock), or with a scarf joint (if you want a tiltback headstock) is far more important than whether or not the wood is roasted. I've made about 20 basses with roasted necks, and never had an issue with it being brittle or weak.

You know Viking is what they did, not who they were. Viking is an action or a job, not a people

We all get it wrong

 

[DJ Bebop]

I just got my first roasted maple neck bass a month ago. It's a budget Harley Benton multi-scale 5-string.
I don't know if it's the roasting, the laminated 5-piece neck of roasted maple and okoum, the roasted maple fretboard,or the fanned frets. The bass sounds very even, almost compressed, with a lot of sustain.

 

[micguy]

Over-roasted maple can remind me of a person with a tanning addiction, in that it's not always the most aesthetically pleasing. Light roasting can be okay though. IMO the biggest benefit of roasting isn't looks, but weight reduction for roasted bodies. I'd like to see more roasted bodies with solid color paint, just for the weight.

I have a bunch of basses with roasted swamp ash bodies - although I do it for the weight, once you get a body that's roasted, they look so good that it'd be a shame to slap paint over them:

 

[Yahboy]

I notice an increase in the use of roasted maple for necks on production basses. Even low cost production basses. Do you think all maple necks will eventually be roasted?

It could be, since few low cost bass like China made entry level Bacchus bass has roasted neck version with just tiny price increment compare to normal maple neck version.
Even Asian brand Soloking use roasted neck as neck standard for all the line.

Roasted process also more easy to control , stable and take shorten time to process compare to dehydration process that been use on previous Fender Roadworn line.

My cheapo Bacchus BJB1RMS roasted neck need less truss rod tweak per year than Charvel Pro Mod PJ which has reinforced rod inside the roasted neck.

But there are crazy tonight or untweakable problem report on sterling bass overcooked roasted neck. Too dry the wood also has risk on crack problems when redrilling new hole for machine head upgrade.....

 

[Yahboy]

It could be, since few low cost bass like China made entry level Bacchus bass has roasted neck version with just tiny price increment compare to normal maple neck version.
Even Asian brand Soloking use roasted neck as neck standard for all the line.

Roasted process also more easy to control , stable and take shorten time to process compare to dehydration process that been use on previous Fender Roadworn line.(And some current day Custom shop neck.)

My cheapo Bacchus BJB1RMS roasted neck need less truss rod tweak per year than Charvel Pro Mod PJ which has reinforced rod inside the roasted neck. Keep in tune well , least dramatic neck shape change when humic/temperature change .

But there are crazy tonight or untweakable problem report on sterling bass overcooked roasted neck. Too dry the wood also has risk on crack problems when redrilling new hole for machine head upgrade.....

 

[Andy Marshman]

I've always felt that this roasted thing was a fad that will lose momentum in a while. I'm not a huge fan of how it looks. Did someone just come up with a new gimmick to keep the surge of sales going for guitars and basses? My guess is that long term, we see a mix of the old and new. Just a thought.

 

[lug]

Torrefaction (aka roasting) is not a new process - the Vikings - not the football team, the actual Vikings (who relied on their hardware for constant warfare and pillaging) torrefied the wood they made their warships out of, because it held up better in the environment. So, the knowledge about what the correct process is (and the experiential knowledge that properly torrefied stuff holds up just fine) is over 1400 years old.

If you want a neck to survive physically, making it like a Fender (straight grain through the non tiltback headstock), or with a scarf joint (if you want a tiltback headstock) is far more important than whether or not the wood is roasted. I've made about 20 basses with roasted necks, and never had an issue with it being brittle or weak.

You did see the "smilee" at the end?

 

[DJ Bebop]

I just got my first roasted maple neck bass a month ago. It's a budget Harley Benton multi-scale 5-string.
I don't know if it's the roasting, the laminated 5-piece neck of roasted maple and okoum, the roasted maple fretboard,or the fanned frets. The bass sounds very even, almost compressed, with a lot of sustain.

View attachment 7226313
View attachment 7226314

Could be also that giant whale hump single cut thing affecting the tone pehaps

 

[dlmarquez]

don’t know about a roasted Maple frame, but Craig Calfee in NorCal can build you a spectacular Bamboo frame!

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Torrefaction (aka roasting) is not a new process - the Vikings - not the football team, the actual Vikings (who relied on their hardware for constant warfare and pillaging) torrefied the wood they made their warships out of, because it held up better in the environment. So, the knowledge about what the correct process is (and the experiential knowledge that properly torrefied stuff holds up just fine) is over 1400 years old.

Bjorn: Aren't these roasted wood oars great? They cut through the water and have a warmer feel to them.
Agnar: The row is all in the hands, Bjorn. Erik can make anything cut well through the water. Technique is way more important.
Bjorn: ...touche'....whatever that means

You know Viking is what they did, not who they were. Viking is an action or a job, not a people

We all get it wrong

This is factually correct ^

There were many people groups, but I guess Scandinavian would be the proper term? Scythian maybe if we're going back to days of the Roman empire. Or just calling everything "Gaul" or "Celt" that is west of Greece? lol

 

[JazznFunk]

I think the roasting thing is also a statement on the status of the overall amount of usable, properly aged wood in general, for musical instrument use and other purposes. The reality is that it's likely in shorter supply than we like to think it is. Roasting allows wood to be processed/cured for production uses a lot more quickly than naturally aging it like it would have been done in the past primarily. Wood is a renewable resource, but it only grows so fast.

 

[micguy]

You did see the "smilee" at the end?

If you were trying to indicate sarcasm, the wink works much better. ;-)