wenge experience needed

[eddododo]

I want to do a wenge/wenge fretless neck (via warmoth); has anyone had experience with wenge like this?

My concern is that the busier, coarser grain will affect the playability (I plan on at least trying roundwounds on it, so i worry about the string "slipping" into the grain [i assume its too tight though], and also i worry about hard nasty wenge splinters from potential years of roundwound contact)

I know warwick uses wenge on there fretted boards, and the ones iv'e felt were suprisingly smooth



appreciate the halp!

 

[FBB Custom]

Open grain should not affect playability and string wear should not cause splintering. I assume Warmoth will knock down the edges, that's where the splinters come from.

If you are really worried, the pores can always be filled.

 

[MarcusPocus]

I have been making a neck out of wenge. There are a few things I have noticed. While it is very hard and stiff, it is brittle. Try to take a pocket knife to it and whittle a bit. Chips like limestone. As for as your concern with a fretless goes, I think you may be better suited for other woods. In my limited experience with this wood, when I have made a slip such as with a sanding block or saw, the wood can become a brown chalky mess. That is not to say that after the FB has been sanded and radiused and all of that that it couldn't hold up. Plus I don't think that it will hold a good finish. It has large open grain. When I bought the stuff from the lumber yard, the guys working there called it african splinter wood and wouldn't go near it. I had 1/2 inch splinters in my hands.

BUT, the key word here is "limited experience"

 

[Grant Bass]

let me fill in some blanks with my experience; all the points are true about its brittleness;
and run your hand across it w/o a finish and/or super fine sanded; you might as well pet a porcupine.
but its one of the harder stable woods ive used, if your planning on using roundwounds on a fretless, you should save yourself a lot of greif and epoxy the board; that will take care of that and the rest of your concerns

 

[Rickett Customs]

What ever you're going to get from Warmoth will be fine sanded...... Believe me, any time I handle my wenge lumber, I get at least 5 or 6 splinters..... but sanded above 800+ the splinters will diminish......