I've made a bunch of cherry necks. Most have been ukulele and guitar, but I've had it in a few basses too. Cherry has a similar result as walnut in terms of stiffness and weight so I suppose it would boil down to cost and looks. I find it works similarly to walnut too in terms of carving ease (in that it's a little easier than hard maple). In guitar and bass sizes if the neck is going to be mostly cherry or walnut than I use carbon reinforcement. I generally don't for hard maple or anything stiffer than that though it depends on how stiff the fretboard wood is as well.
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Wood choices and considerations
- Thread starter mrperkolator
- Start date
I've made a bunch of cherry necks. Most have been ukulele and guitar, but I've had it in a few basses too. Cherry has a similar result as walnut in terms of stiffness and weight so I suppose it would boil down to cost and looks. I find it works similarly to walnut too in terms of carving ease (in that it's a little easier than hard maple). In guitar and bass sizes if the neck is going to be mostly cherry or walnut than I use carbon reinforcement. I generally don't for hard maple or anything stiffer than that though it depends on how stiff the fretboard wood is as well.
Freekmagnet
Commercial User
Yeah, I might be feeling a cherry neck with a mesquite fretboard build coming on. The idea of a pink and orange combo is doing it for me.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,011
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- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Other cool woods to look at if no one mentioned them are Osage Orange and Persimmon. I've always wanted to see a persimmon fingerboard.
I've got some roasted black locust, and man does it turn dark. The others in this pic are purpleheart and padauk. 
That seems pretty dang perfect for a FB.
From talks with a luthier that makes acoustic instruments: acoustically black locust is similar to Indian rosewood and Osage Orange is similar to Brazilian rosewood.
Oh I meant on the body. I like contrast, so the light color against a darker stained body of any type would be pretty
Roasted black locust
Osage orange ages to a beautiful deep brown with time.
I still have a bow and some walking sticks that I built over 20 years ago. At first they were bright yellow to orange. I oiled and waxed for a finish. Now they are deep glossy brown. I bet it would make a beautiful fingerboard.
I still have a bow and some walking sticks that I built over 20 years ago. At first they were bright yellow to orange. I oiled and waxed for a finish. Now they are deep glossy brown. I bet it would make a beautiful fingerboard.
I know it's not a bass... but I'm gonna use TB's favorite phrase..... "pics or it didn't happen"
Seriously, It would be cool to see how they aged.
perhaps the color change in aging is the reason osage orange isn't used as often. @Crawforde do you remember what oil finish you used?
They look even worse here. I will get some pics outside in sunlight tomorrow.
Those might have just been mineral oil and beeswax. I did a lot of stuff like that back then. Sometimes I would cut linseed oil with turpentine and rub that in too.
I was looking on the Google the other day for stuff made from pecan and saw this.
https://berdollsawmill.com/
https://berdollsawmill.com/
That pekin is sweet.
That is a nice piece of wood. If it’s like hickory it could be a bear to work with.
I mostly use hand tools running on potato power though, electric tools might help.
That is a nice piece of wood. If it’s like hickory it could be a bear to work with.
I mostly use hand tools running on potato power though, electric tools might help.
From what I read about it, it works like walnut, oak, maple etc. It's hard and can have some tear out. It's related to hickory, but not as hard as real hickory.
Found these in the wild looking at lumber. It was from a company that specializes in cedar. They also use oak. I emailed them about info, but haven't heard back. It's pretty either way.
The deeper red areas are zones that were rubbed with permanganate, the limb of bow is untreated Osage.
Gutsy to use a knotted piece of any wood for a one pice body and neck like that!
