00:00 Intro 00:26 Test Criteria 02:07 Test 05:18 Aaron's Thoughts 07:45 Late Breaking Info! 08:41 Outro Learn more about Roasted Maple here: www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/... One Guitar vs Itself video: • One Guitar vs Itself
Those nuts even sound different when you drop them on the work bench. The black ones are bright and glassy, while white Tusq just sound like plastic to me.
@@warmoth he's being sarcastic what he is saying is since there's no real difference between the two neck sounds so we might as well just be listening to the difference between the nuts 😂
@@warmoth Hey Aaron: how about a video comparing different fretboard woods, sorta like you did with vintage vs. modern neck construction video? For example, rosewood vs. maple vs. ebony?
Way to go Aaron! Most other comparisons I've seen online aren't able to keep all the variables the same. Most have different fretboard radiuses. You're the best!
I love these tests that you do with the different components Aaron! I thought the difference was very subtle as well but did notice the slightly brighter high end on the roasted neck too. On a couple of the tests, I purposely scrolled the video down so I couldn't see when you switched and I didn't even notice the jump between the two parts. That really is a testament to how closely you play the parts the same way. Nice going!
Aaron, You are the reason I now own two amazing warmoth guitars that I specd out and assembled during lockdown with a third build on the way. These videos and builds have gotten me through lockdown and I am ever so grateful for you taking the time to do these demos and videos explaining all the detailed options available. It get us fellow guitar enthusiasts excited about amazing quality Warmoth products and service that hasn't disappointed despite the pandemic. Keep up the good work and "keep on picking"
Interesting... on the clean stuff, the roasted sounds warmer, not as clear as regular maple....but on the distorted tones, I think the roasted cuts better. I’m a fan of the roasted necks for many reasons. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this!
I've got 2 basses with your roasted maple necks. The improvement in playability goes without saying but the improvement in tone is beyond what I hoped for! Thanks again guys!
You’re a beauty Aaron. Thanks for the time and effort. Not enough tone difference for me to worry about but the look, feel and stability definitely is. Cheers.
Or, if you're a mature educated adult, you see no need to consume poisonous mind-altering substances which have addicted and killed more people than all wars combined, along with destroying more marriages, careers, and families then by any other means.
Like you said Aaron, the isolated changes are very subtle , glad you’re doing some real scientific tests to verify these common guitar perceptions. I love my roasted maple neck , it just feels amazing every day when I pick up the guitar!
Interesting difference! I love these videos. One thing I'd be fascinated to see in a future video is a comparison between a Warmoth hard maple body and a more commonly used body material such as mahogany. I see speculation online that hard maple guitar bodies would have too bright of a sound, and others who swear the sound is usable and amazing. Warmoth could put this to the test!
The midrange structure is definitely different. The tightness of the roasted maple is very desirable and the smooth high mids make it seem great for the blues, not to mention the tuning stability differences. Here’s a suggestion for another video if you haven’t already, is to test tuning stability roasted vs not over time in a time lapsed video with equal playing time storage etc. great video
Oh I missed these comparisons! Glad to see a new one. And yes that's my experience as well. Roasted maple necks seem to be super tight but also have less body. Which can be helped with a fatback profile I suppose! PS I'd love to hear bass comparisons as well!
Yes, I agree Aaron! I would argue that the to my ears the roasted maple neck had more Presence and definitely a tighter lowe end. You can hear the differences in the low end more clearly in the distortion riffs! Thanks for making such good videos! They are quite insightful (especially the tone tests)
I would agree. I heard the brightness in the roasted neck. Both are great and definitely very slight. I would agree that the aesthetics of matching the body and the neck are important. It is nice to know how those decisions will impact the tone of the instrument. Great video. I learn something every time.
You could play them both raw if you apply a very thin oil and wax 'gunstock' style finish a la Roy Buchanan. Can look up videos on how to sand any neck and do this. The fine sanding just takes a little bit of patience. A gunstock finish helps keep the neck surface very clean (it still feels like raw wood, super slippery) but there isn't an obnoxious layer of finish causing any internal reflection or damping. An unsealed raw neck may move and warp over time, it's just the luck of what piece of maple you got and how the internal stresses release over time due to moisture movement (hopefully, you only get a small amount of overall shrinkage which doesn't ruin playability.)
You do a good job with these. I could hear the slight extra brightness of the roasted neck, mainly in the cleaner tones. You might consider organizing things more in terms of gain levels. I saw a Rick Beato video that compared gauges of strings, and it was quite apparent there that gain levels really affect how the underlying setup works.
I replaced the next on my Strat with a Warmoth roasted maple neck. Didn't notice any tone difference, but it sure feels way better. So slick and precise.
The biggest difference I caught was in the lead example at the end. The roasted maple neck seems to be catching harmonic overtones. I know that sound because out of all my guitars, only one does it. I've had multiple pickups in it and it's always present, I think it has to do with the relationship between the woods in the neck and body. You've got the winning combo there, I wouldn't change out that roasted maple neck for anything haha
Love your tone tests. The effort you put in to give the most unbiased examples. This was interesting, very small but still audible difference. As if the roasted one was the slightest bit "softer", darker, less mid present to me. I suppose I'm trying to say more balanced over the whole spectrum. Here's a couple of ideas I'm interested to hear: Neck constructions (bolt-on, set-neck, neck-thru, I know they're different but how much if you keep the other parameters the same?), Bridges (telecaster, stratocaster, tune-o-matic, evertune, floyd rose, even bigsby? People say they can hear the difference between two-point and synchronized six screws strat bridge even, and I "know" that a floyd will change the tone. Supposedly tele bridge also affects the pickup operation) and Nuts (there are so many options, whatever plastic, bone, TUSQ, brass, zero fret and it's another one of those critical points where the string sits and it's supposed to change the tone more or less noticeably). Oh and your talk about finish at the end of the video brought up this to my mind: many people have said that when they removed the lacquer from their neck, or the paint, it became significantly brighter to the point they couldn't stand it. There's another idea for the video, painted vs clean necks, on top of that finished vs unfinished necks. And same for body I guess, sometimes people claim cheap guitars have the thickest paint jobs killing the body, and that removing the body finish or only lacquering it makes a clear difference.
Absolutely hear it. And agree with everything you said. I think the roasted as is would cut through killer in a mix, but neither has any quality that couldn't easily be shaped like the other with EQ. In fact that's what they sound like, the same guitar EQd differently.
Great comparison! Thanks for the effort put into this video. Listening here through a bi-amped system with a crossover at 200hz. It sounds like the roasted maple neck samples have more immediate attack and a focused tone in the upper mids. The regular maple neck seems to spread the harmonic content more evenly, which sounds like a boost in the low mids with a less pronounced string attack on single notes by comparison. It must be the color of the nut! (just kidding =)
I heard a slight but definite difference in the two maple necks. The roasted maple neck had a slightly brighter but nice sparkle to it with a more defined mid-range and low end. In a word, the roasted maple neck had a more "produced" sound to it. In a recording, this may be significant. In a live setting, likely wouldn't matter much. A lot of what we hear or think we hear is about perception more than audible difference. That said, I think I would opt for the roasted maple neck. I do think finish on wood makes a difference in the overall tone stew. I definitely would be interested in hearing this comparison using unfinished maple necks. Great job!! I've been a user and fan of Warmoth guitar necks for decades!!
You keep making the awesome videos, and I will keep watching...lol. I'm a huge warmoth fan, cause I believe wood 🪵matters and great craftsmanship paired together ❤is a unbeatable combination. For my bass guitar 🎸needs I will only purchase warmoth guitars!
I thought it would me more of a harmonic thing than bright/ dark thing. I could hear a difference, but I'm not sure how to describe it. The standard maybe less tame.
I thought there was a very subtle difference between the two necks. When you were playing clean, the roasted maple neck seemed to prove a little more high-end response, however, when you pour on the dirt the difference pretty much disappears. That kind of surprised me, because I thought (or assumed) it would be the other way around. I did wonder if the necks were finished or not, but you did clarify that at the end of the video. I think I would go for the roasted maple neck, mainly because I like the way it looks. A roasted flame-maple neck would look very nice.
For me, the notes on chords are more separated and distinct on the roasted neck. The roasted neck also has a little more sustain. Chords on the standard maple can get a tad bit muddy sounding. I'm getting ready to order my third neck so I watched this video to see if I wanted to change back to regular maple on one of the necks. The first two roasted maple Strat necks are great albeit some cracking problems when installing one of them. That's something everyone working with roasted maple should be aware of. I love the brighter look of the standard maple but after watching this video, I'm sticking with roasted on the third neck too. I live in southern Louisiana and humidity can be a problem especially at outdoor gigs. It's nice to know that the roasted maple more impervious to moisture, especially when a light lacquer finish is applied.
@@warmoth Funny humidity story (I have several), we were playing an outdoor gig at the Indian Hills Nudist Park in Lacombe, La. As soon as I hit the property, we had one of those cloud burst deluges that drop about 4" of rain in an hour. You know what it's like after the water hits that hot asphalt; you can swim in the humidity. That night when it cooled down a little, all of my vintage guitars were completely soaked and I had to keep a towel in my pocket and wipe the neck off about every minute or so just so I could play. I thought I had ruined everything because they were vintage guitars and really didn't have much finish left on them. Plus, I had my 1960 Bassman out there. By the way, people that join those nudist parks are not pretty. I'll stick with something that is almost impervious to that humidity.
I too heard a very small increase in high frequencies with the roasted maple neck. But again, it was very subtle, so other preferences such as color, price, feel, cosmetics, should probably take precedence over this very small difference.
I love my roasted maple necks. Not sure I'll ever get another regular neck that requires a finish. One bit of advice for one-piece roasted maple or roasted maple on roasted maple: Get the white side dots rather than the black ones. In a darkened room or stage it is nearly impossible to see the black side dots because of the darker wood. But the white dots stand out just fine. If you already have one with the black side dots, a little dab of white nail polish or model airplane paint on each dot fixes the issue, and can be lightly sanded off if you ever decide to sell it.
Oh man, I found this out the hard way. I made 2 custom guitars with roasted flame maple necks. The dots were made from paua abalone. I can't see them at all under the lights in a stage! Ive even made mistakes playing live because of it...Its so frustrating because the guitars were not cheap and are dream builds but I fucked up on the inlay material, should have gone with white pearloid. Now I can put stickers but it may damage the nitro finish. Getting new necks is very expensive as well for both guitars. Maybe ill have to compromise and put the stickers on....lesson learned
I’m sticking with regular necks. I’ve seen some photos of roasted necks with cracks. They look amazing but there is that possibility of cracking that lurks
I heard a bit of difference and also have a Warmoth roasted maple super flamed too on a complete Warmoth tele build. Since I’m not able to do the test personally I’ll probably never know for certain. Luv your demos and looking forward to any build project.
Aaron is a champion. So nice to us ❤️ Seems to me that the difference between them, tonally, is so negligible that you should just pick whichever you think looks nicer w/ your build 😅 Is one more stable than the other, though? 🧐
To me the maple neck had a bit of a squishy tone in the mids and high end, where the roasted was more crisp and clear. I definitely liked the roasted more, the tone was much more accentuated with a light overdrive
The difference is subtle, but there seems to be more "air" between the notes on the roasted maple. I have a s one-of-these-days Strat project on the back burner, and I'm thinking roasted will get the nod.Thanks for a thorough and thoughtful demo!
To my ears, the roasted maple had more definition especially dirty. The notes popped more with it. I opened this thinking I wouldn't be able to hear a difference, maple is maple, but it was pretty apparent.
@@KAIOabstrct Many listen with their eyes and hear what they want to hear, that's why. Neck doesn't really have any tonality in itself, much less in an electric guitar. Here's a great vid that really goes into the meat and potatoes of where the tone comes from; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n02tImce3AE.html It's 12 min so it's not too long and is accurate.
Great video .. confirms there is no noticeable difference for me, purely an aesthetic thing.. that guitar looks better with a roasted neck, therefore the roasted neck sounds better 🤣🤘🎸😆😂
Dang! On my monitorings, TV and phone: can't hear a noticeable difference! I'm very happy with my latest Warmoth Maple Flame Roasted Neck purchase! Unboxing / Review / Build ➡️ Slap my face ! 😉👍
Id love to see a similar video of roasted maple with finish vs roasted maple with no finish. That would be super interesting. Some people say that the main difference in tone between rosewood and maple likely comes down to the finish on the maple.
Aaron, we all know you love free guitars - who doesn't? - so could you guys make a video of you actually picking out woods and parts and putting a guitar together step by step? I'd like to see the entire pricess from a piece of wood to a finished guitar 🙂
Great video! However, I would be curious to hear the difference in sustain. It would have been interesting to hear a single strummed open chord on each neck. My guess is that the roasted neck would have a bit more sustain.
On the clips with more distortion, I honestly can’t tell the difference. On the cleaner clips, I can hear slight differences. I’m not sure I could even describe it that well but the roasted sounds a little brighter to me and I agree with your description of the roasted being a bit more focused. It’s so subtle that it hardly seems worth worrying about. On guitars I buy, I usually go for maple with some amber in it, or ebony, if I have the choice. It’s about the aesthetic and the feel at that point. Most of my guitars are rosewood because I don’t have ebony or maple options. Once I start playing it I don’t care anymore. :)
I did hear about more high end on the roasted maple but it's too subtle to fuss about. I just go with what I like the look of, and what I ended up getting from Warmoth last year was a 24 fret roasted maple neck with a gloss finish. That along with the soloist body that I modified to make more suitable for 24 frets are on hold at the moment though. I have to wait until the spring to finish painting the body, but the neck is beautiful. It should do just fine in our strange Canadian seasons. Question though: Will Warmoth make a body that accommodates 24 fret necks? Even with the contour options, the Soloist body looked impossible to play up on those high frets so I had to modify the lower cutaway and horn quite dramatically.
I think that those factors are if not well known, talked about enough to the point that someone deciding would take them into account in addition to this video's details.
Roasted wood is pretty much sealed against moisture at the surface so it doesn't change in weight or dimension over time. You can order and play them unfinished. Regular maple is more porous to movement of moisture in/out of the wood so in a dry climate it can shrink a bit over time, causing fret sprout... but that's usually nothing more serious than a quick once-over with a fret end file. Even lacquer finished maple necks can settle over time causing sprout, while I think roasted necks should not. Warmoth will warranty an unfinished roasted neck, but if you don't finish a raw maple neck you're on your own - it's because unfinished raw maple can be more prone to humps and warping than roasted. This doesn't mean every unfinished or sanded-down raw neck will warp, it's just a chance you take if you go that route. For greatest stability in every case I would order a Boatneck profile, there's simply more solid wood there. 1 inch neck depth.
@@MisterRorschach90 ...including Warmoth. They had a Tele Rosewood neck in stock until this weekend and had Brazilian Ebony necks in stock recently (although likely a trial run, not something always available).
@@MisterRorschach90 I don't know if this interests you.. Phillip McKnight did a nice tone comparison of the one piece rosewood neck guitar, compared to an identical guitar with raw maple neck. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C1J-0hyDEIE.html
Warmoth's one-piece raw maple necks generally sound fat in the low-mids, just like Aaron said. That wasn't news to me. I prefer the tone of the roasted maple.
I've built a parts--caster (about 2.5 years ago) using a Warmoth Korina body and a Musikraft roasted maple neck and besides the incredible sustain this combo produces the main issue for me is the stability of this neck : no fret-sprout (i.e. the neck does not shrink when the air gets dry in the winter months > the fret ends do not start to protrude out of the fingerboard), it simply does not move one iota. I'm a happy camper and the extra cost was well worth it for me !
Anyone know a killer single coil for bridge position strat? I like the one in my Eric Johnson strat is there anything better? Maybe somethng with just smidge more mids but without being dark.I love PAF tone but I know I can't have that without routing it. Not going that far.
I’m actually shocked that I could hear a slight, slight difference. The Roasted Maple seemed to have a bit more “clarity” in its fundamental, and the underlying harmonics. That seemed to be true across all gain levels? The fact that you can have a stable neck that is unfinished, is a HUGE bonus. My next project will have a Roasted Maple neck… I have always used Warmoth Necks ONLY. ABSOLUTELY THE BEST.
