How I Select Wood For A Guitar Neck And Fretboard 

That's why I carry.

I second that. Two years or so ago I commissioned a double cut , humbucker-equipped solid guitar from a local luthier in Scotland. I wanted an all-mahogany construction and a rosewood/ebony fingerboard. At the time, he was waiting for a shipment of more of these woods - severely delayed largely due to the after-math of C19. I didn't want to wait so we chose North American black cherry for the neck and body and a piece of certified Tanzanian Blackwood for the fingerboard. That guitar has been toured and heavily gigged and remains my most stable and reliable instrument for tuning and versatility. It's lightweight too. The body looks like it's made from tiger's eye when the light hits it right.

And thank you, Bob. Merry Christmas a day late.

Janka hardness is the only property you need to focus on. 1,500+ is better. It should also be quarter sawn and straight.

Flat sawn curly Maple looks better. You can find quartersawn curly Maple, but it isn't as common. Tropical rainforests are full of exotic hardwoods. Look for Rosewoods. This is the carbon fiber to use for preventing twist: dragonplate.com/carbon-fiber-d-tube

Yes

Titanium rods ain't cheap and even though you may think you get what you pay for, you'll probably be disappointed. Sure they'll reinforce a neck just like carbon fiber does, so why spend extra?

Height-wise

They do not affect the truss rod's function.

Yes* *In theory and only if done correctly.

@@HighlineGuitars lol, right after I posted this comment, the YT algorithm gave me your video on laminated necks from a week ago.

We're building guitars, not wings for a jet fighter.

@@HighlineGuitars I get get where you’re coming from practically speaking, but isn’t the whole point of a boutique/custom guitar going beyond what is necessary? Why not put the jet fighter in a Flying V?

@@LogicalQ If a boutique/custom builder is asked by a potential buyer to make a guitar that way, they can and should. However, if the boutique/ custom builder starts producing jet fighter Flying V guitars and markets them as having an advantage over non jet fighter Flying V guitars, they have a moral and legal obligation to back up their claims. I'm not a lawyer, but I have had years of experience with truth in advertising and know what it means to get a cease and desist letter threatening a lawsuit over false advertising claims. Bottom line: If you want to make a guitar a certain way and brag about how much better it is compared to the competition, you'd better have the test results and/or data to back up your claims.

@@HighlineGuitars thanks for taking the time to have this back and forth. Love what you do. I asked from a theory perspective, not to create marketing material. If one could create a neck reinforcement strategy that removed the burden of stability from the wood entirely, it would open up the possibility of using the otherwise unsuitable woods you mentioned in your video. Figure out how to make a functional neck out of something like balsa, and the fragility of anything else you might want to use would become irrelevant.

@@LogicalQ commenting from a theoretical perspective is fine and encouraged. However, as the owner of this channel, I can't control who reads the comments and how they may apply what they learn. Therefore, I fell I have a moral obligation to express caution, if necessary, when I reply.

The truss rod has it's usual route. One CF rod will be placed on each side of the truss rod. The CF reinforcement rods will have their own separate channel routed out and epoxied into those separate channels. They don't touch. The CF rods are effectively laminated into the neck with the epoxy.

The effect of wood choice on tone is too small to be of any concern.

That's opening a can of worms in regards to electric solid body guitars and tone woods. I have built a number of instruments with different woods and prefer Padauk and wenge as my favorite neck woods with maple a close 3rd. Padauk and Wenge are stable but a pain to work with. Wenge is splintery and Padauk dust stains everything, but I love the feel of both without a finish. As for tone, my experience with solid bodies is don't worry about the woods for tone, pickups make a much bigger difference. It is true that when playing at room or low practice volume, or even unamped, you hear and feel differences, but most of that doesn't seem to translate to either recording or a real live band situation. Scale length, pickups, string type, string alloy and signal chain seem to be bigger driver of tone and sound. But that's just my experience and everyone has opinions on that.

​@HighlineGuitars Thanks. I'm a firm believer that many parts incrementally impact the tone. I agree that having a stable neck is probably more important than the incremental tonal impact of a different neck wood.

I asked in the live chat if he measures the moisture and he does. And you are very correct that moisture is a major factor.

Not when it comes to buying the wood. Moisture is a factor only when you are ready to start carving.

@@HighlineGuitars Chris. Question about you moisture reply. I think it matters less when buying larger pieces that you cut to size in your own shop to boards and possibly even age prior to even cutting to dimensioned boards. But many small hobby builders are buying dimensioned boards like neck blanks from StewMac, online sellers or localwood shops.. Not a lot of wiggle room for a 1 inch or 3/4 inch neck blank. I think the moisture is larger factor in that case as too much humidity in a thin board may make the board unusable if it cups, warps or twists as it drys. I personally like thicker pieces that I can cut down, plane and use a joiner on, but many hobbiest don't have the equipment to do that.

Austin Hardwoods and Paxton Lumber. Both are in Denver.