Woltz's semi-scratch strat build

[FrankenWashie]

Yeh I have some offcuts from the tas oak that I'm thinking of having a play around with making a neck before I invest in some better wood. I was toying with the idea of a flame sheoak fingerboard for the neck for this guitar but that might be a little bit too much going on with the figured top as well.

If you did go with the Tas Oak, I’d take a neck sized blank, saw it into three strips width ways, and reverse the Center one then laminate the three together. It will make the neck more stable. (I know it’s only a test neck, but it’s good practice, especially if the test pieces are slab sawn)
Tas oak has a tendency to splinter and chip out so your router bits will need to be sharp as all get out. Take multiple shallow passes.
i look forward to the updates!

[Woltz]

So the tasmanian oak that I have here just wants to keep cracking so I'll look at getting a neck from Adam. So the question:

All maple..



or Rosewood fretboard




And just to give you a sneak peak into a future build. I have a lace sheoak fretboard on its way to me to go with this blank. Just need to find a suitable neck timber.

[Simon Barden]

The rosewood fretboard floats my boat with that body finish.

[trv]

Not to play devil's advocate, but I'd choose maple!

[G-Axe]

And just to give you a sneak peak into a future build. I have a lace sheoak fretboard on its way to me to go with this blank. Just need to find a suitable neck timber.

Not going to weigh in on rosewood vs maple, but if it helps, Turner's @ Fyshwick may have some suitable neck billets. A few years back I picked up a nice bit of figured Queensland Maple which is destined to be a neck when I decide to take the plunge on a full scratch build.



Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Woltz]

Thanks G-Axe, it was suggested to me today that Monaro Timber may have some suitable stuff as well.

Having said that I bit the bullet (before I heard about Monaro and Turners) and ordered a 100 x 50 x 700 piece of Queensland Maple from Anagote Timbers in Sydney. Fortunately it was reasonably priced even including shipping. But I'll head to Turners and Monaro Timber at some stage to have a look for future builds.

So depending what the timber looks like when it gets here, a scratch neck may be back on the cards. Watch this space...

[Woltz]

Warning. This post contains wood porn.

So the lace sheoak fretboard arrived today from Australian Tonewoods. Just rubbed a bit of methylated spirit on it to try and show the figuring although it doesn't show up that well in the photo.



And then placed it beside the clear coated test piece of Yaka.

[G-Axe]

Some lovely grains in that she-oak! Also looks like a fairly large piece (though I'm possibly comparing to half a body blank?)

[Sonic Mountain]

Looks great. I just took a drive down to my local recycled timber place ready to buy a few bits and pieces and its closed down.

Mega sad face.

[DarkMark]

Nice piece of she-oak, Woltz, but how do you feel about the redness of the she-oak against the yaka? I thought the rosewood highlighted the darker tones of the yaka nicely. Anyhow, that’s my worthless opinion. I’ve been wrong in the past and I’ll be proven wrong again in the future.