My 'Neck' of the 'Woods'!

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Kraig Gregory

Ken,

You stated you know what works best and what just doesn't work. In terms of sound quality, stability, and visual appeal; is there a noticeable difference between a 5 and 7 piece neck?

Also most of the time you either see bubinga or purpleheart laminates. Are these woods used for their sound characteristics or other factors? What has been your experience of using rare woods like shedua, cocobolo, or morado as laminates on a neck?

Maple is the standard as the base of all necks. Just wondering if you have found any exotic woods that work as well or better than maple. Also you don't see a lot of photos of flamed maple necks coming out of your shop, is that on purpose?

Bottom line with everything factored in, if you were to make a neck thru bass what materials would you use and how many pieces would it have to maximize tone and stability.

Thanks for your time.

Ok, this is a lot to answer in one post so I will do it as a Q and A thing.
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Q:is there a noticeable difference between a 5 and 7 piece neck?

A:Yes, to my ear the 7pc nk is slightly brighter and tighter sounding BUT both necks need to be tested using the exact same woods like Maple/Bubinga.
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Q:most of the time you either see bubinga or purpleheart laminates. Are these woods used for their sound characteristics or other factors?

A: I would say more for their strength and grain as these woods can be had in long lengths with no defects in them. I have found pin knots in Purpleheart but Bubinga is cleaner to work with and equally stiff.
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Q:What has been your experience of using rare woods like shedua, cocobolo, or morado as laminates on a neck?

A:Never used Cocobolo for neck strips but Morado is my all time favorite for strength and tone. Shedua is rare at this this time buy may have a limited comeback.
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Q:Just wondering if you have found any exotic woods that work as well or better than maple. Also you don't see a lot of photos of flamed maple necks coming out of your shop, is that on purpose?

A:Maple has been used for instrument necks for over 400 years. It has the best strength-to-weight-to-elasticity of all the woods I have seen. A neck needs to bend a little and if dropped or mis-handles be able to bounce within rather than crack like some more brittle exotic hardwoods. For making necks we buy 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4 thick rough lumber for the various necks we use in our 4, 5, 6, and 7-string Basses made as 3, 5 and 7-piece laminates in either Bolt-on or Neck-thru. The Neck-thru gradually tapers from end to end the way we build them so we need some wide stock for some models. Maple is the only Neck grade wood we can get in long clean white lumber in the various thicknesses we use.
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Q:Bottom line with everything factored in, if you were to make a neck thru bass what materials would you use and how many pieces would it have to maximize tone and stability.

A:My answer is in the models and woods we use currently. If I thought I could do something better, we would. Years ago we mixed Shedua with Bubinga in the BMT 7pc necks. We ran out of Shedua back then and could not find any so we settled finally on just the Bubinga for that model neck mixed with Maple. Now we have some stock in Shedua that is not figured so I am planning at this time to use it in the necks in place of Bubinga when our current supply runs out. When the Shedua is all gone, we will buy more Bubinga as Shedua is not always available but Bubinga is quite plentiful. This change to Shedua will not take place for a few years as we have 100s of neck billets glued up with Bubinga and still some supply left. When we start making Maple/Shedua Necks, they will sit and acclimate for at least 1-2 years before going into a Bass which is our standard practice with all neck stock.

[Bob Faulkner]

I've been kinda wondering about something as well. I've been contemplating how a bass would perform with a walnut neck and maple stringers. Is that something you've tried before Ken?

I've come to like the tone of walnut, and one of the things I'm contemplating for my next high end bass is one with as much walnut in it as possible. Something like a BSR5EG with walnut core, top, and maybe koa or ash laminates. I was wondering if a walnut neck with the maple stringers would be possible (and desirable) on that bass (I know you don't have any already made so you couldn't put one of these out for quite awhile).

Would this bass be like wearing a ball and chain over your shoulder?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Bob Faulkner

I've been kinda wondering about something as well. I've been contemplating how a bass would perform with a walnut neck and maple stringers. Is that something you've tried before Ken?

I've come to like the tone of walnut, and one of the things I'm contemplating for my next high end bass is one with as much walnut in it as possible. Something like a BSR5EG with walnut core, top, and maybe koa or ash laminates. I was wondering if a walnut neck with the maple stringers would be possible (and desirable) on that bass (I know you don't have any already made so you couldn't put one of these out for quite awhile).

Would this bass be like wearing a ball and chain over your shoulder?

First, No. I have not made Walnut necks BUT I have seen a few. Also, Walnut has many hidden defects like Pin Knots and is not the best thing for a Neck. Walnut has the density of soft Maple and not Hard Maple that we use. Also, Walnut is on the brittle side and not flexible like Maple under stress so it would be more prone to shock cracks than Maple is.

We take years in the process for Every Smith Neck we make from the Lumber to the finished Bass. We would take no less time with your experiment BUT, we will not warranty the Bass if using Walnut as you describe. If you like the sound of Walnut as you say, make sure the Bass you are comparing it to has the same Fingerboard, Finish, Pickups and Electronics (and body woods, shape and thickness) as a Smith Bass so you don't get caught comparing Apples to Oranges kinda syndrome.

That being said, If I thought Walnut was good for Necks (and we have about 25,000 bf feet of it in stock), then you can bet it would be on the Menu just like the choices for body wood parts are.

[Bob Faulkner]

How about a maple neck with walnut stringers?

If you were picking woods on a 5EG for the best bottom end with good mids and sustain (I'm not that concerned with highs, but don't hate them either), what would be your choices for core, laminates, top/back, neck woods, etc?

Walnut, at least on the basses that I've played which were made with a lot of it tends to have a nice warm, "woody" tone to it. But I've never been able to sit down and compare several identically designed basses with different woods before. It's something I would enjoy, but not something that would be very easy to arrange I fear.

I'll definitely yield to your expertise on what works over time. To date I haven't had to even touch my bass neck as far as set up goes. The neck, while it does change with the seasons, has never moved enough to care about adjusting anything.

[Ken Smith]

I think in my mind, those two words warm and woody mean something close to opposite as far as sound goes. For Neck stringers (the going term) Walnut is barely 60% the strength of Morado or Bubinga. We did try some decades ago but stopped after a few Basses. The Burners had them more for looks on the upper end models with the assumption that 5 piece of Maple/Walnut would have some opposing pull so it was at least as good as a 3pc Maple only Neck. We didn't have problems either way. Bubinga or Morado was out of the pirce budget for those and not so available then in Japan where the parts was made up.

Walnut for Top & Back with Maple Core is our best for edge and Mid clarity with the Maple warming up the more raw sounding figured walnut. Non figured Walnut has a different sound with less grain compression by far. Maple T&B with the Walnut in the center is almost the opposite. Maple spreads the sound more and Walnut brightens it up. It's the outer plates, T&B that makes the main sound for us and not the Core. All of our woods used in the Basses have descriptions on our website here if you find the time to read it.

[Bob Faulkner]

It's very hard to describe tone in a text format. Woody to me means more of resonant, clear tone. I would describe warmth as a nice rounded sound spanning from deep lows to high-mids (not overly favoring a particular range too much). So subjective


Hmm, now I'm wondering about a flame maple core, ebony laminates and figured walnut top and back with maple neck and morado stringers. (same neck on my current Smith, no complaints with it so why mess with perfection I guess)

Ever used ebony laminates? Does it make the bass too heavy? What other woods would you recommend both tonally, and visually (contrast) as laminates in that configuration? I'm interested in a strong low end, so maybe bubiga? Not sure how that would contrast with walnut and maple though.

I know I'm working you over on this but at some point in the next few years I'm going to be looking for a new 5 string fretless, and kinda want to get the details hashed out now so I know what to look forward to.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Bob Faulkner

It's very hard to describe tone in a text format. Woody to me means more of resonant, clear tone. I would describe warmth as a nice rounded sound spanning from deep lows to high-mids (not overly favoring a particular range too much). So subjective


Hmm, now I'm wondering about a flame maple core, ebony laminates and figured walnut top and back with maple neck and morado stringers. (same neck on my current Smith, no complaints with it so why mess with perfection I guess)

Ever used ebony laminates? Does it make the bass too heavy? What other woods would you recommend both tonally, and visually (contrast) as laminates in that configuration? I'm interested in a strong low end, so maybe bubiga? Not sure how that would contrast with walnut and maple though.

I know I'm working you over on this but at some point in the next few years I'm going to be looking for a new 5 string fretless, and kinda want to get the details hashed out now so I know what to look forward to.

I have done Bubinga in place of Mahogany Lams but Ebony being an oily wood would not be my first choice for that. Also, we make all of our own veneers so double re-sawing a 1" piece of Ebony will not be cheap along with the wood itself. We make good sounding Bass so why not just choose from what we have done already with proven results. Design mistakes can be VERY expensive.

[David Powell]

Originally Posted by Bob Faulkner

I know I'm working you over on this but at some point in the next few years I'm going to be looking for a new 5 string fretless, and kinda want to get the details hashed out now so I know what to look forward to.

Uh, yeah, I'll just have one of what he's having. Where's the end of the line?