Torrefied Maple Electric Guitar Neck Blanks
Torrefied wood is becoming very popular with guitar builders, because of its stability, tone and its vintage golden color.
Torrefaction: the advantages of vintage wood
One of the great things about a really old instrument is the way the wood has aged over decades. It becomes a little drier and denser, and much more dimensionally stable. And aging darkens the color beautifully. When they can get it, builders love to use wood salvaged from very old buildings, for example.
The qualities of these rare aged woods are successfully recreated by heating wood in a low-oxygen environment using a kiln—a difficult process called Torrefaction. This torrefied wood has the color, dimensional stability and other advantages of those long-aged woods that are so hard to come by.
“For years I've wanted to use figured maple for bass necks however I was always concerned that figured maple might be too unstable over time. Torrefied wood is so stable that I now offer figured maple bass necks with no fear of warping or twisting.”
—Roger Sadowsky
We offer these neck blanks in three grades of torrefied maple (Acer saccharum):
Plain unfigured grain
AAA figured maple
AAAA highly figured maple
Each blank is designed to have a separate fingerboard attached after construction of the neck. Flatsawn, 15/16" x 4" x 30" (23.81mm x 101.60mm x 762mm).
Stewart-MacDonald's online instructions "Neck Construction Tips and Techniques" include tips for adding headstock "ears," routing for a truss rod, laminating a classical guitar heel, and more.
