# 5P Walnut/Maple neck?



## wayward (Sep 5, 2011)

What's your stance on a Walnut neck, maybe 5 piece w/ maple stripes?
Never played on a Walnut neck, or a guitar with a Walnut body at all. Is it heavy? Would it make the guitar neck-heavy and make the neck dive? Is there a good alternative? I'm just wondering because I'm filling out a quote for a custom from RAN guitars, and am really curious about a 5 piece walnut neck.
Thanks for your opinion.


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## MaxOfMetal (Sep 5, 2011)

Walnut is just a tad heavier than maple, and a little harder. It tends to emphasize the upper mids thanks to its density. Though, at the end of the day it really depends on the body, hardware, electronics, and overall dimensions. Trying to narrow down the tone of the neck on it's own is like trying to see how fast an engine will be while it's not sitting in the chassis.


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## wayward (Sep 5, 2011)

Yeah, I'm basically trying it because I think a 5P walnut/maple neck would aesthetically look bad ass and downright beautiful. I just wanted to know if it effected tone at all or neck stability, weight, or neck dive, etc.


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## AxeHappy (Sep 5, 2011)

Well, Maple with 2 Walnut stripes is the standard Ibanez high end neck nowadays. And companies have done all walnut so I can't see Walnut with 2 maple stripes hurting anything from a stability or weight issue.

If it's a bolt-on the effect on tone will likely be negligible anyways.


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## leonardo7 (Sep 5, 2011)

wayward said:


> Yeah, I'm basically trying it because I think a 5P walnut/maple neck would aesthetically look bad ass and downright beautiful. I just wanted to know if it effected tone at all or neck stability, weight, or neck dive, etc.



First of all, a luthier is supposed to know that if a neck is made from heavier wood then it should be paired right with the rest of the guitar with taking weight into account so that there isnt terrible neck dive. Thats just part of building a guitar. If its a production instrument built by Ibanez, Jackson or Schecter etc then there will be an occasional one with bad neck dive but a custom instrument should never have these issues. If it does and was not intentional then that would be a bad builder whom I wouldnt want a guitar from. As far as the neck walnut neck, is it a neck through? That detail is crucial if you want help. The other way around would be better with maple neck and two walnut stringers. Although your idea would prob work well if its bolt on neck or set neck cause in that case most of your wood tone would be coming from the body wood. IMO walnut is best used as a neck and/or body wood for basses, as stringers with a maple neck and as a top. So if its a bolt on or set neck then it do it cause most of your tone will be from the body wood. If its neck though then I would do maple neck with the two walnut stringers, if you want walnut in the neck.


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## leonardo7 (Sep 5, 2011)

AxeHappy said:


> Well, Maple with 2 Walnut stripes is the standard Ibanez high end neck nowadays. And companies have done all walnut so I can't see Walnut with 2 maple stripes hurting anything from a stability or weight issue.
> 
> If it's a bolt-on the effect on tone will likely be negligible anyways.



I thought the Ibanez standard was maple with two wenge stringers?


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## MaxOfMetal (Sep 5, 2011)

leonardo7 said:


> I thought the Ibanez standard was maple with two wenge stringers?



It's Maple/Wenge on MIJ and Maple/Walnut on MII/MIK/MIC, etc.


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## leonardo7 (Sep 5, 2011)

MaxOfMetal said:


> It's Maple/Wenge on MIJ and Maple/Walnut on MII/MIK/MIC, etc.



Cool. I always wondered about that. I guess walnut is more cheap to purchase than wenge? I have an RG8527z and its definitely wenge as we already know but Ive seen it on the Ibanez site and on other listings as maple/walnut. Since I have one and can confirm its wenge, I guess Ibanez made a mistake there. What Im curious about is whats this Amazakoe that Mayones uses?


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## MaxOfMetal (Sep 5, 2011)

leonardo7 said:


> Cool. I always wondered about that. I guess walnut is more cheap to purchase than wenge? I have an RG8527z and its definitely wenge as we already know but Ive seen it on the Ibanez site and on other listings as maple/walnut. Since I have one and can confirm its wenge, I guess Ibanez made a mistake there. What Im curious about is whats this Amazakoe that Mayones uses?



Amazakoe is just another name for common Ovankol. The stuff that Warwick uses for a lot of their necks, as do some Framus (they're the same company) guitars. It's a dense, heavy wood that's really stiff. The downside, other than weight, is that it can be prone to cracking as it has little flex to it and is quite porous. There's a reason that a lot of Warwick fans hunt down the older Wenge neck basses opposed to the newer Ovankol ones. 

Warwick stopped using a lot of Wenge since a fire in the late 90's/early 00's destroyed a huge portion of their aged/seasoned Wenge inventory. 

As for the quality compared to Walnut, from what I've heard from suppliers it's harder to get consistently good pieces of Wenge opposed to Walnut. That's why Warwick didn't just buy up more of it.


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## TRENCHLORD (Sep 5, 2011)

I absolutely love the look of walnut and agree that the walnut/maple would look awsome for a natural look neck-thru, however, from a tonal view the maple/walnut would win out IMO. I find walnut to be a solidifier/deadener wood, and maple to be more lively in overtones. Just based on my rather limited experience, and every piece of wood is a bit different.

If your talking bolt-on, then pair with alder or ash body IMO.


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