Read this first. Stability, weight and feel are fairly consistent from wood to wood. Tone is not: much of what is written about it comes from sellers and forums, sources disagree, and once the sound goes through pickups many players hear little difference. Setup, strings, pickups and hands matter at least as much. Every board is also its own piece of wood, so treat everything below as tendencies, not rules.
At a glance
| Wood | Look | Feel and weight | Stability | Tone reputation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard maple | Pale cream | Dense, stiff | The benchmark | Bright, quick attack |
| Roasted maple | Caramel to toffee | Like maple; more brittle to work | Reacts less to humidity, per makers | Close to maple |
| Mahogany | Reddish brown | Medium-hard, fine-grained | Stable | Warm, full lows, softer attack |
| Walnut | Dark chocolate grain | Hard and dense, like maple; heavy | Good when straight-grained | Warmer and punchier than maple |
| Wenge | Very dark, striped | Very hard and stiff | Stable | Strong mids, warm lows, tamer highs |
The woods
Hard maple
The most common neck wood, and the one the others are measured against: dense, stiff and stable, with a pale, even look. Its tone is usually described as bright with a quick attack. Figured maple — flame or birdseye — is chosen for looks; a long-time neck maker reports no stability difference between birdseye and plain maple, and figure is not credited with changing the tone.
Look pale creamFeel dense, often finishedBest known for stability
Roasted (torrefied) maple
Maple that has been slowly heated in a controlled environment until the sugars and moisture in the wood break down — a cooking reaction that turns it caramel, darker the hotter it goes. Makers say the result responds less to changes in humidity. It is also more brittle and harder to work, and its tone is usually described as close to ordinary maple. Most of the performance claims come from the people who sell it, and some builders note that maple is stable enough already.
Look caramel, toffeeFeel like mapleTrade-off more brittle to work
Mahogany
The classic wood for set necks: medium-hard and fine-grained. Players credit it with a warm, full sound and a softer attack and highs; with extended low strings, some find it can turn muddy.
Look reddish brownFeel warm, smoothBest known for warmth
Walnut
Comparable to maple in hardness and density, and heavy. It is usually described as warmer and punchier than maple, with a tighter low end than mahogany. Straight-grained walnut is reported to be quite stable.
Look dark, rich grainFeel hard, heavyBest known for punch
Wenge
A very hard, stiff, dark African hardwood. Its tone reputation is strong mids and warm lows, with harsh highs tamed — a character often compared to rosewood.
Look near-black stripesFeel very hardBest known for midrange
Multi-piece (laminated) necks
Many necks, especially on neck-through basses, are glued up from several strips — maple with darker stripes between them is a common look. Builders do this so that no single board's tendency to move dominates the neck. How much it helps is debated among players, but it is a long-standing builder's practice.
Sources: [14]
Grain: quartersawn or flatsawn
How a board is cut from the log matters as much as the species. In a quartersawn neck the growth rings stand upright, so seasonal swelling and shrinking happens mostly through the neck's thickness, where it is least noticeable; most sources agree that makes it a little more stable across the width. Whether it is also stiffer is disputed — luthiers who have tested deflection report similar stiffness either way, and careful drying and acclimating the wood does much of the work.
The fingerboard
The fingerboard is the wood under your fingers, glued to the neck (or, on many maple necks, part of it). It changes the feel more than anything else here.
- Maple — bright and evenly balanced; usually lacquered, so it feels smooth and slick.
- Rosewood — warmer and rounder, often credited to its natural oils; left unfinished, with a dry, woody feel.
- Ebony — the hardest and densest common fingerboard: snappy and articulate, very smooth. It is brittle, so it can chip when an instrument is re-fretted.
- Pau ferro — usually placed between rosewood and ebony in tone, with a feel often compared to ebony.
- Richlite — not wood: a composite of paper and resin, chosen because every board is the same.
A note on rosewood rules: in 2017 the CITES treaty put all rosewood species (genus Dalbergia) under trade controls. In 2019 finished musical instruments, parts and accessories were exempted, from November 26, 2019 — except Brazilian rosewood, which stays on the strictest list. Raw rosewood material still needs permits.
On a Morfino
Every instrument record in the registry lists its neck wood, fingerboard and neck construction. When the community opens, you can ask D. Morfino why he chose them.
Sources
- Warmoth — Neck Wood Options
- Gear Aficionado — Different Guitar Neck Tonewoods and Their Effect on Tone
- Yamaha Hub — Back to Bassics: A Brief Guide to Bass Guitar Tonewoods
- Andertons — Bass Guitar Tonewood Guide
- StudyBass — Bass Guitar Tone Woods
- StewMac — Torrefied Maple Electric Guitar Neck Blanks
- Baum Guitars — What is Roasted Maple, and why does it matter?
- Suhr — Quarter Sawn vs. Flat Sawn Maple Necks
- Aeonic Frets — Quartersawn vs Flatsawn Neck: Does It Matter?
- Guitar Player — A Rough Guide to Guitar Fingerboard Materials
- Rothko & Frost — Guitar Fretboard Woods Explained
- The Wood Database — Are Rosewoods (and Bubinga) really banned by CITES?
- Taylor Guitars — Rosewood Musical Instruments Exempted from Requiring CITES Permits
- TDPRI forum — Flatsawn vs quartersawn necks? (players and builders)