Builders offering ebony necks?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gybe!
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gybe!

gybe!

Well-known member
Have an ebony neck on my Balaguer baritone that I very much adore, just wondering if you’re aware of any other fiddle makers doing this? Used to occasionally see necks available from warmth but haven’t in some time.
 
gybe! said:
Have an ebony neck on my Balaguer baritone that I very much adore, just wondering if you’re aware of any other fiddle makers doing this? Used to occasionally see necks available from warmth but haven’t in some time.
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That sounds really interesting as a baritone player, can you post pics?
 
Chubtone does ebony. I have two of them, and they play great.
 
My early Barlow has an all Macassar ebony neck and I love it. Padauk body. It’s the biggest/densest sounding guitar I’ve tried so far. Makes even the heaviest Norlin era LPC’s I’ve had/played sound small/weak in comparison lol

I do also have a Brazilian Ebony neck from Warmoth, but that’s actually a different wood species despite the name with imo also a different type of sound than the Gaboon or Macassar Ebony we’re used to on guitars
 
Ebony is extremely strong but prone to cracking/brittleness in very dry climates. Not much of a problem for regularly maintained fretboards but could be for a neck. Something to think about relative to your environment.
 
Neck or fretboard?

I've never seen an ebony neck.
 
I'd love a nice three or five piece Macassar neck. The whole thing could be raw finished and your hand would polish it every time you picked it up.
 
I remember not too long ago Warmoth - or possibly Musikraft (both?) had posted on their site that solid jet black ebony was getting harder and harder to come by. The ebony blanks they were receiving for fretboards had some brown to gold striations in the grain. Apparently the feel and sound was just the same, but they wanted customers to know that they might not get a solid jet black ebony fretboard. I believe ebony has become like flame and birdseye maple, where the customer gets to choose how far up the grading scale ($$$) they wish to go when selecting ebony.

Maybe that has something to do with other builders doing more guitars with maple and rosewood boards?
 

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Soundstorm said:
That's hot! Is it neck-heavy? Any neck dive?
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Very balanced to be honest. The jaguar/offset body helps with that I’m sure as it’s one of the few body shapes in a baritone where the overall composition looks balanced (to me)
 
Warmoth used to offer Brazilian ebony necks but I don't think they do any longer. Those are the only solid "ebony" necks I've ever seen. I see ebony boards on wenge or on rosewood necks pretty regularly though ...
 
GOHOINC said:
Warmoth used to offer Brazilian ebony necks but I don't think they do any longer. Those are the only solid "ebony" necks I've ever seen. I see ebony boards on wenge or on rosewood necks pretty regularly though ...
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I have one of those still (had 2 at one point). They’re cool, but actually a different wood species despite the same name and sound different too than African or Macassar Ebony
 
braintheory said:
I have one of those still (had 2 at one point). They’re cool, but actually a different wood species despite the same name and sound different too than African or Macassar Ebony
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That's about what I remember hearing at the time they were available.
 
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