Flatsawn or Quartersawn?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MississippiMetal
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MississippiMetal

MississippiMetal

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For those with experience and knowledge in this field:

I'm ordering a replacement neck for my Charvel Promod from Musikraft. I've seldom paid attention to whether any given guitar I picked up had a quartersawn neck or flatsawn. Ideally I'd like to go with quartersawn for reliability purposes, but at $70 extra, it's a kinda painful upgrade. Is it worth laying down the extra cash for QS, or is flatsawn Rock maple a viable choice?
 
Quarterswan is typically brighter but not always. It is definitely less prone to warpage. If you plan to leave the neck unfinished or use a light oil finish, I would recommend you go that route...if you plan a more traditional finish, you should be fine with flatsawn. Traditional Charvel necks were quartersawn.
 
When I have the choice I always go with quartersawn just because they are stronger and like rupe said less likely to warp or change a bunch in temp differences.
 
I recently did a lot of research on this very subject when I was putting my USACG tele together. Yes quartersawn is "stronger" but with truss rods it becomes a non issue. I read that you are much more likely to get a tonally dead neck if you go the quartersawn route, not sure if it's true or not but the flatsawn birdseye maple neck on my tele build sure does resonate! Also if you are finishing yourself I can't say enough good things about tru-oil for a finish on the neck, feels like butter and very protective.

_Shane
 
I've played a few quarter-sawn necks that wanted to jump out of my hand when I strummed. Really cool resonant wood.
 
rupe":c4iie2iw said:
Quarterswan is typically brighter but not always. It is definitely less prone to warpage. If you plan to leave the neck unfinished or use a light oil finish, I would recommend you go that route...if you plan a more traditional finish, you should be fine with flatsawn. Traditional Charvel necks were quartersawn.
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Bill,
I was always under the impression that the original Charvel necks were flat sawn. That they didn't start doing quartersawn until this more recent custom shop stuff.
 
Here's what Tom Anderson thinks:

we buy flat sawn maple. when we use mahogany we use quartersawn. maple is so dense and so stable that i have not found an advantage to quartersawn. in fact, in the early days we did both and had more failures with quartersawn so i stopped buying it.
mahogany on the other hand is stiffer when quartered so we use it there.
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generally speaking, the prettier the least stable. imho. as for slab vs. quartered, i feel, contrary to public opinion that slab cut hard maple is as strong, and perhaps more stable than quarter sawn maple. we have made 10,000 guitars and i have seen enough movement to entitle me to this opinion. it is however my opinion. for mahogany, i do favor quarted wood. the grain structure of the two qoods is as different as tey could be, so you can not put a blanket rule on all woods.
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Also, don't forget that, while flat sawn can sometimes move, it generally moves in a way that the truss rod can fix. If a quarter sawn neck moves, it tends to curl instead. This cannot be cured by a simple truss rod adjustment.
 
Excellent, guys. Thanks. I'm anxious to get my Promod back in action after an unfortunate accident with the stock neck.

So Im gathering that if I choose flatsawn, I should go with a laquer sealant instead of tung-oil or tru-oil? If so, My total is basically $10 cheaper than selecting Quartersawn and using Tung-oil, and I still end up with a neck that costs me over $350. :confused:
 
MississippiMetal":3xtklru7 said:
Excellent, guys. Thanks. I'm anxious to get my Promod back in action after an unfortunate accident with the stock neck.

So Im gathering that if I choose flatsawn, I should go with a laquer sealant instead of tung-oil or tru-oil? If so, My total is basically $10 cheaper than selecting Quartersawn and using Tung-oil, and I still end up with a neck that costs me over $350. :confused:
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What options are you getting? If you want to just replace that neck with something similar get the size you want and get a compound radius. That's $220. Then buy some Tru Oil at a gun store for less than $10 and put it on yourself.
 
Im getting maple neck, rosewood fb, stainless jumbo frets,10-16 compound radius, reverse headstock, standard dots, R3 floyd nut shelf.
 
My Andersons have flatsawn necks that are rock solid and very stable. Don't think I've ever owned a guitar with a quarter sawn neck, though.
 
Thanks again guys. I went ahead and put an order through specifying rock maple instead of the QS, which saved me $70.
I simply put into the additional comments field that they please choose a blank with as little grain runout as possible.
 
tru oil will seal and protect and will leave the neck feeling amazing. Trust me on this one.
 
Wait, the cut can effect the overall tone of the wood? :confused:

That's a new one.
 
Chubtone":1hn88dqw said:
rupe":1hn88dqw said:
Quarterswan is typically brighter but not always. It is definitely less prone to warpage. If you plan to leave the neck unfinished or use a light oil finish, I would recommend you go that route...if you plan a more traditional finish, you should be fine with flatsawn. Traditional Charvel necks were quartersawn.
Click to expand...

Bill,
I was always under the impression that the original Charvel necks were flat sawn. That they didn't start doing quartersawn until this more recent custom shop stuff.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected, thanks. I'm not sure why I thought that...I just checked my pre-pro and sure enough, it's flatsawn.
 
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