Very interesting test. Sound differences are negligible and would never be distinguishable to non-guitar players or in a mix (I'm listening on Genelec 8040 studio monitors). What would be really interesting to know is which is the strongest/most stable.
Maybe not, but the slight differences have some effect on the harmonic range generated b4 an amp tone stack can change the tone, which affects harmonics down the line. Listeners may not know or care about any of that, but the brain does register the sound.
@@GCKelloch but those harmonic frequencies would be slight and compensated for by other instruments in a mix setting. Agreed it’s perceivable when playing alone, in a room, in front of an amp - But anything beyond that it would be washed over. The feel and strength however are far more important factors to consider.
I agree, soundwise it appears to be negigible. But maybe feeling-wise it could be very different. I much prefer a smooth finish over a grainy-oily finish so I find the video very useful.
In blind test I was wrong with roasted maple and wedge. So the differences are audible but not dramatic by any means. Roasted maple is imho the king: eco friendly, stable, nice looking and has that universally good sound. All the rest is just a matter of aesthetics, not the tone wood mambo-jumbo. Great vid, as always. You do a GREAT job with debunking all the myths.
I guess part of the "difference" comes from his playing. He won't be able to play each note 100% the same. The stroke will be slightly different resulting in a slightly different tone. I dont know how the choice of different neck woods could affect the string vibrations which is what the pickups "pick up".
The Canary was the nicest looking neck to, but I felt was also brighter than the roasted maple neck. I think I really liked the sound of the Wenge neck myself. Great shootout 👍
It's amazing how Goncalo Alves sounds like clean and driven... sounds big and wide clean, but not so much when driven... amazing... Thank you for ALL the great videos.. :D
Excellent job playing and editing, as always! I could, at no point, hear an appreciable difference... So I guess buy the wood you think it prettiest or has a nice feel.
I've always been curious about Gonçalo Alves. For starters because it is a light coloured wood that doesn't require finish but I was surprised it was the heaviest. Great job once again. Pity you left out Pau Ferro. I love it's caramel mocha hues. Always thought about making a Pau Ferro tele, like George Harrison's but Pau Ferro instead of Rosewood.
I have a Warmoth Gonçalo neck for my strat (kingwood fretboard), and I really love it. You feel the weight; the guitar wants to rest a little differently, but it doesn't dive down like an SG. I don't know if I'd go so far as calling it velvety, but it is the smoothest neck I've ever played (I want all satin necks now!)
Here's a tip. Buy the one that you think looks/feels the best. Woods may make a difference in solid body electric guitars, but it's not something a guitar amp EQ can't balance. Don't stress this stuff! Playing guitar is supposed to be fun!!
@ matt, I agree... I have a rosewood strat and when I checked out an 🇺🇸 professional 2 telecaster Miami Blue, which as maple, was awesome. Then I checked out an Ibanez AZS 2200 prestige and it has a roasted maple. So these will be my next 2 🎸 cause I love the necks on both 🎸
While I enjoyed the video and appreciate the amount of work that goes into this shootout (and the editing that gets it down to a very nice short video), even with decent headphones, my 60+ year old ears didn't sense much of a difference. I would be deciding based upon my eyes and my wallet. Thanks for making this. Any neck that smelled like maple syrup wins. I hope we get a followup video of you with your rosewood neck.
10:31 Maybe ask Phil X if he needs a fast string changing tech? Good tone test Aaron, thanx for all the work this video created. For mine, using the Roast Maple as the baseline, I found the Canary close in tone in clean tones to that. To me the Rosewood sounded the darkest, but Goncalo Alves was very close in tone to Rosewood. I found Wenge had a different set of midrange tone set to the others. CAVEAT: I have damaged hearing and I wasn't wearing my hearing aids, so YMMV.
I've met and talked w/ Phil X a few times. Super nice and talented guy with an intensity and enthusiasm that is contagious. I'd change string for him, but only if he gives me a Phil X action figure for the neck pickup cavity of my guitar.
Most of my builds have used maple necks, but I used a mahogany neck with a maple fretboard on my Jazzmaster build. I did a 3 tone sunburst on a basswood body, but first I stained the body black then sanded most of the black off so the body looked slightly burned, so it came out really nice.
Excellent,all sound good,my pick was Rosewood,and Roasted Maple,kind of a snap to the note,but subtle,good to see Aaron again,always detailed,and informative
Loved the test. I didn't get one right but I will say that I could hear the differences. I was able to pick out the Goncalo Alves and Rosewood as they were very similar. In the sighted test, I kind of really preferred the Rosewood over the GA. All the necks sounded great. I have 3 roasted flame maple necks from Warmoth and they are absolutely superb. I may have to find a use for that Rosewood though. Again, nice test.
Yes, I think this is a very honest response. Thank-you! Back-to-back you can hear there are differences, but identifying them in a blind test is almost impossible with any accuracy. GA was the easiest, for sure!
Awesome shootout, Aaron! I have a Wenge baritone neck with an ebony fretboard arriving tomorrow. I'm so excited to get to work on this project. Then I can start on my next Warmoth guitar.
How is it? I'd imagine the dark tone of the wenge would eliminate the thinning out effect that baritone scale can have? Then the brightness of ebony would balance it out well?
@@rikosimmo Well, I'm still waiting to get it back from my luthier. I needed him to install the electronics and give it a setup. I'll let you know when I get it back. I have a Gibson SG with similar pickups in it and an ebony fretboard. Bare knuckle alnico Nailbomb in the SG and Bare knuckle Silo in the baritone. So it will be interesting to hear whenever I get it back.
Bought a GA neck last year. On initial setup, I found the sound to be compressed and bright, and the neck feeling too stiff when bending. After lots of tests with different setups, I realized that the amount of truss rod tension has a big impact on the guitar tone and neck feel. This Gotoh mechanism is very precise and it can translates a lot of tension to the truss rod, more than any other double rod I have used before. What I did is reduce the tension as much as I could, before I incurred in loose of string action. And.. bingo! you get a tone closer to a traditional single truss rod, with the benefits of the double. My point: I think is is very difficult to compare necks with this type of rod, becuase the adjustment of the Gotoh mechanism can drastically change the tone.
The differences in feel were greater than the differences in tone. The only one I think I could pick in a blind test with any accuracy is Goncalo Alves. In this group of five necks it sounded very different from the rest.
I've been playing a warmoth wenge neck with an ebony board with stainless steel frets on my jaguar for about 5 years. I absolutely love it. I chose it purely for the open grain feel. It's also beautiful. Also seems to be the most stable out of all my guitars tuning-wise.
Thanks Aaron, much appreciated topic, and a great presentation! Particularly appreciate the shortness of the demo clips (for my goldfish memory) and your own comments at the end. I had a Goncalo Alves (+ pau ferro fingerboard) strat neck once, and loved it! It did have a sort of sweet top end (no ice-pick), but it was also super clear and articulate. Particularly the bass notes were amazing - clear like a grand piano. Playing it was like driving a sports car!
1:28 Test # 1 Roasted Maple 1:37 Test # 1 Canary 1:45 Test # 1 Wenge 1:53 Test # 1 Goncalo Alves 2:01 Test # 1 Rosewood 2:12 Test # 2 Roasted Maple 2:23 Test # 2 Canary 2:33 Test # 2 Wenge 2:43 Test # 2 Goncalo Alves 2:53 Test # 2 Rosewood 3:05 Test # 3 Roasted Maple 3:09 Test # 3 Canary 3:13 Test # 3 Wenge 3:17 Test # 3 Goncalo Alves 3:21 Test # 3 Rosewood 3:30 Test # 4 Roasted Maple 3:38 Test # 4 Canary 3:46 Test # 4 Wenge 3:54 Test # 4 Goncalo Alves 4:01 Test # 4 Rosewood 4:10 Test # 5 Mystery wood 1 4:22 Test # 5 Mystery wood 2 4:34 Test # 5 Mystery wood 3 4:47 Test # 5 Mystery wood 4 4:59 Test # 5 Mystery wood 5
I own a Warmoth Indian Rosewood neck and love it. I read a tip on the forum and burnished mine. Burnishing is sanding it in progressively finer grits (factory is I think 200 - I went up to 3k). I did it while watching a few B-grade movies. It looks finished, but is absolutely silky. Zero tackiness, even with sweaty hands.
The differences are so subtle! Was better able to hear some in the blind shootout though I had no idea which wood was which. After you revealed the woods I though roasted maple had slightly more bottom and canary was slightly brighter. Aaron, you rock. That was a lot of work to put this out, thank you!
Goncalo is the only one I think I could pick out of a blind test with any accuracy. When you actually play them, though....the differences are much more pronounced.
Thanks so much for doing this! I am addicted to bare wood necks. I have 2 PRS Indian Rosewood necks & one with a Brazilian Rosewood neck. Back in the old days of the original PRS forum, we started calling them crackwood. 😊 Glad to hear the the Roasted Maple can be left bare. I nailed the Canary & the Rosewood. I thought #5 was either Roasted Maple or Wenge.
I think it comes down to asthetics in this regard. Differences are too minimal to make a difference. I've had a rosewood neck before and it was great. I have a roasted maple neck now and it's also great. I'd like to mirror what another guy asked. Which one would be the most stable? I would think the rosewood.
Great comparison video, thanks! I couldn't hear any differences when you played 'em all, and my 2/5 "correct" score is probably just lucky guesses. I have a Warmoth canary strat replacement neck and two Ibanez wenge necks, and these are my favorites compared to many maple necks I have/had. I guess I like a bit of grainy/waxy feel. Really appreciate the weight comparison you included. I know necks don't vary nearly as much as bodies, but I've always wondered about the neck wood variance b/c that's not listed on showcase items.
Great video. Most of the differences are subtle. Good to get your feedback on the way each neck feels. Goncalo Alves was a revelation. I think this video might have sold a few of those... Maybe you could do a part 2 with any of the woods you might have missed, Reg. Maple, maple/rosewood etc.
Beautiful woods. On a whim I just bought a Warmoth Gibson-scale neck in Mahogany with 12 inch radius (maybe trying to channel my beloved Les Paul) and it too is beautiful. Clear satin nitro, and I just love the beautiful grain. Sounds amazing with 10 gauge strings. Couldn't be happier except maybe if I had that nice Goncalo.
Jake E Lee's personal Charvel guitars have mahogany necks, which his pricey and cool Signature models do not! Wonder if I'd like a Strat Fender scale Mahogany neck with .009 gauge strings... chunky profile of course, not like these small necks which are really a strain to play.
I don't know what I preferred, but every time I noticed a clear difference it was Goncalo Alves. When I bought my Yamaha acoustic, it had a rosewood neck, for the first time ever for me. It felt really nice, played nice and sounded nice. It was actually sort of sticky feeling, yet nothing stuck to fingers. Like touching honey that is phobic of any other material.
This is very interesting video. I am always interested in each exotic wood sound but nowhere to find comparison! If you can, please compare exotic fingerboard next time. Thank you!
Picked out two necks correctly, in the blind test. The Canary, Roasted Maple…they had the most distinctive tones. The others were all really close to each other? I didn’t guess on those. I have a quarter sawn Wenge/Wenge neck on a Tele Deluxe style guitar. I like it a lot. How a guitar build all comes together is always interesting? Neck is more of a feel thing. Most of your Tone comes from the pickups, amp, speaker and string gauge choice. I would never be worried used any warmoth neck, or replacing one for another. They’re all great!
Got the canary and maple right. They were the most different (maple => more lows, canary => thinner). The other 3 I thought were broadly similar in that they had more mid range.
I've got warmoth canary neck paired with the chambered korina strat body. This couple sounds brighter than SG, but bit darker than LP, and it's definitely in the Gibson tone zone with warm and punchy tone. Love it!
Unfinished exotic woods make me sooooo happy as a guitarist. What was surprising to me is that the past few maple necks I've bought all needed significant fret leveling (all within Warmoth's standard specs/disclosures). My two padauk necks didn't need *any* leveling (ebony & pau Ferro boards). No clue if I got lucky with these two, but that's a major upside for these. PLEK jobs can cost as much as a neck!
I’ve only played Les Pauls so mahogany necks simply for the tone but I love how rosewood looks. I wonder how much of a tonal difference it would make. I’m planning on building a Warmoth telecaster in the very near future
I love my Goncalo Alves Warhead with Pau Ferro fretboard and stainless frets. Bolted to a Warmoth Tele hybrid made of black Korina with Lace Sensors- it absolutely screams. Yet, allows so much tonal variety when using dynamics and touch sensitivity. It's slick, fast, and buttery smooth. Out of all woods I've tried for necks, it is by far my favorite.
It's very oily/waxy. That adds weight, and also damps more highs. Indian RW is a close second. Wenge has the hardest fibers of the bunch, but is also waxy, and the numerous large pores allow more resonance damping. Sounds like a loss in the upper-mids, yet the attack is very strong.
even on my laptop's crappy little pancake speakers, the goncalo neck was pretty distinct. i only managed to pick that one and the canary neck correctly in the blind test. now i just really want to try one out to see what that "velvety" feel is all about!
I didn't manage to hear substantial differences, listening with good headphones on my laptop. On the contrary, it was on distorted sounds that some minute differences seemed audible to me, but not to the point of linking them to a specific wood. I didn't even bother to associate sounds with woods in the blind test. My point is: I'll accept any of them, if you send them for free. They are equally compelling to me.
I enjoyed the slightly brighter sound or both the canary wood and the rosewood, I recently did my first guitar build and my neck is a purple heart center strip with maple sides and a rosewood fretboard (which looks good with the body being a solid piece of purple heart), I still need to route out the spot for the Floyd rose tremolo system so that I can string it so that I can hear it, but I haven't gotten to that part yet.
I confess, I can't hear the difference in any of them. Besides weight and feel, another factor would be tuning stability. Do you have any ideas about that?
Good question! I didn't struggle getting any of these necks into tune long enough to shoot the clips. However, none of the necks were on long enough to get a good feel for how they hold tune over time.
I feel like I may be able to hear slight differences if I focus on the sound, but I might be imagining it. That being said, I've never been really good at picking up under/overtones.
Always stellar presentations. Beings I was picked as the winner for the replacement neck you can send me the 21 fret rosewood with medium tall ss frets and pleked. I’ll be looking for UPS to drop it off. Thanks.
Thanks for doing these videos. I get so sick of hearing about rosewood having a “dark” tone, because it’s just not how it goes. Guitarists hear too much with their eyes. Anyways, the subtly of the differences just shows that we all need to stop nerding out about wood, and just build a guitar that kicks butt for us as individuals. Love what you guys do, and my Warmoth soloist is my number one for gigging!
Players also nerd out about pickups that have very slight differences, and pay exorbitant prices for something they may assume sounds better, yet can't describe what about the sound is "better", and then justify their choice because they paid more. The damping characteristics of a particular wood combination is almost impossible to predict, but can often be in the ball park. Complex damping response can be emulated with some type of ducking eq, but players like the way certain guitars naturally damp.
@@GCKelloch Yeah, I mean I don’t really care what people do or how much money they spend. It’s more a matter of there being a certain amount of placebo with all of this stuff. At the end of the day I do spend the money on the pickups and wood that I want, but it’s not because they have any magical tone properties. Good stuff is good stuff.
Aaron, which neck do you like for over driven sounds? Have you tried any of those necks with humbuckers on overdrive sounds? - Thanks for this, it was most cool!
Though I loved it for clean stuff, Goncalo is the one I would NOT pick for distorted sounds. Any of the rest would be great. Of the exotic woods I would opt for Rosewood just because I like its look and feel more than the others.
Hey I think it would be great if you compare a bad heavy maple neck with an old, light and cortison maple neck for example. Thank you, your reviews are the best
Surprising! I can always hear differences and I couldn't really tell except on the single note playing, where there were subtle diffs in sustain and maybe a tiny bit of color (canary was a tad brighter, the wenge a tiny bit drier?). Forget the individual wood choice, the entire spectrum just isn't that wide, at least for these 5 woods.
@@GCKelloch the total variance between those choices was low, so its harder to separate each choice. Could just be neck wood doesn't matter that much, in general (nut to neck to body to pickup is just too big a set of jumps). But maybe flat sawn unroasted maple or walnut vs koa vs mahogany would widen out the perceivable gaps. Maybe not.
I've never heard a music fan at a concert shout out. I like how the canary wood tele neck sounds. But Ive definitely had people stare at my flame maple fretboard and neck. So there ya go...
In an electric guitar only pickup height,pickups and the player determine tone. Nothing else matters one iota. I understand why companies like Warmoth and PRS insist it makes a difference but it simply doesn't. This has been proven beyond a doubt by others who know far more than I.
Great video, thanks for your insights. For me, any perceived tonal differences between neck wood types are negligible. For me, differences in necks is more about profile (hand comfort) and fretboard wood type and finish that affects how it plays. Also the finish on the back of the neck affects how it feels in my hand. Lastly, the way it looks wrt to grain and colour affects how I feel about it in my heart 😊
I've owned a Canary neck for a few years now, and it has been very stable. I don't think of it as being brighter than maple. I would describe it as more focused; the fundamental more pronounced. The very subtle wood grain gives it a feel that I have described as velvety, though Aaron saved that adjective for Goncalo Alves. The more I play it the better it feels.
I couldn't guess the necks at all, but the Canary sounds the brightest to me without sounding harsh. I think the Wenge fibers are the hardest. Harder even than Ebony, but the large pores reduce weight and allow more vibration damping in the upper-midrange. Listen back to the strum comparison, though. It seems to have the hardest strum sound. That's where the fiber hardness matters. It would probably have the most high-end if the guitar speaker didn't roll off the highs. My Wenge neck w/stainless frets has a very hard attack sound I'm not crazy about. The GA neck seems to have the softest attack. The RM has the least midrange.
First, thanks for doing this review it was very helpful. All of the necks look very beautiful and I'm attracted to each one of them for different reasons. Also, thank you for weighing them cuz that was one of my first questions. As to tone, they all sounded the same to me. But my ears must be clogged because I expected a big difference especially between the roasted maple and the Rosewood. I'll have to listen to the recordings again. Lastly, there is no way that we will believe you spent 25 years in a different job. If I had to guess I would have thought you are in your forties so unless you were working in your family's business as a child there's no way that you're that old. Thanks again for the review I'm in the market for a new neck and this really opened up some new possibilities for me.
The only 2: necks I heard about is roasted maple and rosewood but rosewood is not available as it was before. What guitars are the other necks come on stock ❓
Before I even begin to watch the video, the answer is "No". Only based on the usage of the word, "better". Because "better" means nothing without some qualifiers. ..ok...now on to watch the video, which I know I'll enjoy. Because I always do. (With the preemptive thumbs up, like button, pushed.)
Great video. I didn’t get any right 😅 My main guitar have a roasted neck shaft with a wenge fretboard. Sounds great. But so does other Warmoth guitars I have that are equipped with necks made of roasted maple with roasted maple fretbords and ebony fretboards.
I didn't do the blind test. They do sound very similar to each others. I think the difference would be more apparent to you (as the player) than us the audiences. Appreciate the experiment, very interesting. I think I've seen a neck made with Mango wood before, might be mistaken. I'm thinking that it could replace maple in making guitar in the SEA area given that it can be sourced locally (rather than import it from the America like Maple). Probably sales might not be so good until someone call it an exotic wood or something. Oh and I think someone made guitars using Jack Fruit wood or Durian before. Now I'm starting to get hungry!
Once again, I think the biggest difference has nothing to do with sound. It is about inspiration and "the muse". If one look/feel inspires you to pick up one guitar more than another, it is worth it. Because a guitar being played always sounds better than a guitar in the case.
I would love to put together an all Korina strat...I wish you would offer Korina necks...l can hear the subtle differences in tone...it may not matter to some,but I'll always go for that 3-5% difference in the right direction!
Although the differences were subtle, I liked the rosewood the best in the tests. I didn’t try to identify the different woods in the mystery test, just listened for the best tone. When the rosewood was played, I picked it as the best sounding… again to my ears.
I liked the Canary (never ever heard of before btw) one the best, both in the blind and in the unblind shootout. It had the most natural, woody and present sounding tone, without any hole in the frequency range. The Goncalo (again never heard of before) was my least favorite and I could easily pick it up in the blind test, as it’s got some holes in the frequency range which make it unpleasant, unnatural and cheap sounding to my ears. I surely agree, the Roasted maple one was less bright than the Canary... you were surprised, I wasn’t at all: roasted maple ALWAYS sounds muffled in the high treble to my ears. I always prefer non-roasted maple for this very reason. Rosewood was my second favorite, and again the blind test confirmed my impressions about rosewood: as good as it looks, it’s always got a bit of a mid-scooped tone. Maple always sounds like it has a “mid to high mid boost” compared to rosewood. Great comparison, thanks a lot!
No difference in sound on my studio monitors. On an acoustic, the minor differences will come out a bit, and MAYBE on hyper-clean low-output pickups on a jazzbox. But definitely nothing looking hard at your EQ wouldn't affect just as much once you put even moderate of output on your pickups and absolutely nothing once you put some drive to your amp. It's all about aesthetics and ergonomics (looks, grain feel, stability). I'm partial to oiled maple/walnut laminate necks because I love the feel.
awesome video yet again :) seems to me, changing the neck changes the transient and attack of the note more than the overall tone, could not hear a lof difference there
Yep. The properties of the wood will of course stay the same, but the best choice might be different because the goal for tone is different. For bass I would probably look at Wenge first.
The differences is minute. Best way to measure the difference in these is with an oscilloscope. Then you would see how small the actual difference is between these necks. My last project I used a Wenge neck, love the look and I will buy another for sure.
I just ordered a rosewood tele neck with an ebony fingerboard and white binding. Stoked to try it! My current favorite neck by far is the rosewood neck on my Musicman Axis Super Sport Rosewood LTD.
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Very interesting test. Sound differences are negligible and would never be distinguishable to non-guitar players or in a mix (I'm listening on Genelec 8040 studio monitors). What would be really interesting to know is which is the strongest/most stable.
tonewood is a lie
Thanks for saying it.
Maybe not, but the slight differences have some effect on the harmonic range generated b4 an amp tone stack can change the tone, which affects harmonics down the line. Listeners may not know or care about any of that, but the brain does register the sound.
@@GCKelloch but those harmonic frequencies would be slight and compensated for by other instruments in a mix setting. Agreed it’s perceivable when playing alone, in a room, in front of an amp - But anything beyond that it would be washed over. The feel and strength however are far more important factors to consider.
I agree, soundwise it appears to be negigible. But maybe feeling-wise it could be very different. I much prefer a smooth finish over a grainy-oily finish so I find the video very useful.
In blind test I was wrong with roasted maple and wedge. So the differences are audible but not dramatic by any means. Roasted maple is imho the king: eco friendly, stable, nice looking and has that universally good sound. All the rest is just a matter of aesthetics, not the tone wood mambo-jumbo. Great vid, as always. You do a GREAT job with debunking all the myths.
I guess part of the "difference" comes from his playing. He won't be able to play each note 100% the same. The stroke will be slightly different resulting in a slightly different tone.
I dont know how the choice of different neck woods could affect the string vibrations which is what the pickups "pick up".
The Goncalo Alves was fun to discover. The rosewood is beautiful. Great shootout, Aaron! Really appreciated this share!!!
I could hear my two favorites in the blind test: Canary and Rosewood. But I could not guess the others.
That canary neck might be the most beautiful neck I've ever seen.
The Canary was the nicest looking neck to, but I felt was also brighter than the roasted maple neck. I think I really liked the sound of the Wenge neck myself. Great shootout 👍
It's amazing how Goncalo Alves sounds like clean and driven... sounds big and wide clean, but not so much when driven... amazing... Thank you for ALL the great videos.. :D
Excellent job playing and editing, as always! I could, at no point, hear an appreciable difference... So I guess buy the wood you think it prettiest or has a nice feel.
You are correct. That's what someone who can't tell the difference should do.
This. Sonically they are incredibly similar. Aesthetically they are what you like to look at and feel.
Another Tone deaf guitarist? How surprised I am.
Great neck shootout , thank you for taking the time to do all this !!!
Canary and wenge had the most noticeable tone difference to me... I got it and the wenge in the blind portion too. Really like that Canary.
I've always been curious about Gonçalo Alves. For starters because it is a light coloured wood that doesn't require finish but I was surprised it was the heaviest. Great job once again. Pity you left out Pau Ferro. I love it's caramel mocha hues. Always thought about making a Pau Ferro tele, like George Harrison's but Pau Ferro instead of Rosewood.
I have a Warmoth Gonçalo neck for my strat (kingwood fretboard), and I really love it. You feel the weight; the guitar wants to rest a little differently, but it doesn't dive down like an SG. I don't know if I'd go so far as calling it velvety, but it is the smoothest neck I've ever played (I want all satin necks now!)
I think I’m in love with that rosewood neck, I liked the tone and had no problem picking it out of the crowd. Keep up the good work with the videos!
Here's a tip. Buy the one that you think looks/feels the best. Woods may make a difference in solid body electric guitars, but it's not something a guitar amp EQ can't balance.
Don't stress this stuff! Playing guitar is supposed to be fun!!
best comment here.
@ matt, I agree... I have a rosewood strat and when I checked out an 🇺🇸 professional 2 telecaster Miami Blue, which as maple, was awesome. Then I checked out an Ibanez AZS 2200 prestige and it has a roasted maple. So these will be my next 2 🎸 cause I love the necks on both 🎸
Yup, don't stress this stuff... if maple was good enough for Clapton, hendrix, srv, and evh, I'll bet it's good enough for you
yeah but nerding out over different configurations and types of woods is like 90% of the fun for a lot of us lol
Why do guitarists (especially non-professionals) LOVE to tell other guitarists how to enjoy the guitar/being a guitarist?
Canary & Wenge sounds surprisingly great, more hi-def ringing out
Interesting test. The tonal differences were well within the range of my tone knob or any EQ to tone match. Thanks
While I enjoyed the video and appreciate the amount of work that goes into this shootout (and the editing that gets it down to a very nice short video), even with decent headphones, my 60+ year old ears didn't sense much of a difference. I would be deciding based upon my eyes and my wallet. Thanks for making this. Any neck that smelled like maple syrup wins. I hope we get a followup video of you with your rosewood neck.
10:31 Maybe ask Phil X if he needs a fast string changing tech? Good tone test Aaron, thanx for all the work this video created.
For mine, using the Roast Maple as the baseline, I found the Canary close in tone in clean tones to that. To me the Rosewood sounded the darkest, but Goncalo Alves was very close in tone to Rosewood. I found Wenge had a different set of midrange tone set to the others. CAVEAT: I have damaged hearing and I wasn't wearing my hearing aids, so YMMV.
I've met and talked w/ Phil X a few times. Super nice and talented guy with an intensity and enthusiasm that is contagious. I'd change string for him, but only if he gives me a Phil X action figure for the neck pickup cavity of my guitar.
Guitars made with exotic wood is the guitarist's prized rolex. Thanks for a great video!🤙
Most of my builds have used maple necks, but I used a mahogany neck with a maple fretboard on my Jazzmaster build. I did a 3 tone sunburst on a basswood body, but first I stained the body black then sanded most of the black off so the body looked slightly burned, so it came out really nice.
Didn't realize the Wenge was so figured until you flipped it over to weigh it. Wow ...
I would like to try out a canary wood neck.
Excellent,all sound good,my pick was Rosewood,and Roasted Maple,kind of a snap to the note,but subtle,good to see Aaron again,always detailed,and informative
Loved the test. I didn't get one right but I will say that I could hear the differences. I was able to pick out the Goncalo Alves and Rosewood as they were very similar. In the sighted test, I kind of really preferred the Rosewood over the GA. All the necks sounded great. I have 3 roasted flame maple necks from Warmoth and they are absolutely superb. I may have to find a use for that Rosewood though. Again, nice test.
Yes, I think this is a very honest response. Thank-you! Back-to-back you can hear there are differences, but identifying them in a blind test is almost impossible with any accuracy. GA was the easiest, for sure!
In a blind test, the fourth sound was my favorite.
The runner-up is the second wood neck.
It was a very interesting test.
Awesome shootout, Aaron! I have a Wenge baritone neck with an ebony fretboard arriving tomorrow. I'm so excited to get to work on this project. Then I can start on my next Warmoth guitar.
How is it? I'd imagine the dark tone of the wenge would eliminate the thinning out effect that baritone scale can have? Then the brightness of ebony would balance it out well?
@@rikosimmo Well, I'm still waiting to get it back from my luthier. I needed him to install the electronics and give it a setup. I'll let you know when I get it back.
I have a Gibson SG with similar pickups in it and an ebony fretboard. Bare knuckle alnico Nailbomb in the SG and Bare knuckle Silo in the baritone. So it will be interesting to hear whenever I get it back.
Bought a GA neck last year. On initial setup, I found the sound to be compressed and bright, and the neck feeling too stiff when bending. After lots of tests with different setups, I realized that the amount of truss rod tension has a big impact on the guitar tone and neck feel. This Gotoh mechanism is very precise and it can translates a lot of tension to the truss rod, more than any other double rod I have used before. What I did is reduce the tension as much as I could, before I incurred in loose of string action. And.. bingo! you get a tone closer to a traditional single truss rod, with the benefits of the double.
My point: I think is is very difficult to compare necks with this type of rod, becuase the adjustment of the Gotoh mechanism can drastically change the tone.
First of all, excellent video, Aaron, and excellent playing! Second of all, I couldn’t tell the difference between any of them on my iPhone.
The differences in feel were greater than the differences in tone. The only one I think I could pick in a blind test with any accuracy is Goncalo Alves. In this group of five necks it sounded very different from the rest.
I've been playing a warmoth wenge neck with an ebony board with stainless steel frets on my jaguar for about 5 years. I absolutely love it. I chose it purely for the open grain feel. It's also beautiful. Also seems to be the most stable out of all my guitars tuning-wise.
You always do a great job Aaron. Well done! I think I liked the Wenge the best!
Thanks Aaron, much appreciated topic, and a great presentation! Particularly appreciate the shortness of the demo clips (for my goldfish memory) and your own comments at the end.
I had a Goncalo Alves (+ pau ferro fingerboard) strat neck once, and loved it! It did have a sort of sweet top end (no ice-pick), but it was also super clear and articulate. Particularly the bass notes were amazing - clear like a grand piano. Playing it was like driving a sports car!
1:28 Test # 1 Roasted Maple
1:37 Test # 1 Canary
1:45 Test # 1 Wenge
1:53 Test # 1 Goncalo Alves
2:01 Test # 1 Rosewood
2:12 Test # 2 Roasted Maple
2:23 Test # 2 Canary
2:33 Test # 2 Wenge
2:43 Test # 2 Goncalo Alves
2:53 Test # 2 Rosewood
3:05 Test # 3 Roasted Maple
3:09 Test # 3 Canary
3:13 Test # 3 Wenge
3:17 Test # 3 Goncalo Alves
3:21 Test # 3 Rosewood
3:30 Test # 4 Roasted Maple
3:38 Test # 4 Canary
3:46 Test # 4 Wenge
3:54 Test # 4 Goncalo Alves
4:01 Test # 4 Rosewood
4:10 Test # 5 Mystery wood 1
4:22 Test # 5 Mystery wood 2
4:34 Test # 5 Mystery wood 3
4:47 Test # 5 Mystery wood 4
4:59 Test # 5 Mystery wood 5
I own a Warmoth Indian Rosewood neck and love it. I read a tip on the forum and burnished mine. Burnishing is sanding it in progressively finer grits (factory is I think 200 - I went up to 3k). I did it while watching a few B-grade movies. It looks finished, but is absolutely silky. Zero tackiness, even with sweaty hands.
The differences are so subtle! Was better able to hear some in the blind shootout though I had no idea which wood was which. After you revealed the woods I though roasted maple had slightly more bottom and canary was slightly brighter. Aaron, you rock. That was a lot of work to put this out, thank you!
Goncalo is the only one I think I could pick out of a blind test with any accuracy. When you actually play them, though....the differences are much more pronounced.
Goncalo and canary were my favorites. Please do this for bass necks
Yes on bass necks I agree!
Love the Goncalo on my fretless jazz bass. Grain looks great too
Here's another vote for bass necks!
+1 on bass necks????!!
Good demo! Thanks.
I envy your ability to maintain a consistent touch between the various samples.
In this video, these necks all sound very similar to me. I'm sure I could detect some differences if I could do my own live shootout. (maybe someday)
Great comparison video. I had no idea there's that many different woods available for necks.
Warmoth has a whole laundry list of options on their website
Thanks so much for doing this!
I am addicted to bare wood necks. I have 2 PRS Indian Rosewood necks & one with a Brazilian Rosewood neck. Back in the old days of the original PRS forum, we started calling them crackwood. 😊 Glad to hear the the Roasted Maple can be left bare.
I nailed the Canary & the Rosewood. I thought #5 was either Roasted Maple or Wenge.
I think it comes down to asthetics in this regard. Differences are too minimal to make a difference. I've had a rosewood neck before and it was great. I have a roasted maple neck now and it's also great. I'd like to mirror what another guy asked. Which one would be the most stable? I would think the rosewood.
I think the roasted Maple would be the most stable because it's roasted
Great comparison video, thanks! I couldn't hear any differences when you played 'em all, and my 2/5 "correct" score is probably just lucky guesses. I have a Warmoth canary strat replacement neck and two Ibanez wenge necks, and these are my favorites compared to many maple necks I have/had. I guess I like a bit of grainy/waxy feel. Really appreciate the weight comparison you included. I know necks don't vary nearly as much as bodies, but I've always wondered about the neck wood variance b/c that's not listed on showcase items.
Great video. Most of the differences are subtle. Good to get your feedback on the way each neck feels. Goncalo Alves was a revelation. I think this video might have sold a few of those...
Maybe you could do a part 2 with any of the woods you might have missed, Reg. Maple, maple/rosewood etc.
Beautiful woods. On a whim I just bought a Warmoth Gibson-scale neck in Mahogany with 12 inch radius (maybe trying to channel my beloved Les Paul) and it too is beautiful. Clear satin nitro, and I just love the beautiful grain. Sounds amazing with 10 gauge strings. Couldn't be happier except maybe if I had that nice Goncalo.
Jake E Lee's personal Charvel guitars have mahogany necks, which his pricey and cool Signature models do not!
Wonder if I'd like a Strat Fender scale Mahogany neck with .009 gauge strings... chunky profile of course, not like these small necks which are really a strain to play.
These videos are awesome. I can't wait to watch all the Warmoth videos bc I'm sure I'll learn a lot
I don't know what I preferred, but every time I noticed a clear difference it was Goncalo Alves. When I bought my Yamaha acoustic, it had a rosewood neck, for the first time ever for me. It felt really nice, played nice and sounded nice. It was actually sort of sticky feeling, yet nothing stuck to fingers. Like touching honey that is phobic of any other material.
Love my rosewood Warmoth neck. The way it resonates in my hand lets me feel each note, something my finished necks really don’t do.
This is very interesting video. I am always interested in each exotic wood sound but nowhere to find comparison! If you can, please compare exotic fingerboard next time. Thank you!
Just got a solid rosewood neck from Warmoth. It’s going on a Candy Apple red Tele, so I got red jasper dots (with moon glow side dots). Awesome look.
Be sure to post pics!
Picked out two necks correctly, in the blind test. The Canary, Roasted Maple…they had the most distinctive tones. The others were all really close to each other?
I didn’t guess on those.
I have a quarter sawn Wenge/Wenge neck on a Tele Deluxe style guitar. I like it a lot.
How a guitar build all comes together is always interesting? Neck is more of a feel thing. Most of your Tone comes from the pickups, amp, speaker and string gauge choice.
I would never be worried used any warmoth neck, or replacing one for another. They’re all great!
Got the canary and maple right. They were the most different (maple => more lows, canary => thinner). The other 3 I thought were broadly similar in that they had more mid range.
nonsense. in a blind test you will not pick them out better than by chance. tone wood is not a thing on electric guitars.
@@louiscyfer6944 there's no reason to be a butthole about it. to this guy at least. save it for the real headcases.
I've got warmoth canary neck paired with the chambered korina strat body. This couple sounds brighter than SG, but bit darker than LP, and it's definitely in the Gibson tone zone with warm and punchy tone. Love it!
My ears definetly heard that rosewood. I guessed canary right but I wasn't super sure it was really a lucky guess.
Unfinished exotic woods make me sooooo happy as a guitarist. What was surprising to me is that the past few maple necks I've bought all needed significant fret leveling (all within Warmoth's standard specs/disclosures). My two padauk necks didn't need *any* leveling (ebony & pau Ferro boards). No clue if I got lucky with these two, but that's a major upside for these. PLEK jobs can cost as much as a neck!
I have some of the Canary fretboards on mahogany necks, and I love the sound. The Goncolo really peaked my interest here. That one is next.
I’ve only played Les Pauls so mahogany necks simply for the tone but I love how rosewood looks. I wonder how much of a tonal difference it would make. I’m planning on building a Warmoth telecaster in the very near future
I love my Goncalo Alves Warhead with Pau Ferro fretboard and stainless frets. Bolted to a Warmoth Tele hybrid made of black Korina with Lace Sensors- it absolutely screams. Yet, allows so much tonal variety when using dynamics and touch sensitivity. It's slick, fast, and buttery smooth. Out of all woods I've tried for necks, it is by far my favorite.
It's very oily/waxy. That adds weight, and also damps more highs. Indian RW is a close second. Wenge has the hardest fibers of the bunch, but is also waxy, and the numerous large pores allow more resonance damping. Sounds like a loss in the upper-mids, yet the attack is very strong.
Great video! Although I don't know how you would measure it, I think that relative stiffness would be another factor that would be influencing tone.
even on my laptop's crappy little pancake speakers, the goncalo neck was pretty distinct. i only managed to pick that one and the canary neck correctly in the blind test. now i just really want to try one out to see what that "velvety" feel is all about!
I didn't manage to hear substantial differences, listening with good headphones on my laptop. On the contrary, it was on distorted sounds that some minute differences seemed audible to me, but not to the point of linking them to a specific wood. I didn't even bother to associate sounds with woods in the blind test. My point is: I'll accept any of them, if you send them for free. They are equally compelling to me.
So I chose the right wood for my last build: rosewood!
I just love the look and feel
I enjoyed the slightly brighter sound or both the canary wood and the rosewood, I recently did my first guitar build and my neck is a purple heart center strip with maple sides and a rosewood fretboard (which looks good with the body being a solid piece of purple heart), I still need to route out the spot for the Floyd rose tremolo system so that I can string it so that I can hear it, but I haven't gotten to that part yet.
I wasn't sure which I preferred until the mystery test where the rosewood was really a class apart.
I confess, I can't hear the difference in any of them. Besides weight and feel, another factor would be tuning stability. Do you have any ideas about that?
@@witnessingobscura952 I wondered specifically about the "roasting", which has been touted as magic for maple necks.
Good question! I didn't struggle getting any of these necks into tune long enough to shoot the clips. However, none of the necks were on long enough to get a good feel for how they hold tune over time.
I feel like I may be able to hear slight differences if I focus on the sound, but I might be imagining it. That being said, I've never been really good at picking up under/overtones.
Again, highly educational.Thank you guys for this!
Appreciate the massive effort, Aaron!
I wonder if a 100% Rosewood neck by itself will get you close to the sound of a fully-Rosewood Telecaster.
How about bass necks?
Always stellar presentations. Beings I was picked as the winner for the replacement neck you can send me the 21 fret rosewood with medium tall ss frets and pleked. I’ll be looking for UPS to drop it off. Thanks.
Thanks for doing these videos. I get so sick of hearing about rosewood having a “dark” tone, because it’s just not how it goes. Guitarists hear too much with their eyes. Anyways, the subtly of the differences just shows that we all need to stop nerding out about wood, and just build a guitar that kicks butt for us as individuals. Love what you guys do, and my Warmoth soloist is my number one for gigging!
Players also nerd out about pickups that have very slight differences, and pay exorbitant prices for something they may assume sounds better, yet can't describe what about the sound is "better", and then justify their choice because they paid more. The damping characteristics of a particular wood combination is almost impossible to predict, but can often be in the ball park. Complex damping response can be emulated with some type of ducking eq, but players like the way certain guitars naturally damp.
@@GCKelloch Yeah, I mean I don’t really care what people do or how much money they spend. It’s more a matter of there being a certain amount of placebo with all of this stuff. At the end of the day I do spend the money on the pickups and wood that I want, but it’s not because they have any magical tone properties. Good stuff is good stuff.
Aaron, which neck do you like for over driven sounds? Have you tried any of those necks with humbuckers on overdrive sounds? - Thanks for this, it was most cool!
Though I loved it for clean stuff, Goncalo is the one I would NOT pick for distorted sounds. Any of the rest would be great. Of the exotic woods I would opt for Rosewood just because I like its look and feel more than the others.
Other than one time with the rosewood sounding a bit more forward, I didn't notice a very discernible difference; at least through TH-cam.
Hey I think it would be great if you compare a bad heavy maple neck with an old, light and cortison maple neck for example. Thank you, your reviews are the best
I love the look and feel of my Warmoth Rosewood neck.
Wow I've never heard of some of these woods. I think I like Canary, Goncalo Alves, Rosewood, Wenge In this order.
Surprising! I can always hear differences and I couldn't really tell except on the single note playing, where there were subtle diffs in sustain and maybe a tiny bit of color (canary was a tad brighter, the wenge a tiny bit drier?). Forget the individual wood choice, the entire spectrum just isn't that wide, at least for these 5 woods.
Color is good description. What do you mean by the spectrum isn't that wide?
@@GCKelloch the total variance between those choices was low, so its harder to separate each choice. Could just be neck wood doesn't matter that much, in general (nut to neck to body to pickup is just too big a set of jumps). But maybe flat sawn unroasted maple or walnut vs koa vs mahogany would widen out the perceivable gaps. Maybe not.
Another excellent video and test! Thank you.
I've never heard a music fan at a concert shout out. I like how the canary wood tele neck sounds. But Ive definitely had people stare at my flame maple fretboard and neck. So there ya go...
In an electric guitar only pickup height,pickups and the player determine tone. Nothing else matters one iota.
I understand why companies like Warmoth and PRS insist it makes a difference but it simply doesn't. This has been proven beyond a doubt by others who know far more than I.
Pickup position is missing in your list.
Great video, thanks for your insights. For me, any perceived tonal differences between neck wood types are negligible. For me, differences in necks is more about profile (hand comfort) and fretboard wood type and finish that affects how it plays. Also the finish on the back of the neck affects how it feels in my hand. Lastly, the way it looks wrt to grain and colour affects how I feel about it in my heart 😊
I've owned a Canary neck for a few years now, and it has been very stable. I don't think of it as being brighter than maple. I would describe it as more focused; the fundamental more pronounced. The very subtle wood grain gives it a feel that I have described as velvety, though Aaron saved that adjective for Goncalo Alves. The more I play it the better it feels.
Hi Aaron, can you make a video about what Warmoth does with wood leftovers/scrap wood? Thank your for the videos and greetings from germany 👋
I couldn't guess the necks at all, but the Canary sounds the brightest to me without sounding harsh. I think the Wenge fibers are the hardest. Harder even than Ebony, but the large pores reduce weight and allow more vibration damping in the upper-midrange. Listen back to the strum comparison, though. It seems to have the hardest strum sound. That's where the fiber hardness matters. It would probably have the most high-end if the guitar speaker didn't roll off the highs. My Wenge neck w/stainless frets has a very hard attack sound I'm not crazy about. The GA neck seems to have the softest attack. The RM has the least midrange.
That hard attack might be good for metal?
First, thanks for doing this review it was very helpful. All of the necks look very beautiful and I'm attracted to each one of them for different reasons. Also, thank you for weighing them cuz that was one of my first questions. As to tone, they all sounded the same to me. But my ears must be clogged because I expected a big difference especially between the roasted maple and the Rosewood. I'll have to listen to the recordings again. Lastly, there is no way that we will believe you spent 25 years in a different job. If I had to guess I would have thought you are in your forties so unless you were working in your family's business as a child there's no way that you're that old. Thanks again for the review I'm in the market for a new neck and this really opened up some new possibilities for me.
LOL. I'm a grandpa. 55 years old. Eligible for the senior discount at Denny's.
Another great video Aaron! Sure, it’s mostly subtle differences… but subtle differences tend to add up!
The only 2: necks I heard about is roasted maple and rosewood but rosewood is not available as it was before. What guitars are the other necks come on stock ❓
The wenge had an acoustic quality to the clean tone. I love my wenge necked warmoth bass.
Before I even begin to watch the video, the answer is "No".
Only based on the usage of the word, "better". Because "better" means nothing without some qualifiers.
..ok...now on to watch the video, which I know I'll enjoy. Because I always do. (With the preemptive thumbs up, like button, pushed.)
Great video. I didn’t get any right 😅
My main guitar have a roasted neck shaft with a wenge fretboard. Sounds great. But so does other Warmoth guitars I have that are equipped with necks made of roasted maple with roasted maple fretbords and ebony fretboards.
The only one I think I could pick out with any consistency in a blind test is Goncalo Alves.
I didn't do the blind test. They do sound very similar to each others. I think the difference would be more apparent to you (as the player) than us the audiences.
Appreciate the experiment, very interesting.
I think I've seen a neck made with Mango wood before, might be mistaken. I'm thinking that it could replace maple in making guitar in the SEA area given that it can be sourced locally (rather than import it from the America like Maple). Probably sales might not be so good until someone call it an exotic wood or something.
Oh and I think someone made guitars using Jack Fruit wood or Durian before. Now I'm starting to get hungry!
Once again, I think the biggest difference has nothing to do with sound. It is about inspiration and "the muse". If one look/feel inspires you to pick up one guitar more than another, it is worth it. Because a guitar being played always sounds better than a guitar in the case.
im guessing right no 4 mystery wood rosewood.. but kind of impress with canary no 2.
I would love to put together an all Korina strat...I wish you would offer Korina necks...l can hear the subtle differences in tone...it may not matter to some,but I'll always go for that 3-5% difference in the right direction!
Although the differences were subtle, I liked the rosewood the best in the tests. I didn’t try to identify the different woods in the mystery test, just listened for the best tone. When the rosewood was played, I picked it as the best sounding… again to my ears.
I liked the Canary (never ever heard of before btw) one the best, both in the blind and in the unblind shootout. It had the most natural, woody and present sounding tone, without any hole in the frequency range.
The Goncalo (again never heard of before) was my least favorite and I could easily pick it up in the blind test, as it’s got some holes in the frequency range which make it unpleasant, unnatural and cheap sounding to my ears.
I surely agree, the Roasted maple one was less bright than the Canary... you were surprised, I wasn’t at all: roasted maple ALWAYS sounds muffled in the high treble to my ears. I always prefer non-roasted maple for this very reason.
Rosewood was my second favorite, and again the blind test confirmed my impressions about rosewood: as good as it looks, it’s always got a bit of a mid-scooped tone. Maple always sounds like it has a “mid to high mid boost” compared to rosewood.
Great comparison, thanks a lot!
No difference in sound on my studio monitors. On an acoustic, the minor differences will come out a bit, and MAYBE on hyper-clean low-output pickups on a jazzbox. But definitely nothing looking hard at your EQ wouldn't affect just as much once you put even moderate of output on your pickups and absolutely nothing once you put some drive to your amp. It's all about aesthetics and ergonomics (looks, grain feel, stability). I'm partial to oiled maple/walnut laminate necks because I love the feel.
awesome video yet again :) seems to me, changing the neck changes the transient and attack of the note more than the overall tone, could not hear a lof difference there
Super interesting. Thanks
Something about the Wenge makes me want to bite it🤣 it looks like chocolate graham crackers or something
I liked the rosewood tone the best and guessed it correctly as Mystery neck #4. It has a more full tone to me
they all sounded exactly the same
...if you are deaf they do, absolutely!!!
Interesting... Would the same apply for bass guitar necks in regards to sound?
Yep. The properties of the wood will of course stay the same, but the best choice might be different because the goal for tone is different. For bass I would probably look at Wenge first.
Wow, to me during the blind test the Canary and Rosewood sounded the brightest, I preferred the Rosewood
The differences is minute. Best way to measure the difference in these is with an oscilloscope. Then you would see how small the actual difference is between these necks. My last project I used a Wenge neck, love the look and I will buy another for sure.
Hey Aaron,
My favorite necks by far are Rosewood w/ Ebony boards. I have two of them and I’m going to check out a Wenge one of these days.
I just ordered a rosewood tele neck with an ebony fingerboard and white binding. Stoked to try it! My current favorite neck by far is the rosewood neck on my Musicman Axis Super Sport Rosewood LTD.