Are Exotic Guitar Necks Better Than Maple?
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Published 2023-06-11
Learn more about Warmoth's neck woods here: warmoth.com/guitar-neck-woods
All Comments (21)
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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.
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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.
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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!!
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I could hear my two favorites in the blind test: Canary and Rosewood. But I could not guess the others.
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The Goncalo Alves was fun to discover. The rosewood is beautiful. Great shootout, Aaron! Really appreciated this share!!!
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That canary neck might be the most beautiful neck I've ever seen.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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 👍
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
