Question for MM,)

[PRCpower]

Sorry for bothering you but i was wondering why don't you cut your necks quartersawn?
I was just wondering feeling it would be nice to see and to feel a little more secure that your neck will be straight as a Legolas arrow.) Although the neck on my silo is straight as an arrow. Would it be more expensive to you, much more scrape or what?
Thanx,)

 

[Big Poppa]

Hey Prc

THanks for your inquiry Someone from the rngineering staf will respond.

I noticed that you are trying to private message me....please dont do that....Thanks a bunch

 

[MikeVt]

They do it that way because.....

Oh wait - you must mean someone from the actual EB engineering staff - not the Knucklehead staff.

Mike

 

[Dargin]

Dudley will be by later...he can explain it much more clearly than I can.

 

[Guitarburetor]

How Wood is Sawn...

Here is a link to a web site that describes clearly how trees are cut into boards.

What is Quartersawn Wood?

In the lumber industry, "Quarter sawn" wood does not mean that the growth rings are always vertical. Quarter sawing is a compromise between Plain sawing and rift sawing, and produces boards that vary in degree of vertical grain depending on which part of the quartered tree they come out of.

Rift sawing is the most ideal way to cut a tree to achieve vertical grain, but produces a great deal of waste, and is not done by sawmills wanting to yield the most usable wood out of a log, which hey- they all do.

Much of the wood that we use is quarter sawn, and it should be mentioned that flat sawn wood can produce excellent necks. However the board is sawn, the main concern is keeping the grain parallel to the length of the neck and avoiding run out of the grain as much as possible.

Because of the shape of a guitar neck, and the nearly unlimited variations in wood grain, it is not possible to always get the perfect grain. We select our wood carefully, and cut most of our neck wood from larger boards, so we have more control of grain patterns than makers who buy all their wood blanked out.

 

[paranoid70]

Interesting. Never really thought about all of that before.

 

[RobW]

that is interesting.

what about the wood for the pretty quilt and flame tops? Is that quartersawn as well?

 

[whitestrat]

The cool thing is, none of the necks on any of my EBMMs are flatsawn (plain)... I always thought that qtr sawn always yielded vertical grain lines and riftsawn. According to this article posted, it's the rift sawn that's the higher end one. Hmm... odd... Meaning, all my guitars are quartersawn!!! That's odd...

 

[PRCpower]

Hey Prc

THanks for your inquiry Someone from the rngineering staf will respond.

I noticed that you are trying to private message me....please dont do that....Thanks a bunch

About PM i figured it out. You would probably get tons of PM.
Now the question still stands. Why not quartersawn?

 

[Spudmurphy]

^
I think Dudley(guitarburetor) has mentioned that they do cut the wood quartersawn but not always.

 

[whitestrat]

About PM i figured it out. You would probably get tons of PM.
Now the question still stands. Why not quartersawn?

I've noticed thatmost EBMM guitars (or at least, all 3 of mine...) feature a slanted grain when viewed from the top down. This indicates either an angled flatsawn cut closer to the center of the grain, or most likely quartersawn (both have the same grains)...

 

[whitestrat]

Much of the wood that we use is quarter sawn, and it should be mentioned that flat sawn wood can produce excellent necks. However the board is sawn, the main concern is keeping the grain parallel to the length of the neck and avoiding run out of the grain as much as possible.

That is a great thing to know!!!!! Thanks Dudley!!!

 

[banjoplayer]

That´s what I call a new question. Not one of those, which come from time to time regularly...
Interesting, very interesting.

 

[beej]

Very cool answer ... thanks Dudley!

I took a pic at the open house of some necks-to-be ... illustrates what Dudley said about picking the portions of the wood most suitable to be necks.

 

[candid_x]

Very interesting thread. Both of my MM neck grains are lengthwise of the neck, one in particular.

Thanks for the pics, Beej.

I've read that quarter sawn necks tend to be brighter and tighter sounding.

 

[PRCpower]

Beej, the grain on the wood that he chose to later be necks runs parallel to the length of the neck to be and that's good. The grain on my silo when take off the neck and look from pickups to the nut shows lets say 40degrees cut angle.
I would really like someone from engineering staff to answer few questions.
Although if the neck is perfect in every way and the quality of wood if top notch and that the guitar sounds right im happy but as i said before it would be nice that the music man necks are quartersawn.

 

[DavidOfOz]

...In the lumber industry, "Quarter sawn" wood does not mean that the growth rings are always vertical. Quarter sawing is a compromise between Plain sawing and rift sawing...

Great explanation, Dudley. Clear and concise. Thanks for that!

 

[Astrofreq]

What does sewing have to do with guitars?

 

[Dizzy]

You mean to tell me that the EB necks aren't individual little tree trunks grown and nurtured by BP and scantily clad maidens in his very own back yard ?????

I'm crushed !!!!

It can't be true !

It's like finding out Santa doesn't exist all over again !

 

[Quarter]

I think that when it comes to maple necks, a properly dried and cured piece of wood is more important than it being flat, riff, or quarter sawn.

And as Dudley pointed out, regardless of cut, excessive grain runout is what you want to avoid.