👕 Get New Ernie Ball Merch Now!
  • Ernie Ball
  • Music Man
  • Sterling by Music Man
Majesty Premium Select

Question To roasted owners: Now that roasted maple have been around for a while...

a normal unfinished birds-eye mapleneck feels great and smooth, but the unfinished roasted necks feel a lot smoother as the regular ones. it´s really a step further...i wish all my guitars would have those roasted necks. :)
 
The roasted maple of my JP BFR ist by far the most comfortable neck I have ever played. That is the thing to go for..for sure!
 
Speaking specifically about the reflex I think it is really tough to say what the roasted maple adds tonally to the guitars as both runs have used other woods that are not part of the standard insturment but it adds something. So the first run had finished roasted maple necks with Ebony fingerboard, I find my reflex from that PDN run to be very bright and resonant and has a bit more twang than the normal rosewood/maple neck reflex.

The latest PDN reflex has the roasted neck, Pau Ferro fingerboard and the normally basswood section of the body is Mahogany instead, mine is about twice as resonant as all my other reflex guitars, it was set up identically to all the others from the factory but I have had to lower the pickups as the guitar is so resonant it was overloading the input on my normal setup. Also the guitar is 80% tonally different from all my other reflex guitars edging more in to LP'ish territory and it cuts through backing tracks like a hot knife through butter. This is currently my favourite guitar, hands down, no contest.

I personally think that the roasted maple adds something to the "wood chemistry" (as do all the other non standard woods used), the finished neck feels great but the unfinished on the latest PDN is the best feeling MM neck I have ever played. On top of all of that the roasted maple looks really cool as well.
 
If I have to describe the difference with regular necks in one word: Resonance!

Ok, Barny gave a pretty good description too..
 
I would agree, my roasted JP6 cuts through the mix better, has more punch and bottom end than my Dargie II with unfinished maple neck. both have ebony boards. Although I do like the unfinished neck much better to play.
 
Hello Norstorm,

I have a finished roasted neck (Black Sugar) and an unfinished roasted neck (Dark Lord). These are the best necks I've ever played. The guitars both sound amazing and the necks feel wonderful. I agree that they resonate quite well.

The finished roasted neck is on an Axis and my son has an Axis with a finished non-roasted maple neck. Both finished necks feel the same to me. I can't compare tone since the woods are so different, and he has a hardtail versus my Floyd.

Roastedneck2.jpg


It's the unfinished necks that feel so different: the roasted neck feels smoother and faster to me. It feels like an unfinished neck feels after you play it for 15 years or so (when they darken from years of playing). I can use household wall paint as an analogy: an unfinished non-roasted maple neck is like a flat finish, and an unfinished roasted maple neck is like a satin finish.

That being said, I highly recommend the roasted necks in either guise.

Good Luck!

- Bryan
 
Last edited:
matty76 said:
Although I do like the unfinished neck much better to play.
Click to expand...

I have to admit something......I used some steel wool to take the edge of the finish on the finished roasted neck. I found it too sticky squeaky for my liking and a few quick passes with steel wool sorted out for me, I would never take the finish totally off but once you are used to the natural necks the finished neck was just too much (don't get me wrong it was great workmanship and quality just not for me).
 
I have a Black Sugar AL with a finished roasted neck. I love the neck and apparently one of the few that prefer a finished neck over the oil/wax. As far as tonal benefits I can't say because it seems no matter what guitar I use I end up sounding pretty much the same.....LOL!
 
as my roasted is one of my main players and gets gigged regularly (no longer just a showpiece) I had thought about sanding the finish off as well.
 
musikarero said:
I have a Black Sugar AL with a finished roasted neck. I love the neck and apparently one of the few that prefer a finished neck over the oil/wax. As far as tonal benefits I can't say because it seems no matter what guitar I use I end up sounding pretty much the same.....LOL!
Click to expand...

I love my finished neck, as is. I like that it feels a little different than the unfinished. I wouldn't change a thing about it.
 
musikarero said:
I have a Black Sugar AL with a finished roasted neck. I love the neck and apparently one of the few that prefer a finished neck over the oil/wax. As far as tonal benefits I can't say because it seems no matter what guitar I use I end up sounding pretty much the same.....LOL!
Click to expand...

Nope, I agree 100%, I prefer the feel of the finished roasted neck over the oil/wax treatment. Not sticky at all and smooth as silk.

What hasn't been mentioned in this thread, and perhaps the main reason of roasting/vulcanising the maple is to bring about solidity and stability to the maple... i.e. more resistant to environmental temperature changes. Soundwise, I'm not convinced it makes much difference, there's always too many other factors on guitars to say if roasting changes the tone.
 
I have an AL HH with rosewood neck and an AL HH PDN with a roasted neck and Pau Ferro fretboard. The std AL has a more 'organic' and vintage vibe whereas the PDN has a more focussed and tighter tone. Both are amazingly comfortable to play, the roasted neck is undoubtedly smother in feel. I couldn't say one is better than the other but if I had to choose only one then it would be the std r/w but that is probably more to do with the overall tone than the feel of the neck.

FWIW, I love them both and to me they sound and play twice as good as some of my other make guitars which cost twice as much. Go figure :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Flex Capo
Back
Top