Anyone ever have a Padouk neck?

[Bengal Tiger]

I'm looking to order a neck from Warmoth, and I'm attracted to the Padouk because it needs no finish. Tone is supposed to be similar to Maple, with a little more lower-mids. That would be about right for me. I wondered if anyone here has ever owned or played a neck made out of Padouk, how it felt without finish and if you liked it?

I'll be combining it with an Ebony fretboard, on an Ash body.

[Chrisb]

You definitely don't need a finish on Padouk. Its very smooth almost waxy. Bloodwood is similar. In fact I'd say if you want that nice red/black vibe that Bloodwood is a better choice. Its similar in many ways to Padouk but Padouk tends to brown out with age, where bloodwood remains a little more "red". I bet it would look badass with a black bound ebony fretboard. I think Padouk would be the way to go for a body wood but Bloodwood would probably be closer to what you want for a neck wood. Both are very nice and tonally pretty similar to maple or walnut IMO.

[Chavelfan]

I have a Warmoth padouk neck with a pau ferro board. I really like it. It has a wider grain than Maple or rosewood and you can feel the grain as your hand moves across the neck. You can't feel the grain as your hand slides up and down the neck. I like it just as much as my maple Charvel Strathead neck and other Warmoth oil finish maple necks I have.

[quiksilver]

I have an unfinished Warmoth neck in Palisander Rosewood (which also requires no finish), with an Ebony board, and it feels fantastic. I also got the body in Swamp Ash (with a carved Maple top), and I really like that, too. Good luck! Sounds like you're picking some nice woods!

[Bengal Tiger]

Thanks for all the feedback! Warmoth doesn't list Bloodwood on their site, but I think the Padouk sounds pretty good. In addition to the nice, waxy feel, it saves $65 not having to finish it as well.

[Chrisb]

Bloodwood is on their site. Its also known as Satine. Its the same price as Padouk as far as upcharges go. In addition if you go the neck woods page you can get a picture of what it looks like as compared to padouk. One thing about Padouk thats kind bad is that the wood sometimes gets color blemishes, its not uniformly red. Bloodwood is very even grained from what I've seen. Padouk can sometimes get wierd swirls of brown and tan in circular patterns. And as warmoth notes, with use the wood turns brownish. I haven't seen that with Bloodwood, but it may happen as well. Either way both woods are very similar. And if you are having a hard time deciding the best guys to ask is the guys at Warmoth, they are very helpful and in some cases if its not a figure grade, you can get a grain pattern without an upcharge. Like for example if you ordered a cocobolo fingerboard but wanted it to be straight grained and not swirled like cocobolo sometimes is, they might not charge you an upcharge on that. However if you wanted a heavily figured cocobolo fingerboard you would likely see a small upcharge. Either way, I'm sure you will be happy with either wood.