Question on birdseye necks

[Vass]

I would think its just the plank it's cut from. A friend of mine has a MIM Strat he picked up fairly cheap. It has a very beautiful birdseye neck (pretty close to the first link). I keep telling him don't leave me alone with the guitar or the neck is mine.

We both are in agreement that we've never seen a MIM Strat with a birdseye right out of the box.

I saw a MIM @ a store I visited in Georgia that had pretty amazing flame in the neck. Store owner said that he's seen that quite alot on the MIM's, that perhaps they're not really looking at the wood or segregating out "normal" wood that turns out to be "premium" when they put the saw to it.

I should have grabbed it, but now I've heard this twice so I'll be checking MIM strat necks for the foreseeable future

Vass

[Rich#6]

I saw a MIM @ a store I visited in Georgia that had pretty amazing flame in the neck. Store owner said that he's seen that quite alot on the MIM's, that perhaps they're not really looking at the wood or segregating out "normal" wood that turns out to be "premium" when they put the saw to it.

I should have grabbed it, but now I've heard this twice so I'll be checking MIM strat necks for the foreseeable future

Those necks are made in the USA. I wonder if they are qtrsawning some of them since that is the way to get flamage on a neck.

[shreddermon]

Holy s**t, there's a lot of misinformation in this thread now.

Birdseye maple - or flamed/quilted for that matter - is NOT produced by a fungus, rot, nor disease in the wood. And those old rumors about how the figuring comes about in the wood are largely responsible for the perception that figured necks are less stable than regular (non-figured) necks.

So are they less stable, anyway? From personal experience, I have my doubts about this. I've owned several birdseye and flamed maple necks over the years, and all of mine were just as stable as non-figured necks. And here's what Warmoth's website says about birdseye necks...

"There seems to be a recurring rumor that Birdseye maple is unstable and not suited to guitar necks. Having made tens of thousands of Birdseye necks, we can assure you that it is no different in stability than plain maple."

(Remember, Warmoth would have to pay out warranty claims if those birdseye necks went all twisty and such.)

I do have a theory about the stability issue, though. If figured necks are less stable than plain maple - and, IMHO, that's a big "if" - it might be due to one or both of the following factors.

- First, many figured necks are not quartersawn. Without a doubt, quartersawn necks are more stable than non-quartersawn necks. That's why you see quartersawn necks as a "premium" spec used on many manufacturers' USA lines, but NOT their imports.

Why, you say? Production volume, that's why. With quartersaw-ing, you produce less necks per wood blank. And, since figured woods are so much more expensive to begin with, many manufacturers don't quartersaw their figured necks, so that they get as many necks as possible out of each much-more-pricey figured wood blank.

- Second, figured woods might be more susceptible to environmental changes. This doesn't mean the wood is "less stable". But figured woods might be more susceptible to things like changes in temperature, humidity, etc. So, for guys like myself in areas with fairly intense seasonal climate changes, it might make sense to have a hard finish - satin or poly - on your figured necks. (...Or even your non-figured ones, for that matter. ) Yeah, yeah, everyone loves the "feel" of oiled necks. Me too. But, then again, painted necks have never bothered me, either. And here's what Warmoth says on that issue...


"We understand the attraction of raw or lightly oiled necks. They feel fast and are not sticky. Unfortunately, they are much more susceptible to moisture related warping and twisting. Our experience is that hard finished necks seldom warp. Less than 1 out of 200 (0.5%) are returned for warpage. Raw or oiled necks don't fare as well. About 10% are rendered useless from the torture. The more acidic your perspiration, the higher the odds are against you.
If you must play a raw neck, that's cool; it's ok. A neck is just a tool. Just be aware of the risk. If yours does the pretzel act, we don't want to hear about it."

Then again, WTF do I know? :ROTF:

Oh, and on the question about seeing birdseye through a satin finish, look here for an example...




Enjoy.

[shreddermon]

P.S.- Sorry for the different text colors above. Not sure WTF happened there, but the edit function wouldn't work for me, so I couldn't correct.

[Rich#6]

Thanks for the pics
Before I started this thread I was trying to find out what caused the birdseye effect and yes no one knows. fungus , woodpeckers, waterlogging the logs, who knows
The one thing that I did read is that the wood is not more unstable it was just hard to cut without until CNC machines and higher speed cutters.
The only reason to have them with a finish is because the best way to get the best effect is to have the neck flat sawn and like you said they warp more then qtrsawn.
There was a thread a few weeks ago where we talked about getting the flame effect the neck needs to be qtrsawn. I don't know if this is completely true. I know out of the 3 qtrsawn necks I have/had at least 2 have nice flamage. I didn't pay attention to the 3rd. I will have to check tonight.

[slash-ed]

Yech, I love birdseye but that example doesn't do it for me. Way too small and somehow just looks like a disease!

[shreddermon]

Yeah, I think your guitars look like crap, too!

[Rich#6]

That is just rude!

[slash-ed]

Sorry, I wasn't meaning to be harsh. Just talking without thinking as usual

Yes, and compared to most of you guys here, my guitars probably do suck!

[jacksoncsplayer]

I'm finding it is pretty unstable, mine seems to move allot more than my other charvel necks. Any tricks out there to getting and keeping it straight?