Strat Neck Swap - Rosewood And Maple

[johnfv]

Thinking about swapping these necks, what do y'all think? I'm considering this for the tone, hoping that the rosewood fingerboard will warm up the tone from the blue swamp ash body and the also the punch of maple fingerboard will compliment the mahogany/maple top body. What do you think about the look? Here is how they are before:


Here is the swap I am considering:
Great Warmoth necks and bodies:

 

[Philip Lyon]

My own personal preference would be to leave them as they are - Maple neck + Swamp Ash body and Rosewood neck + Mahogany / Maple body.
From my own experience I feel that this arrangement allows the woods of necks and bodies to best compliment each other tonally and gives two very different sounding instruments, one leans more toward Gibson territory and the other is more Fender flavored.
I have personally never liked the look of Lake Placid Blue with rosewood and feel it is more aesthetically pleasing when mated up with a maple neck.
I wouldn't say no to either in whatever form though - I used to have a 3 lb 10 oz Alder Warmoth body Strat in Lake Placid Blue with a Floyd, single bucker and a bird's eye maple neck and really regret selling it now - that thing was a Charvel killer and a half !
Warmoth know good wood - end of story.

 

[johnfv]

I like the look of blue with the rosewood (in fact I have 2 others ) but am struggling a bit with the look of the maple fingerboard with the dark flame top. Plus the abalone inlays on the maple compliment the blue nicely. I may chicken out and leave them as they were...

 

[Philip Lyon]

We obviously share very similar tastes in necks. My bird's eye maple neck had blue abelone dot inlays too !
I forgot that this was one of the reasons it complimented the blue body so well - this is where my aesthetic bias comes from.
I even fitted blue abelone topped chromed dome knobs to continue the theme eventually - sad aren't I !!!!

 

[ricksconnected]

I like the maple on the darker body. very sweet.
however, I don't like the rosewood on the blue.

 

[MarshallDog]

Regardless of how they might sound, they look best as is IMHO!

 

[BanditPanda]

Thinking about swapping these necks, what do y'all think? I'm considering this for the tone, hoping that the rosewood fingerboard will warm up the tone from the blue swamp ash body and the also the punch of maple fingerboard will compliment the mahogany/maple top body. What do you think about the look? Here is how they are before:

Swap out that brown bodied mother all together. lmao
It's not a very pleasing aesthetic, as they say.(jk)

 

[Vinsanitizer]

You do not want to swap the necks.
You want to leave them as they are.
Move along.

 

[rick16v]

Do it, and take recordings with fresh strings on both guitars before and after the swap, without adjusting your amp.

And take recordings of the clean sounds too.

I would love to hear the maple/rosewood difference people refer to.

 

[RiverRatt]

I don't care for the maple neck against the dark maple top, but I think rosewood on Lake Placid Blue is sexy! I am a bit biased though.

 

[johnfv]

Thanks everyone that offered an opinion. I did decide against the neck swap (kept them as is). The one thing I DID change: I had a treble bleed on the blue one and I think it was contributing to the thin tone. I clipped it off and now the bottom end is fatter for sure but still plenty of punch from the maple/swamp ash. As an added bonus, both guitars now have fresh strings and are in top playing condition so I'm giving them a workout.


I did consider a vintage tint neck on the mahogany body but ended up putting the rosewood back on there. I was thinking maybe an ebony board with pearl inlays might be cool on there...

 

[ricksconnected]

ok put the vintage tint on the blue and the maple on the darker one.
perfect.

 

[Gianni]

The video below is one of the better ones you’ll find on YouTube, clearly demonstrating, in my experience too, that, though not greatly, “the rosewood fingerboard will warm up the tone from the blue swamp ash body.”

I voted ‘go for it’, but only you can decide whether the difference in tone is considerable enough so as to make the change. Regarding looks, tone comes first, but both combinations look good to me.

 

[johnfv]

The video below is one of the better ones you’ll find on YouTube, clearly demonstrating, in my experience too, that, though not greatly, “the rosewood fingerboard will warm up the tone from the blue swamp ash body.”

I voted ‘go for it’, but only you can decide whether the difference in tone is considerable enough so as to make the change. Regarding looks, tone comes first, but both combinations look good to me.

Thanks for posting that! The differences may not translate as well into recording as what you experience "in person" but that's a good demonstration. Much of the reason I ended up building so many partscasters with different woods, etc. was to better understand what contributes to the differences in tone. The first time I tried to create a backup for my main Strat really opened my eyes. It was same electronics, the only significant difference maple vs. rosewood fingerboard and sounded substantially different.

On my neck swap: for now I have kept the maple fingerboard on the blue swamp ash body, but from my experiments I have learned that for Strats alder is my favorite body wood and I often prefer rosewood over maple fingerboards.

 

[johnfv]

ok put the vintage tint on the blue...

So here's the funny thing: that's how I started. That vintage tint neck was on that body for several years. This new clear finish neck was a "screamin deal" at Warmoth: it's my favorite neck profile (59 roundback) and I love every other thing about it. The vintage tint was always too orange and didn't go that well with the blue IMO; it's a "standard thin" profile (not bad but I like the roundback better) so I decided to try a change. I bet I would still prefer the tone of good rosewood neck on this swamp ash body but it seems the treble bleed I had in there was definitely a big part of the thin tone. I'm pretty happy with it for now. So technically I *did* do a swap but it was one maple (thin profile, vintage tint) for another (fat profile, clear finish).

Here is an old "before" pic (has some old pickups in there as well):


Here's some more pics of the current state. I love the 59 roundback necks (have several) and also this body has the contoured heel.

 

[ricksconnected]

yes I love that current pic too. but damn If I don't like that same neck on the darker
body too. that vintage would look great on a red guitar with gold hardware too.

 

[ricksconnected]

don't listen to me, I'm having neck issues of my own lol.

a few of my bodies waiting on necks.

 

[johnfv]

yes I love that current pic too. but damn If I don't like that same neck on the darker
body too. that vintage would look great on a red guitar with gold hardware too.

Yeah, not sure why but the "orange" neck looks way better on a red guitar to me

 

[ricksconnected]

yes red works. then that gold hardware would just make everything pop.
now I'm wanting one lol.

 

[Biddlin]

I would love to hear the maple/rosewood difference people refer to.

Moi aussi!