Mahogany Strat

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Warren May
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Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:00 pm

Mahogany Strat

Post by Warren May »

I have some mahogany for a couple of Strat bodies. I'm planning P90's in one and have a HSH pearloid pickguard for the other that I misordered but kept it for doing the mahogany Strat. Pretty straightforward for the bodies but I'm not sure about the necks. Maple or mahogany? I'd like to use some straight grained mahogany I have but am not sure about whether a bolt on neck or glue-in would be best. For each approach, what's the best way to fasten a mahogany neck? Also,, any problems with using a traditional Strat style headstock angle?
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Mark Swanson
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Re: Mahogany Strat

Post by Mark Swanson »

As long as your mahogany is good, it will make no difference if you use it or any other good neck wood. There is a tone difference between maple and mahogany, but functionally they are equal. If anything the mahogany is more stable.
Since you are building strats, and it sounds as though you may not have built too many guitars that I'd suggest you use bolt-on necks. That is the regular strat setup, and it allows you to take the neck off and re-work the neck joint if you need to.
A strat peghead would work just fine in either wood.
  • Mark Swanson, guitarist, MIMForum Staff
Warren May
Posts: 246
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:00 pm

Re: Mahogany Strat

Post by Warren May »

Thanks, Mark. I've built around 20 electric instruments, some with bolt on necks and some with set-neck construction, with various wood types for the neck (walnut, mahogany, maple, sapelle). I usually use flat-sawn maple for a Strat style bolt on and quartersawn mahogany for set-neck. I "learned" guitarmaking from Siminoff's book, so sometimes use his t-nut type approach for attaching a bolt-on. I agree with you that it takes some experience to get the mortise-and-tenon correct on a set-neck so that the glue joint is just right, not too tight and not too loose, to be mechanically sound. But it takes almost as much experience, I think, to get a bolt on mortise and tenon joint just right.

What I haven't done is use quartersawn mahogany as a bolt-on. Thanks for the assurance that it should be okay. My concern is the orientation of the quartersawn grain to screws and whether the strength of the bolt-on (without resorting to t-nuts or inserts) is a problem. Sounds like it is not so I'll go for a bolt-on with the mahogany to make it more palatable to the Strat people. I agree that the bolt-on is a little more forgiving. Still, making a good neck-to-body join for any style is, as you say, something that gets better with your experience and finding the technique that works for you.
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