My custom guitar project: The Splorocaster!

[maverickf1jockey]

The neck block on a standard strat is just a large mass of wood with slightly rounded corners. This is good for sustain (if you have a decent neck in the first place) but limits how well you can play at the top frets.
Brands like Ibanez and Charvel, when first offering superstrats, came up with the idea of shaping the block to better suit the more virtuosic styles that were coming to the fore at that time.
Carved blocks are far more comfortable to play with but are not necessary if you never really play past the 15th fret.
Through necks are completely different beasts. They have no neck block as the neck goes through the body. They can be a bit dark and the necks can be hard to play with unless they are of premium quality.
Overall you might want to ask Warmoth about a carved neck block to improve the playability of the instrument.

The Wilkinson bridge is like a conventional strat bridge but has a knife-edge like a FR. It can be set to float but can just as easily be set like a standard strat. The knife-edge gives the advantage of increased tuning stability when in use and a smoother action. Like a FR though it can drain sustain when set to float, as it has less contact with the body, and combined with the lack of wood behind the bridge it may cause it to lose sustain and be a bit brighter than you might like.
Combined with an angled headstock and locking tuners it shouldn't go out of tune, dependant on your choice of nut of course.

Oh and ebony should be very nice for the fretboard.

[WezV]

I do like the look of darker fretboard woods, but I like the hardness and brightness of maple. In the end I'll probably get ebony: maple tone and feel, with (better than) rosewood looks.

ebony is quite a bright sounding fretboard wood - works well on mahogany but not so well on a maple neck, some seem to find it a little harsh.  You might like the extra clarity and brightness though.

[Steve Kinsen]

I do like the look of darker fretboard woods, but I like the hardness and brightness of maple. In the end I'll probably get ebony: maple tone and feel, with (better than) rosewood looks.

ebony is quite a bright sounding fretboard wood - works well on mahogany but not so well on a maple neck, some seem to find it a little harsh.  You might like the extra clarity and brightness though.

shite, I meant mahogany! Sorry, had a bit of a brain fart there.

Also, Maverick: I'm a Les Paul player. I'm used to struggling against all odds to access the top frets; I think I'd take the sustain over the ease of access at this point.

[WezV]

you definately dont want mahogany for a fretboard wood its far too soft.  ebony board on mahogany neck is a good choice but for a funk guitar you might get away with the brightness of ebony on maple - it will have a nice punchy attack that would suit the style, possibly a bit bright for blues though.

Obviously this all depends on the body wood as well. I tend to think of the body wood as providing the base of your tone whereas fretboard has more affect on the attack of the note and the neck wood/construction deals with sustain.   Thats a vast oversimplification and obviosuly its all a lot more connected to each other than that, but it does help people visualise the interplay between woods.

tbh you cant go wrong by using the wood combo from one of your favorite guitars.

This is the my latest heel idea for better access (in the rough):


this will not have less sustain than a fender style bolt-on and i feel people make too much of sustain anyway.  A well built guitar will have more sustain than you ever need -in fact so will most factory made guitars.  If you really are one of these people that craves infinite sustain then the only answer is to buy a sustainer.

[maverickf1jockey]

Or stand very close to your amp and boost it as much as you dare.
I only have to fret a note softly and the feedback from the amp does the exact same job as a sustainer at bedroom volume. Admittedly it is a little harder to control.

[Steve Kinsen]

Is there a dark wood with an attack and brightness that falls somewhere between rosewood and maple? I think maple might be a little too bright for me, but rosewood too soft. Hmm.

[maverickf1jockey]

Looking a warmoth's site Bubinga or Wenge would fall into that category.

[WezV]

Or stand very close to your amp and boost it as much as you dare.
I only have to fret a note softly and the feedback from the amp does the exact same job as a sustainer at bedroom volume. Admittedly it is a little harder to control.

yeah but its so much fun!!!

rosewood isnt really soft at all really and the brightness of maple is more of an issue when its used as a body/neck wood rather than as a fretboard

but dark woods that fall between maples brightness and rosewoods warth would be Ziracote, wenge, purpleheart (probably too purple), kingwood, cocobolo or bubinga.  all more than hard enough to use as a fretboard.  Ziracote and wenge are the darkest - bubinga is more of a dark bricky mahogany colour but i think rickenbacker use it under lacquer like a maple board has to be.  If done that way it would have the percieved hardness of maple.  Ziracote is one of my favorites because it is so versatile with other woods - heres a pic of some of my ziracote stash:

[maverickf1jockey]

Maple doesn't NEED to be lacquered. The lacquer just stops it going grey.

[Steve Kinsen]

I have to say, I have a personal lust for lacquered maple fretboards.

Then again, I can only shred on guitars with impossibly high action and find acoustics easier to play than electrics, so I appreciate I might be in the minority with a few of my opinions.

[WezV]

Maple doesn't NEED to be lacquered. The lacquer just stops it going grey.

well aware of that but since maple keeps being described as harder than rosewood i can only assume thats because of the percieved hardness that lacquer gives maple fretbaords - because, as a fretboard wood, its one of the softest!

maple does need a finish, even if its just oil and a bloody thorough fine sanding because it will go grey as soon as you touch it if it has nothing on it but more importantly it will also  become rough and be unpleasant to play on - oiled necks need more maintenance like rubbing with wire wool and an occasional re-oil to stop this!!  if looked after a oiled maple neck can be fantastic, if not cared for properly it can become quite unpleasant

This is the difference with other fretboard woods we have mentioned, they might need an occasional rub down and re-oil but generally they are hard enough to resist finger wear in a way anything less than lacquered maple can simply never be.  

we seem to be getting wood uses mixed up.  Compared to most body/neck woods maple is one of the hardest and brightest but compared to fretboards woods it really isnt.  so in some situations maple does add a lot of brightness  - but not necisarily when its used as a fretboard wood.

[maverickf1jockey]

Yngwie Malmsteen would agree with you.

[WezV]

well as soon as we start talking about heavily scalloped fretboards the tone of the fretboard becomes even less important so lets not get into yngwie territory.

i must point out i am quite a fan of oiled necks - but i would usually have oiled maple getting dirty but feeling great on the back of the neck with a harder/darker fretboard wood

[maverickf1jockey]

I was referring to Steve's post.

[Steve Kinsen]

One of my saddest discoveries in the realm of guitar is that I'll never be able to try the guitar I really want before buying it, because the combination of features I want doesn't exist in any stock Strat. All I want is a lacquered maple fretboard and a very high quality trem/vib bridge, but Fender make no such instrument: they only lacquer maple fretboards in '50s reissue instruments, and that was a period far before the invention of trem/vib assemblies suitable for heavy use.