veneers between laminates

[matthew]

I've seen a bunch of laminated guitar necks and usually, the main wood strips are separated by a thin dark veneer strip.

Is this purely to hide the epoxy glue line? Or are there functional reasons?

[Rod True]

Hey Matt,

It's all about the look. The thin line doesn't do much for structural stability (although the laminated neck block is much more stable than a solid piece)

That's my take on it anyway.

[Serge]

What Rod says, it is common practice for the aesthetics, looks really cool if the lines are thin but i've seen some necks with thicker center pieces that were not to shabby either!

[Bob Connor]

It's vulcanised paper or fish paper Matt. Technically it's wood or rag fibre.

I get it from the States as I haven't been able to find a source for it here in Australia.

It's the same sort of stuff that you'll find in electric guitar pickups only thinner.

Traditionally it was used for insulation in electric motors.

One of the trade names is Vulcanex

[Dennis Leahy]

You can also use veneers of any sort, or one or more thin pieces of wood.

There doesn't seem to be much all-black Gabon Ebony veneer on the market (or else it is VERY expensive), so if you want wood rather than fiber/paper, you can get black dyed wood. I have purchased veneer a couple of times from a seller on Ebay "a2zveneer", and got some very nice dyed black Anigre. Stewart MacDonald also sells dyed black wood veneer (Maple, I think, but it might be Poplar.)

For a creamy "white" stripe that is wood and not "way too white" fiber, check out Certainly Wood for American Holly.

I don't know if it really matters in the veneer or not, but when I am able to specify the cut (or when looking at actual samples or photos), I choose flatsawn veneer.

When adding a solid wood stripe or stripes to a neck blank, then I do believe it matters, and will only use well-flatsawn wood (just like the main pieces of wood.) If the wood is all well-flatsawn in the sandwich, then the 2 bandsawn necks cut from the sandwich will be quartersawn in the direction of string pull.

Just a note on using figured wood for the veneer stripes: I used Birdseye Maple veneer to make a light stripe in binding (as a pre-attached purfling veneer), and I won't do that again. The randomness of the darker eyes makes it appear that there are mistakes/flaws/burns in the stripe. I think a very consistent curl would be OK, though I have not tried it yet.

Dennis