Macrocarpa for neck

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

Post Reply
Pat.Hawkins
Myrtle
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:30 pm
Location: Lower Barrington

Macrocarpa for neck

Post by Pat.Hawkins » Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:39 am

Hi Folks,
I found lots of older discussions on using macrocarpa for the body, but is it suitable for a steel string acoustic neck (Dreadnought)?
Cheers

User avatar
Mark McLean
Blackwood
Posts: 1084
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:03 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Macrocarpa for neck

Post by Mark McLean » Fri Apr 29, 2022 9:49 am

Hi Pat. Which “macrocarpa” species are you referring to? Macrocarpa is latin for “large fruit” so it is used as a descriptive term in the botanical name of many different trees. I Googled it and found a few. There is a Eucalyptus macrocarpa in Australia, or the so-called “Monterey Cypress” in the USA which is Cupressus macrocarpa, or the Natal Plum Carissa macrocarpa which looks great for bonzai but probably useless for luthiery, and a few more.

OK I have now read a bit more and I am guessing that you mean the cypress, which is used for lots of purposes, including some guitars and ukes!

There is an old thread about it here, sounds good:
http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?t=7827

Andos
Blackwood
Posts: 113
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 4:12 pm
Location: Taranaki

Re: Macrocarpa for neck

Post by Andos » Sat Apr 30, 2022 4:28 pm

Interesting stuff Mark. There is a whole world of macrocarpa I never knew existed.
I always regard macrocarpa as good old mac. Knotty, twisted and only good for fire wood. I've spent eons looking for monterrey cypress, only to find out I've been burning it for the last 50yrs. Since all the covid nonsense I've been hunting down some straight grained mac for tops. Spruce is getting stupidly expensive with freight costs, if you can find someone to ship it over here. (NZ)

jeffhigh
Blackwood
Posts: 1536
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:50 am
Location: Caves Beach, NSW
Contact:

Re: Macrocarpa for neck

Post by jeffhigh » Thu May 19, 2022 9:02 am

I would not use it for a neck, too soft, not stiff enough.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 122 guests