Roasted Maple neck owners! I seek your knowledge and feedback.

[Kyle Jordan]

For those of you who own or have owned a guitar with a roasted/torrified maple neck and preferably fretboard as well, what is and or was your experience with it? Did you see any type of increased overall stability or climate resistance compared to a non-roasted neck?

I'm looking more seriously at ordering a Tom Anderson right now and they offer both the more heavily roasted Chocolate Maple option and the more now industry standard Caramelized Maple variant. I remember that they actually used to offer the Chocolate Maple necks unfinished (not sure if they still do) because of the increased stability and resistance observed in their testing. The Caramelized had to be finished due to still having slightly less stability and resistance compared to Chocolate but still performing better than (vanilla?) regular maple.

Just want to hear from owners or techs with decently long term firsthand experience in the matter. I remember reading somewhere here on the forum about either a Charvel or Ibanez AZ that still had significant fret sprout on it's roasted board/neck. If this only slightly improves over regular maple in that regard, I'd rather stick with plain maple simply for aesthetics.

 

[Possessed]

My custom charvel never has any issues with neck but it is always inside the case. My import one does sometimes have rough fret edge due to temperature or humidity change, but no other neck issues and it never sits inside the case.

 

[Musiscience]

Gigged in the winter a few years ago and had two guitars with me going from freezing to sweaty bar temperature. One mahogany and one with a roasted neck. The roasted neck EBMM didn’t even need tuning and the other one was fully detuned. Been a believer of the roast since.

 

[ShredmasterD]

I have an EBMM JP7 with a rosted neck and fingerboard and it did not like dry Iowa winters at all. The wood shrank and had major fret sprout. However, another guitar I bought off the same dealer from Florida had the same issue so I think part of it was they way they stored them. both arrived with minor sprout that got worse when winter came. after waxing and oiling the necks and finger boards, there has been no further issue for past few years. both were purchased from the same dealer about a year apart. Other EBMM guitars i have did not have this issue.

 

[Mboogie7]

I have an EBMM JP7 with a rosted neck and fingerboard and it did not like dry Iowa winters at all. The wood shrank and had major fret sprout. However, another guitar I bought off the same dealer from Florida had the same issue so I think part of it was they way they stored them. both arrived with minor sprout that got worse when winter came. after waxing and oiling the necks and finger boards, there has been no further issue for past few years. both were purchased from the same dealer about a year apart. Other EBMM guitars i have did not have this issue.
A fellow Iowan, nice!!

To OP - my AZ neck is the best feeling neck (and stable) ive ever played

 

[protest]

My Tom Anderson with an all roasted maple neck handles winter better than my Tom Anderson with an all regular maple neck.

The roasted neck on my JP16 needs to be adjusted constantly. It moves more than any guitar I've ever owned.

So I guess my answer is... No clue.

 

[ShredmasterD]

I have an EBMM JP7 with a rosted neck and fingerboard and it did not like dry Iowa winters at all. The wood shrank and had major fret sprout. However, another guitar I bought off the same dealer from Florida had the same issue so I think part of it was they way they stored them. both arrived with minor sprout that got worse when winter came. after waxing and oiling the necks and finger boards, there has been no further issue for past few years. both were purchased from the same dealer about a year apart. Other EBMM guitars i have did not have this issue.
A fellow Iowan, nice!!

To OP - my AZ neck is the best feeling neck (and stable) ive ever played

former now...moved a few states east. I miss Culvers

 

[cardinal]

I had an Anderson years ago with a dark roasted neck and it was riddled with deadspots. Not bad fretwork, but notes where the sustain just died. It was two notes (I think) and everywhere they repeated across the fretboard: dead. Thankfully TAG replaced the neck (with a normal maple neck) and then it was fine.

That said I have two T's Guitars with roasted necks, and they are fine. They are very stable but so are most necks. No dead spot issues.

And TAG uses stainless, so you should be fine. But note that some folks are wary of refretting roasted maple, saying it's brittle and chip out is a major problem. Supposedly. And harder to fill than something like ebony (which is just black).

 

[xzacx]

I never found roasted maple to be any better than a standard quartersawn maple neck, and I live in a climate with wild temperature changes. For that matter, I’ve never found multi-piece or carbon fiber reinforced necks to be any more stable than quartersawn maple either, and they universally don’t sound as good—I think it probably has to do with being too stiff and killing the resonance, but that’s a whole different discussion we don’t have to get into. All that said, I wouldn’t not get a roasted neck, but it’d strictly be for aesthetic purposes. I think they can look really good or really bad, depending on the rest of the specs.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

There's no single determinant to how a neck will behave. None. Wood is a natural material and thus no two pieces will be identical.

From my fairly exhaustive experience the biggest factor is how the neck is made and how much time and care is given to that process.

Typically, builders known for making high quality products will make necks that are stable. So I have no doubt that no matter what you order from TA the neck will be great.

But again, there are no promises. I've seen carbon fiber reinforced necks on $$$$ boutique guitars go all whacky.

Roasting/Caramelizing/Baking/Vulcanizing or whatever you want to call it removes moisture. That makes the neck somewhat more rigid and thus less likely to further shrink or expand. That's it. It doesn't make the neck impervious to the conditions it's in. It's not going to let the neck defy the laws of physics.

Go with what makes you happy. That's a much more reliable metric.

 

[MetalDestroyer]

I've had 5 guitars with roasted necks: Suhr Modern, EBMM Axis (briefly), EBMM Luke III, Anderson Angel, and Squier Contemporary strat. The Luke and the Angel were always in tune and the rest were about average, with the Squier being notably less stable. Compared to my Mahogany neck CU24 only the Luke III was more stable. So I'd echo Max and say it's guitar dependent.

I buy roasted for the look tbh.

 

[PerfectCandor]

I've only had one, but it seems like it's handled last winter substantially better and this winter ever so slightly better than my others since it hasn't been too crazy this year. Also seeing as I move a lot, I wish I had one sooner and I wish my main axes had them, I've only had a roasted maple neck in this move so I can't speak to how that affected my post-move setup procedures lol. I'd say from a bit of experience it's worth it for the physical benefits, and they always look amazing.

 

[diogoguitar]

Anderson specifically treats the guitar to avoid fret sprout. There are videos around it, but yeah.
My Suhr never had fret sprout after 3+ years owning in high humidity climate (I guess they learned from each other)

I'm not saying it's impossible for an Anderson to have fret sprout, but it's harder to happen...
also, even if it happens, it's not the end of the world. I have a strat that had it twice. I fixed it myself... and guess what, no more fret sprout.

 

[budda]

Anderson specifically treats the guitar to avoid fret sprout. There are videos around it, but yeah.
My Suhr never had fret sprout after 3+ years owning in high humidity climate (I guess they learned from each other)

I'm not saying it's impossible for an Anderson to have fret sprout, but it's harder to happen...
also, even if it happens, it's not the end of the world. I have a strat that had it twice. I fixed it myself... and guess what, no more fret sprout.

Fret sprout happens when it’s dry, not when it’s humid.

 

[diogoguitar]

Fret sprout happens when it’s dry, not when it’s humid.

Gets pretty dry inside bc of the heater, and wet outside bc of the rain

 

[Aynirar27]

This musikraft neck is rock solid
And dead sexy

One piece roasted maple

 

[bostjan]

I've had my Warmoth (roasted maple neck+fretboard) for 1 year now, and I've taken it to at least a dozen gigs now. Stability is improved over regular maple necks, but still needs some fine adjustments with seasonal changes and the tuning still needs small adjustments to keep it within my level of tolerance throughout the night. I have a few guitars with carbon fiber epoxy exoskeleton necks, and those are pretty much set-and-forget. I've never had to do any seasonal adjustments on those, ever.

When I received it, I expected to need to do some fret edge treatment, but it required none. I'd be pretty confident that Anderson's necks would be of at least as good quality as Warmoth's, but anomalies can happen in any case.

So, I guess it depends on your tolerance and your expectations.

Our other guitarist also has a RM neck EBMM, but I won't speak for him. I will say that every RM neck I've worked on has been pretty close to how the customer wanted it, but that's difficult to turn into a general conclusion about them as well.

I'd definitely buy a roasted maple neck again. In my mind, they are likely more stable, but that's a conclusion I have not really cemented based on the fact that I have few data points.