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Why not poplar?

My first three builds were made using maple for the necks, which was fine except that the maple costs a small fortune. So my last build I decided to try poplar. Looking at the finished product, it seems very stable (no bowing or twisting). I do laminate a fret board to the top of my necks (also poplar). I'm thinking that I will use it more often. Does anyone have any experience using poplar? If so, what is your opinion?

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Permalink Reply by Eric Salvi on December 15, 2015 at 3:07am

My first and only build to date, just finished it officially yesterday, is a poplar neck and headstock with an oak fret board. I thought it was great to work with and easy to hand rasp and sand. Also the selection at Home Depot was nice. It all comes in lengths that I can make 2 through necks each. Also the cost is the cheapest I could see.

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Permalink Reply by Del Puckett on December 15, 2015 at 3:49am

each board is unique and different - i have had good luck and bad luck with every type of wood. try them all...

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Permalink Reply by T-Gripped on December 15, 2015 at 3:57am

A woodworking buddy of mine calls poplar the poor man's maple. Some boards have very distinctive markings. I have built 3 poplar neck CBG's thus far with no problems. Fairly easy to work with also. I like Del's advice: try them all!

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Permalink Reply by Flatfish on December 15, 2015 at 4:35am

I do exactly what you do. Poplar neck with 1/4 red oak fretboard. No problems yet.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on December 15, 2015 at 5:31am

I have made quit a fe poplar necks, those without fretboards have warped a bit... I use poplar for slide guitars, but for fretted, I figure it is worth the maple cost, imho maple is smoother, feels better on the hand...

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on December 15, 2015 at 5:34am

It is a joy to work with. I think it depends on number of strings and scale length if it is strong enough and laminating on a fretboard adds a lot of strength too.

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Permalink Reply by Rooster on December 15, 2015 at 5:47am

Eric, poplar makes a very nice neck and/or fret board. I have made several using combinations of poplar and red oak from Lowes and Home Depot with no problems at all.This Macanudo 4 string has a poplar neck with red oak fret board and the neck has stayed very stable.This Romeo y Julieta has a red oak neck with a stained poplar fret board.........again a very stable neck.

I believe Pick at Swamp Witch guitars uses poplar for the neck on all of his guitars and they sound great ;-)

If you are buying your wood from places like Home Depot, poplar and red oak are going to be the main selections............some stores may sell others but these two will be at most. If you are looking for other woods to try out.................look at Rockler.com. They have a great selection of domestic and exotic woods. Just looking at their site, you can get a 3/4 x 3 x 48 piece of Maple for $9.99......................if you use a band saw or thin cut hand saw and split the wood down the middle you get two pieces roughly 3/4 x 1.5 x 48. That would work out to less then $5 per neck for maple with some left over to make bridges or nuts out of ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Road Rash Roy on December 15, 2015 at 6:54am

I've made a few 25" scale 3 and 4 stringers out of poplar 1x2 with 1/4" poplar fingerboards glued on top. I think it works if your only goal is to stay as absolutely cheap as possible. But I'm not really a fan.

In the long run, I think red oak is more economical because there's less waste, is only a couple bucks more, and sells better (if that's your goal) because it looks much better.

First, it's usually a pain for me to find an 8' length of 1x2 poplar that doesn't have a twist or bow or warp in it somewhere. I've got several 2' lengths of not very straight poplar lying around which is not very useful. I always get two complete necks out of an 8' red oak board, and any left over is useful for offset necks and good bracing. At around $7 a board for poplar and $11 for red oak, the savings doesn't make sense for me.

Second, there's the natural color and grain pattern. Poplar always seems to turn out a sickly two-tone slimy green for me. Red oak looks like furniture.

I'm also beginning to convince myself that the neck wood, and almost certainly the fretboard wood affects the sound of the instrument. Maybe I'm nuts (or I've read too many 'expert' opinions), but I swear my maple neck/maple fretboard guitars sound bright, my oak neck/oak fretboard guitars sound warm, and the poplar ones just have a dull thud sound. The disclaimer here is that all the poplar guitars I've made are fretless, so I'll give you that.

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Permalink Reply by Rooster on December 15, 2015 at 7:24am

Roy..............from what I have noticed in my builds the harder the wood the brighter the sound. Think Fender vs Gibson.........Fender uses Maple for their necks and Gibson uses mahogany. Of course pickup placement has an effect on the sound as well..............closer to the bridge will give a brighter sound and closer to the neck will have more of a bass sound.

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Permalink Reply by Road Rash Roy on December 15, 2015 at 10:58pm

Those are some great looking guitars Rooster. Your craftsmanship far exceeds my own.

I think I like the sound of bright, fast playing maple necks just about as well as I like the warm sound and beauty of mahogany.

And I do prefer a neck pickup: either the chugging clank of a single coil, the thick wail of a P90 or even the muddy howl of a classic gold foil over an open tuning with a brass slide.

But I still don't like poplar. :)