Which Neck Lamination Would Work Best?

I have decided to try and give my riftsawn neck blanks a bit more stability by laminating them. My blanks have growth rings about 30 degrees off the vertical. Here is a picture of what I intend to do. For interest, I am going to laminate a piece in the middle, most likely of maple or rosewood. I can chose to angle the grain slanting either up or down on the riftsawn pieces. Which one do you think would work best - A or B?

http://www.box.net/shared/1a0z9uc879

A few things to think about:

• It really depends on the wood you're using. With mahogany or spanish cedar I don't think it would matter that much whether A or B. With a wood that has a more pronounce grain you'll get a more "quartersawn" look with A and a more "flatsawn" look with B.
• Keep in mind that you have to flip the right side (A) or left side (B) lengthwise to get this grain matching effect. This can often end up looking like a complete mismatch because the grain lines are then running in opposite directions, the colors don't match, etc. There is a common misconception that by simply flipping the left or right side over the grain will switch directions, but that is not the case.
• I like the "skunk stripe" look a lot, but my experience has been that it is really hard to get a nice grain and color match, especially with grainier woods.
• You might consider adding a carbon fiber rod to increase stability instead.

Thanks eric. The wood is a simple mahogany (no flames etc), so perhaps it won't matter much either way, but since I will have to flip it lengthwise, the potential amount of grain or color mis-match is something to think about. I hadn't even thought about a carbon fiber rod.

I just got my wood from Hibdon, and 8 out of the 10 neck blanks are quarter sawn, luck of the draw I guess. Keep in mind that while it is easy to match the grain patterns in thin, flat pieces of wood, all that goes out the window when you start shaping pieces like necks and archtop tops and backs. My thought is that as long as the wood is fairly uniform in color and grain angle, you can do a V angle and it should look OK.

Brad

If you use option A (chevron patteren) you will get a pleasing grain line pattern running up both sides of the neck -- assuming uniform grain along the board. With option B you run the risk of having a thin slab split off along the growth ring during the shaping process causing a potential flat spot in the neck.

Konala