How do you like Spanish Cedar for necks?

First off, I have built a few ukuleles including a custom instrument for a customer years ago, also a bunch of guitars and violins but lost interest in all that a few years ago. I want to build a nice uke for my new nephew so I am getting back into it for at least one more build.

My previous ukes had Honduran Mahogany necks, except for one with a Walnut neck made from guitar scraps (my first uke). While surfing the net I came across the fact that some ukes have Spanish Cedar necks which intrigues me.

I went to two local wood suppliers and found wormy warped Spanish Cedar boards at one, and a nice clean although flatsawn piece at the second. I ended up buying a piece from the second which will need to be built up with a scarf jointed head and laminated heel. I just now found one-piece Spanish Cedar necks blanks at curlykoa.com and ordered one, and will return the store bought wood.

So, how do builders, and players for that matter, like Spanish Cedar for a neck? The body wood I ordered is AAAAA Figured Koa from Notable Woods, and it will have an Ebony fingerboard, bridge and binding accents.

Spanish cedar is my favorite neck wood for all the right reasons; superior stability, light weight and very stiff. A couple of issues you may need to be aware of. It has deep resin canals and can take forever to grain fill. Also, the wood tends to be pretty light in color. I often tint the first few base coats of lacquer to better match whatever wood I'm using.
Bruce has nice koa. Congrats on getting some 5A. Your nephew better know how wonderful that is!

It's my favorite also, for all the reasons that Chuck gave and it's almost too easy to work. And it's pretty.

I have 3 custom built ukes with Spanish cedar necks. I ordered them because of the characteristics mentioned above. One of the three I have also have this spicy fragrance that I'm pretty sure came from the Spanish cedar (it was built by William King using the Spanish heel, so there is unfinished Spanish cedar inside the sound box). I rather like it, but it is pretty strong. I guess not all Spanish cedar gives off such strong fragrance though, because one of the other two is also built by William and I don't smell the Spanish cedar.

There has been a thread here already on this topic and in response to it, Steve Schaffer at curlykoa.com stocks neck blanks. I use the African variety which is more readily available here in the UK. It has no resin pockets and is lighter in weight than the SA grown variety. It carves beautifully and finishes well - as Chuck mentions, grain filling is its only negative if there has to be one

When I made guitars I built a killer Weissenborn from it...

Australian Red Cedar (Toona Australias) is a relative to Spanish Cedar and is available here though you need to know who to ask to source good stock. At least it's better than importing as the last time I did that with Spanish Cedar the freight was as much as the wood.

Australian Red Cedar was once used widely for furniture and those pieces are now very desirable.

I've used it for Guitar necks and sound boards. It's also fantastic to work with, easy to carve and the look is very rich. Just as with Spanish Cedar it's pores are huge and take some time to fill.

Thanks for the replies, looks like it's a good choice.