Spanish cedar for a neck block?

[John J]

Working on my first neck from scratch and I made a bolt on neck block from Spanish cedar. Will it be strong enough or should I go with mahogany?

[ken cierp]

Spanish Cedar should work fine as long as you use a good size washer under the bole head and the wood is flat sawn. Many factories/makers including Martin even have models with Spanish Cedar necks.

[Dave Bagwill]

And correct that toe-in at the lower corner. :-)

[John J]

And correct that toe-in at the lower corner. :-)

At least it's not in focus!

[John Link]

Working barefoot is typical of all the great luthiers.

[John Link]

To go to your question about strength: Michael Collins designates spruce blocks in his plans for Maccaferri builds. These are 16 inch guitars, too. Spruce is, of course, not a dense wood.