Can this beautiful Sycamore be used for a guitar body?

[asgeirogm]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster. I want to finally get started on my first build and have found some really beautiful Sycamore locally that I'm interested in using for the body, but want to try to make newbie mistakes with wood selection so I wanted to ask the wonderful community here for advice.

According to what I've read, Sycamore is somewhere in between Maple and Mohagony when it comes to it's properties. I've read that Sycamore shrinks somewhat and tends to warp during drying, but after it has dried it is supposedly very stable.

Here are a couple of pictures of what is available to me

The sycamore has been air dried for about three years outside (but dry), and from the pictures it doesn't look warped.

I just want to make sure my assumptions are correct in that this Sycamore is fine to use for a guitar body, that this particular piece of wood is most likely dry enough and will not warp after I start working with it. Would you agree with those assumptions?

Thanks!

[Bizman62]

Three years outside is a good start. Done properly the wood dries and dies slowly which should prevent warping caused by changes in moisture content. One could argue if three years is enough, a decade is not a rarity for quality tonewoods. Many builders buy good looking planks and store the finest for years until they finally figure out what to build out of them.

If you want to build a guitar out of those I'm afraid you'd have to take them inside for at least several months for acclimatising, rather years stapled similarly with slats in between for good air flow. Turning them upside down and changing the order every once in a while (monthly, quarterly depending on the moisture percentage) is also a good idea to let them dry evenly. A moisture meter can help, then again it doesn't tell if the wood would absorb moisture when the conditions change. Weighing at the start and then regularly during the acclimatising process and keeping a diary can help. You can write the weight directly on the planks.

Aside the species, the properties of the wood determine whether it's suitable for the planned usage. Within the same species there can be big differences in weight and other properties depending on where the tree has grown. You didn't tell if the Sycamore is European Maple or American Plane or something else called Sycamore but each of them should do. The main issue is masst as you most likely don't want a guitar weighing a ton! Thus, if that wood ends up very heavy even after proper drying you can make a thin top for the looks and tone, using some lighter wood for the main body. The neck isn't that critical as there's quite a lot of metal parts affecting the total mass. Heavy neck wood can be compensated by lightweight tuners and truss rod.

Long story short, if you like the wood and the price is right take it and store it inside for quite a while before attempting to build anything from it. It looks great and is suitable for building guitars but not straight from the pile.

[Andyjr1515]

11 hours ago, asgeirogm said:

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster. I want to finally get started on my first build and have found some really beautiful Sycamore locally that I'm interested in using for the body, but want to try to make newbie mistakes with wood selection so I wanted to ask the wonderful community here for advice.

According to what I've read, Sycamore is somewhere in between Maple and Mohagony when it comes to it's properties. I've read that Sycamore shrinks somewhat and tends to warp during drying, but after it has dried it is supposedly very stable.

Here are a couple of pictures of what is available to me

The sycamore has been air dried for about three years outside (but dry), and from the pictures it doesn't look warped.

I just want to make sure my assumptions are correct in that this Sycamore is fine to use for a guitar body, that this particular piece of wood is most likely dry enough and will not warp after I start working with it. Would you agree with those assumptions?

Thanks!

Welcome  

As @Bizman62 says, Sycamore is a bit of a generic term.  

I can talk a little bit about European / English sycamore which is a type of maple, but it doesn't look at all like that, so I'm guessing yours is the Platanus occidentalis, known here as American Plane?  Whereabouts in the world are you?  

[asgeirogm]

Thanks for the detailed response Bizman62, not what I was hoping to hear but I sure am happy I learned this now and not when later with a warped piece of wood.

Andyjr515, I live in Denmark so my assumption would be that this is European Sycamore. That could be incorrect though, especially seeing as you don't think so.

In light of this new info I will look elsewhere for wood in my build, but I may still buy this and let it dry for a future build if it checks out during a closer inspection.

I assume it would be fine for me to buy something kiln dried to 7-10% moisture and start working with it after letting stand in the workshop for a few days/weeks? Apparently, the índoor humitity in Denmark rocks from about 40-65% depending on the season, which translate to roughly 7ish-10ish% moisture in the wood,so I assume this would be fine?

 

[ADFinlayson]

Any wood can be used as a body IMO but sycamore can be quite heavy worth roughing it out and weighing it before deciding whether not it needs to be hollowed out with a top on it 

[Bizman62]

The wood looks very interesting but doesn't tell much about the species. If it's European Sycamore (Acer=maple) the bark is brown, the bark of American Plane falls off revealing a white inner bark which makes it somewhat popular as a park tree. The foliage looks roughly similar but the seed don't. Maple has double seeds with large wings, Plane seed pods are furry balls hanging on a string.

The wood shown could be Ambrosia Maple which instead of being a species is discolouration caused by fungi: https://www.wood-database.com/ambrosia-maple/