Building An Electric Out Of Spruce

[Slabbefusk]

How do you think this would sound? I know they use it in some acoustic guitars tops but havent heard of it used in electric guitars.

[spirit]

Myka made a guitar with a spruce top, so ask him, or check out his website. I think it was semi hollow, but an electric none the less.

[samoht]

i've always been interested in trying pine and birch for electric guitars. i'm actually making a semi hollow with mahogany center block and pine/birch wings on both sides..

[erikbojerik]

A guy over on the USACG forum made a solid-body Jazzmaster out of spruce. The consensus is "light & bright".

Heath's spruce JM

[spirit]

A link to Myka's Spruce topped guitar page.

http://www.mykaguitars.com/instruments/015/default.htm

[crafty]

Parker has a few models made out of spruce, the Fly Artist, Nylon, and Bronze. Very nice wood to use if you're going to incorporate piezos with the design as well. The whole guitar just seems to sing out, even when unplugged.

[darren wilson]

Parker describes their sitka spruce Fly Artist as "lively, lush and ferocious." Here's what else they have to say about it.

[Slabbefusk]

That might be the wood for my first guitar then. Its cheap and from what ive read it has good tone, Parker uses it too.

[DannoG]

While I would not want to stop you from using spruce, as must have been mentioned in some of those links, it is very soft. It will be difficult to keep from denting or other damage.

[frank falbo]

I'd use it with a 1/4" maple top and perhaps back as well. It is so light and weak that anything will dent it up. I would personally love to hear a spruce back on a carved 1/2" maple top, and perhaps with maple veneer or 1/8" maple back just for protection. I also think it would make fantastic neck through wings. Don't expect it to hold any trem studs. You should string through the body, and saturate any high compression areas like neck screw ferrules and ball end ferrules with thin CA.

Now that I think of it, how cool would it be to make a "shell" out of walnut, rosewood, or something else hard and heavy, but load it with spruce inside?! For example use bent rosewood sides, like an acoustic, with a rosewood top and back. That's basically the Parker concept, to bake your soft woods inside a hard candy shell. I guess when you think about it, Parkers are the "m&m's" of guitars.

Edited October 28, 2004 by frank falbo

[crafty]

I don't think a maple top on the spruce is necessary at all. Yes, spruce will ding with a thin finish, but the wood is actually very strong and certainly strong enough to use trem studs. It's not balsa (technically another hardwood). If you can do it with basswood, you can do it with spruce. Keep in mind that if you put a maple cap on it, you will accentuate higher frequencies. It would be similar to an acoustic guitar with a spruce top and maple sides/back. Spruce is an awesome wood to use for an all-around even frequency response.

Parker only puts the carbon-glass fiber mat on the back and it's there only to control temperature and humidity-related expansion/contraction of the wood. They wrap the neck in the material because they use tone woods that are easily warped without it.

[Slabbefusk]

Thank you very much for the information. I doubt trems studs are going to be a problem since this is my first guitar and i will probably be useing a top loading hard tailbridge, i was thinking of the Schaller D-6, plus theyre offered with a piezo option.