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Posted

Alright I just got off of the phone with a friend of my dads and he told me he could get me all the cherry I could use for like $4.00/bf. Some of it is flat sawn some is 1/4 sawn, in thicknesses that range from 1/4 inch up to 3 inches. I was wondering what kind of tone it would give? And how do you figure up how many board feet you will need in a guitar body. The guy also has Hickory, and Walnut that he said I could have as well. And told me that in about a month he can get me as much hard maple as I could use at a reasonable price. Any ideas? Tone? Would I need to put a top on it? :D

Posted

cherry is very simialar to maple, meaning bright

At the moment, how to calculate board feet is evading me

BUT

if I where you, I would have a cherry body, walnut neck, and ebony or maple fingerboard, if you are worried about it being *too bright* then just fool around with your EQ settings (assuming you are building a solid body, because you posted in solid body chat :DB) )

If you got questions, just ask, but dont forget about the search function

Good luck

Curtis

Posted

cherry is VERY bright

i have a guitar i built which has a 3 piece cherry neck,maple body,and a 3/4" cap of crotch mahogany,with a bocote fretboard.it is so bright it hurts...i keep it tuned around c# just to compensate.

here is a sound sample

http://fullservesite.com/westhemann/carved...op%20guitar.mp3

it is tuned low,like i said

here is a picture

front

http://fullservesite.com/westhemann/carved...20done_0010.jpg

cherry neck

http://fullservesite.com/westhemann/carved...k%20bo_0003.jpg

back of guitar

http://fullservesite.com/westhemann/carved...d%20on_0001.jpg

here you can see the laminates

http://fullservesite.com/westhemann/carved...recess_0003.jpg

Posted

board feet is calculated as widthXlenth divided by 144.

so for instance a board that is 5x10 is aprox 0.347 B/f

generally they will list differenct priced for different thickness.

so for instance when they list wood it would be something like

1/4"=$10 B/f

1/2"=$20 B/f

3/4"=$30 B/f

1" = $40 B/f

you get the idea?

for your body blank youll want something around 1 3/4" or 2" thick. lenth and width will depend on what guitar body you make. but genneraly you see the blanks about 14"x20" or so.

for the neck youll probly want something 2" or 3" thick so you got lots of room to carve it down to your hand, 3" wide or so so you can customiz it to yourdesired fretboard, and for length probly around 30" or so for a bolt on neck. 30" should be more than enough length to build a peghead with the neck wood.

good luck.

Posted (edited)

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm thinking about doing a hickory/walnut neck with an ebony or rosewood fret board. What wood could I put on the front and/or back to take away some of the brightness? I'm going with SD Pealy Gates, was thinking that they might take away some of the brightness. Am I correct to assume this or not?

Lovely guitar Wes. love the bocote on it. Thanks for the info on calculating board feet.

Any and all help will be greatly appericiated. I won't be painting this a solid color, I'm going to either stain or dye it haven't decided on which yet. Will keep everyone up to date on this project. :D

Edited by Lizard_King
Posted
board feet is calculated as widthXlenth divided by 144.

1/4"=$10 B/f

1/2"=$20 B/f

3/4"=$30 B/f

1" = $40 B/f

For lumber you will at times see it listed as 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, and so on.

Same thing only different. :D

Posted

I was wondering if the wood is fully dried and free of worm holes,knots & pitch pockets?

Maybe something to ask if you haven't seen the wood yourself yet.

For me, I'd be bummed to get alot of wood that I'd have to store (limited on space) for a long period of time before I could use it.

Sounds like a sweet hook-up you got though. :D

Posted

The wood is all planed and smoothed out, for the most part free of worm holes, knots, and pitch pockets. It has been kiln dried and he told me that it was at 7% give or take 1%. He told me it is perfect for luthier work and knows of other people that have bought it from him to use on guitars. I think it's a sweet hookup myself lol. He also told me he could get just about any type of wood I wanted including veneers, figured wood, and possibly even burls. But I have to let him know in advance that way he can look for it and give me a price and time that I can pick it up.

I'm pretty excites about this now can't wait to go pick up some of the wood and dig in. I agree with you, I wouldn't want to spend alot of money on wood that I would have to let sit for an extended period of time in order to be able to use it. :D

Posted

I would use the quartersawn Cherry for the neck, probably the Walnut for the body.

You can stain the Cherry to look damn near the color of the Walnut, and I always prefer quartersawn wood for necks if I had a choice.

See 'Bones' (GOTM winner, but I forget what month it was) to see what you can do with Walnut for a bodywood, or just cruise the 'net, there's plenty of pics of walnut guitars out there.

Good luck, and good find. Hope it works out for you. :D

Posted

I've just completed a guitar that uses cherry for the body. It's a bolt-on strat style body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. For whatever reason, the guitar sounds quite warm to me and not bright at all. Maybe it's just a fluke? I'm using a SD distortion in the bridge and a sustainiac stealth plus in the neck position. It also has a spalted maple top BUT the top is very hard - no "punky" sections - nothing that would be considered soft at all.

I was expecting it to sound like my other all maple guitars. Maybe it's the fretboard? Maybe it's the top, maybe it's the cherry - I don't know. I do know that the sound is about the warmest I have built.

Posted

Maybe Cherry does vary in tone, because I've always slightly disagreed with the statements that Cherry is as bright as Maple.

I say it's in the 'ballpark' of Maple, but not as bright. At the lower end of the same catagory perhaps?

So maybe it does vary from place to place, dunno, but the Cherry I have worked with wasn't as bright as Maple.

Posted

That's what I'm going for is a warm tone but a little bright at the sametime. I like the walnut as well though. I think my first stop I'll pick up enough cherry for a guitar and enough walnut to make another guitar.

What about hickory? Would it be alright to use in for a guitar? He also has red oak sitting around that he said I could just have if I want it. Any ideas? I've heard people say that oak isn't good for building guitars with, but I've also heard other people say that it works fairly well. I'm just trying to get a general idea.

As far as burl goes, he said he could get it for me but it would be a month from now. Which wouldn't be bad but I also asked him if I could go with him when he picks it up. That way I can see what I'm getting or moreless pick through what the other guy has and choose what I like the best. B)

He's giving me some prices that I can't refuse. lol Never thought I would find good quality wood at a decent price. Open for suggestions. :D

Posted

How about a neck through, walnut/cherry/walnut neck body would be cherry/walnut/cherry/walnut/cherry (with neck and wings all attached). Would this be a good combo? Heard that walnut and cherry both give warm tones, as far as I could tell from reading reviews on other sites about them both.

I'm still trying to find out about the hickory, can anyone help? Thanks in advance :D

Posted

Don't know about the hickory, but Stephen Kersting has uses cherry a lot in guitar building, including necks. Here is a link to his building site:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/skgs/sk/Tele...ar_building.htm

Note that he uses top woods, such as maple and also does chambering. This last item might cut the highs enough that the cherry seems more mellow. Why not email him and ask. He is more known for his pickups (I own a pair and they very good) than his guitar building.

Posted

I just sent him an email and I'm waiting for a reply. Hopefully he will be able to give me a little more advice on the subject. Thank you DannoG. And I would also like to think everyone else that has replied to my topic, any more information you could possibly provide on the woods I have mentioned(hickory,cherry.walnut, and red oak) would be greatly appericiated. Thank you for your help. As soon as I decide on a wood I will be posting progress picks. :D

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