Mickguard Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 I'm looking at modifying an ash-bodied strat next. For the modification I'll need to find two strips of wood --about 5 cm /2.5 inches each. Trouble is, all I have here is a block of alder. Question 1: Can I mix body woods--use the alder for the strips and the ash body as the main core? Question 2: Since I don't need full guitar sized blocks, where can I get scrap tonewood for this project and others? It just seems a shame to cut down a nice block of wood when there's bound to be tons of available scrap out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galaga_Mike Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 I don't know how big of a piece you need, but the Woodcraft store around here sells strips, large blocks, and smaller leftover blocks of hardwoods. You can also buy wood by the boardfoot. That might be good place to start if you have a local wood store like that. To answer your other question, I don't see how mixing woods is any different than a laminated neck, so I would imagine there are no problems. Hope that helps. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 The Woodcraft near here is ridiculously expensive when it comes to wood. I'm sure it probably is everywhere. Your best bet is probably just getting the wood and cutting it up. I doubt you're gonna find many people selling scraps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDust_Junkie Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 I can't vouch for what effect, if any, laminated body blanks would have on the tonal characteristics, but I'll let you know. I recently started a practice project using strips of White Oak I sawed from my firewood pile, laminated together with strips of Mahogany. I just thought what the heck, I have all this wood out there doing nothing. I might as well see if I can make something useful out of it. I couldn't get any pieces of the Oak much bigger than 1 1/2" x 2" x 18", so I cut a Mahogany plank into strips the same size and laminated them together. I also bought a piece of White Oak from a local woodworking shop and laminated three pirces together to make the back plate. I just got the body cut out and the top piece chambered, so I am not close to puting it together and finding out how its will sound. I am thinking of making a laminate neck of White Oak and Mahogany just to keep with the "theme" of the guitar. I know Oak is not supposed to desirable wood for guitars, but wanted something to work on over the winter to practice on and hone my skills. If your interested, take a look at what I have done so far. http://www.mindspring.com/~ed5/Project/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mailloux Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Most wood yards that do custom sawing will have piles of scrap wood you can look into and buy usually at a low price. Multiple ply bodies are fine. Here's a gratitious photo of Les claypool's (Primus) Rainbow bass made by Carl Thompson. The laminates are walnut, maple, coccobolo, padauk, ebony and purpleheart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 My godin SD is made from a center of maple and poplar wings and sounds great! I'm sure it would sound better 1 peice but hey it was only $400 USD and I'm very happy with it (the only store bought guitar I have) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 up. I doubt you're gonna find many people selling scraps. ← Yeah, especially people willing to ship...I got the idea from a guy on ebay.de who has/had a bunch of maple pieces available --some pretty good size pieces too. But he didn't want to sell to France. I'm going to be meeting with a carpenter tomorrow, he'll know where to get good wood around here . The guitar I'm getting is actually limewood/basswood, not ash. It'll be easy enough to put some alder wings on that. All I'll keep is the center column. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perhellion Posted January 25, 2005 Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 You can usually find all kinds of scraps at a carpentry shop, or especially a job site. Might be tough to find ash, but I recently went by a restaurant that was nearly finished (they were building the bar area, installing molding, etc.) and there was a stack of scraps that they probably just threw away. As far as mixing woods, I see no problem. As far as oak (to the firewood oak guy, where in Raleigh are you?) many people badmouth oak as a tone wood, but who knows. Brian May has always had a great tone, and his Red Special is made from an oak mantlepiece. The "red" wood that you see is just a veneer. Probably (from the time period) a thicker veneer than today (maybe 1/8 or 1/16"), but most of the body wood is oak. I think it is chambered, but Brian and his dad just made up the design and the chambers, it's not like they had prior instrument building experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 but Brian and his dad just made up the design and the chambers, it's not like they had prior instrument building experience. ← Yep, they're my inspiration on my own guitar building quest... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDust_Junkie Posted January 25, 2005 Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 Yeah perhellion, that's what I figured with the Oak. What the heck. I have a bunch of firewood and I don't really burn it, except for atmosphere from time to time. So, since I wanted to practice on building set necks, and didn't want to waste a bunch of money on quality wood just for practice, I started cutting up the firewood to see if I could get anything useful. I am really interested to see what the guitar will sound like. The Oak seems plenty hard enough to me. I will say that Oak is a bit more difficult to work with because it seems to want to split and run if you are not careful when trying to cut and rout it. I have also read that it can be difficult to use rasps and files when going against the grain. I guess I will find out. Another issue will be trying to get the grain filled really well. But right now I am leaning toward Guitarfrenzys epoxy filler method. That seems like it will be the easiest, and on this laminated Oak/Mahogany body, I want to keep the natural grain as much as possible. I may even use a light stain to darken the grain a bit. By the way, I am located around the Garner/Clayton area. Are you in the triangle also ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGwaH Posted January 26, 2005 Report Share Posted January 26, 2005 Lee Valley sells what they call Project Woods. They have all kinds of kooky woods that would be not so bad for making guitars. Cheers, Jonathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perhellion Posted January 26, 2005 Report Share Posted January 26, 2005 Fender4me, I'm in Raleigh. What (or where on this site) is the epoxy filler method. I've seen epoxy used to harden a fretless bass fretboard, but that covers the wood with a glassy surface. If you could fill the grain but still have a more open, oil-like finish, I'd like to ssee it. One more oak tibit - George Lynch had ESP make an oak bodied guitar. I never heard any more about it, so it probably wasn't as bright as the maple bodies he prefers, but it must have been fine structurally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2005 Lee Valley sells what they call Project Woods. They have all kinds of kooky woods that would be not so bad for making guitars. Cheers, Jonathan ← Hey, thanks for the link --now I know the French for 'basswood' --tilleul...and they had to cut one down here not too long ago, it died ---the tree was at least 100 years old hmm...I'll see how they cut it up, maybe they'll let me take some...(there are a couple more in front of my house, but they're still going strong...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted January 26, 2005 Report Share Posted January 26, 2005 I've seen epoxy used to harden a fretless bass fretboard, but that covers the wood with a glassy surface. If you could fill the grain but still have a more open, oil-like finish, I'd like to ssee it. ← I don't quite get whay you're saying. You want to fill the grain but have it open? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDust_Junkie Posted January 26, 2005 Report Share Posted January 26, 2005 Take a look here perhellion: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...pic=9113&st=180 What I meant was that frenzy used epoxy as a grain filler rather than an actual commercial grain filler product. He applied the epoxy and then sanded level and then applied his color coats and clear coats. What I liked about his method was that you could customize the color of the grain filler to whatever you wanted using dyes with the epoxy. In my case, I just want a clear grain filler that won't really change the color of the wood, even if I use a light stain first to bring out the grain a little more. But, if you wanted, you mix your own color using dyes to get what you want. In frenzy's case he used a black epoxy from Stew-Mac, but he could have as easily used black dye with a clear epoxy to get the same result. what I really liked about it was after sanding level, the color in the epxoy was only retained in the gran pattern of the wood. This really made the grain "pop" and looks really nice. I am one those people that cringe at the thought of covering beautiful wood with paint. At my local woodworking shops they have all of the standard grain filler products, but all of them I have noticed have at least some tint to them. Even what they call clear is a chalky tan/biege color and I figured this might darken the wood more than I want it to. Of course take everything I say on this subject with a grain of salt, as I have only built one guitar prior to my current project. And I have not done the finish on that guitar as yet. I am waiting for better weather in the spring before I tackle that phase of my first project. So, I am really just considering options at this point and frenzy's seemed to be "newbie friendly". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perhellion Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 "I don't quite get whay you're saying. You want to fill the grain but have it open? " I get the idea from the guitarfrenzy post. The black dye/epoxy mix partially fills in pores and grain, then is sanded. At this point, the top (non-grainy? wood) surface would be bare wood, and therefore might take an oil finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joej Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 Question 2: Since I don't need full guitar sized blocks, where can I get scrap tonewood for this project and others? ← Find a lumber yard, ask if they have shorts or cutoffs you can dig through. Some do this ... a few don't. Some real lumber years have good hardwood, a lot often just have some extra maple/mahogany/nothing-else I found some nice 2" thick cherry for cheap in a shorts bin. They had poplar, misc types of maple, white oak, etc too One place sold me a number of LONG mahogany 1x4 boards for ~$23 (left overs, had crunched up edges in some places, etc.) -- joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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