Miro Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 hey luthiers on night shift! I'm going on my first guitar and, ok, everything planned, size, measures, finishing, etc... but, I can't afford woods like Mahogany, Maple, Spruce or any of those (specially Mahogany since it is forbidden on Brazil). Does anyone here ever used Pinus on guitars? Is it good for the neck? Thanx and c ya! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_A_T_T Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Pinus=Pitch Pine Do a search on 'Pine' and you should have your answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Pitch pine, if I recall, can be used for bodies, as it is somewhat similar to poplar in its tonal characteristics. I wouldn't use it for a neck, though. DO NOT use other kinds of pine, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 "Pinus" is the genus of all the pine trees. Hyunsu recently posted pics of some very handsome guitars with yellow pine bodies. But no, I would not use it for a neck. Can you get " spanish cedar " there? It is a lot like mahogany. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miro Posted June 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 spanish cedar would be hard too, specially because I'm a little lack of money but a last question: is Ivory good for necks? thanks until here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_A_T_T Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 (edited) but a last question: is Ivory good for necks? thanks until here! ← Do you mean the wood Pink Ivory, or Ivory from elephant tusks? Edited June 5, 2005 by M_A_T_T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miro Posted June 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 (edited) or Ivory from elephant tusks? hmm, it would be very heavy yes, the Pink Ivory... Edited June 5, 2005 by Miro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_A_T_T Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 "Pinus" is the genus of all the pine trees. Hyunsu recently posted pics of some very handsome guitars with yellow pine bodies. But no, I would not use it for a neck. Can you get " spanish cedar " there? It is a lot like mahogany. ← These ones, right? http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...ndpost&p=187921 Those are sweet. Miro - I believe Pink Ivory is a rare and expensive wood, at least around here. Can you get enough of it? I don't know what it is like at all, I've never used it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miro Posted June 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 thanx for now! please dont answer my signature... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Hey Miro......where are you located. If it is Brazil....I have hard time believing you can't get your hands on some Mahogany. You guys have that stuff growing in your backyard. My local wood dealer in Holland has plenty of it..........can't believe you guys don't have it at the source. And when every year the size of France in Rain Forrest get's cut down (burned down), there must be small piece in there for you to make guitar from. It's shame though they only cut and never re-plant the stuff like they do in Sweden and Finland. For every tree being cut down they plant 2 new ones....(no mahogant though....only pine......;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 sorry .. too big size imgage.. body wood is yellow pine.. and neck wood is iroko & Merbau Merbau is amazing wood.. very deep & warm tone.. iroko is hot & cool tone... strange wood make wonderfull sounds guitar.. i love strange wood.. wood is strange but sound is very good.. ← I couldn't help but quote the great hyunsu to get his pictures ove to this thread. I'm in Australia and it can be difficult and expensive to get nice traditional wood here...especially if you're starting out. Pine is easy and cheap to get (though it might be hard to find such nice knot free piece like hyunsu has) and is easy to work. Miro is doing his first guitar. I reckon that not only might you be pleasently surprised by the results....you will make mistakes. If you do a bolt on neck design, that and all your hardware can be transfered to a freshly made body as your skills improve. One has to ask, is a solid pine body going to be any worse than a plywood one. On that...is a plywood guitar necessarily that bad (it's probably better than MDF)...I mean, except for the centre block a 355 is plywood right. I'd really like to see some branching out into new materials. I'm exploring sheet aluminium over a light timber core. Metal Carver has gotten some tremendous tone from all aluminium bodied guitars. Reverend guitars are made from a wide centre block of mahogany with a plastic rim and tops and back of aluminium sheet or laminex type material and are supposed to be great. Some even swear by the Danelectro model of masonite and cheap timbers and very low powered lipstick pickups (Jimmy Page for one). In short if you can get suitable pine which is dry, knot free and close grained like it looks like Hyunsu was able to find...then do it. It's at least worthwhile for a practice run...then you can tell us how it sounds good luck pete BTW: environmentally speaking, replacing old hardwood trees, like in Australia our old growth forests with pine plantations, even at two to one doesn't help much. Pine trees do not have the same kind of effect as broad leaf trees. The benefit is that once the fast growing pine trees are cut down and used they can cut back on the amount of fine grade trees removed. Typically though, this doesn't seem to be the case and you just get more pine and the other wood just gets scarcer and more expensive. Instead of subsidising unproductive farming, more should be done to encourage the re-establishment of fine slow growing native hardwwod trees, for the atmosphere, for the soil and for future guitar building...wherever you live. It's too easy to look to suoth american countries and say look at all the timber being cut down when a couple of hundred years ago, we did exactly the same...and still do - for pine plantations! Anyway...some of this timber is ending up in the Gibson and PRS factories and feeding the demand...it's not like every brazilian has mahogany and rosewood houses now is it! Sorry....rant closed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsman1031 Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 beautiful guitars !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 you can build guitars out of fired and glazed mud if you wanted to.that does not make them as fine or as long lasting as a true hardwood guitar. use what you can afford...just don't expect it to be great.and don't use pine for the neck.i think brazil has plenty of good wood for what you need.just keep your eyes open...look around for businesses which scrap alot of woodand look through their discard pile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 True...free wood is good wood. Also check some discarded furniture, who knows what it's made of and it's probably well seasoned. Don't forget you can laminate stuff to get your dimensions...you don't necessary need a thick chunk of timber. By the way...I've started a new thread as this type of question comes up pretty often. The idea is to post links to topics about alternative materials or even alternative building techniques. You can find it here: Alternative Guitarbuilding Materials If Westhemann finds a link to a fired and glazed mud guitar...he can post it there ! I haven't found that one myself but I posted a few to get it started.... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 BTW: environmentally speaking, replacing old hardwood trees, like in Australia our old growth forests with pine plantations, even at two to one doesn't help much. Pine trees do not have the same kind of effect as broad leaf trees. The benefit is that once the fast growing pine trees are cut down and used they can cut back on the amount of fine grade trees removed. Typically though, this doesn't seem to be the case and you just get more pine and the other wood just gets scarcer and more expensive. Instead of subsidising unproductive farming, more should be done to encourage the re-establishment of fine slow growing native hardwood trees, for the atmosphere, for the soil and for future guitar building...wherever you live. It's too easy to look to South American countries and say look at all the timber being cut down when a couple of hundred years ago, we did exactly the same...and still do - for pine plantations! This is exactly what I was referring to. ....Use your resourced wisely. South America, Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia.....etc. Although lots of this money is used to pay off depth to the West........so yeah, I feel guilty on more then one count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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