psw Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Hi...if you've clicked on this you have, like me, an interest in the topic...or you need more practice with a mouse I thought I'd start a thread that would collect together peoples ideas or experiences with different materials for guitar building... I know there are lot's of information in the PG forum on different ideas so, if and when people find them, post them here. For instance...Pine is fairly universally damned as a "tonewood" yet Hyunsu has made some beautiful creations that he reports sound great: hyunsu's pine creations Not only that, but he has used alternative neck timbers to good effect. Where I live (in Australia) Merbu, which he used for making necks, is commonly found for decking material and could easily and cheaply be planed into laminations for the purpose. Likewise Jarrah is very hard and has been used for fingerboards and has a really deep red colour. But I've seen some fabulous metal guitars...like Metal Carver's: Metal Carver's Aluminium Body with Graphite Neck these are soposed to have an incredible tone. How about this tutorial from jrhilton on using composite materials: Making a composite (graphite) neck But don't restrict yourselves to the PG site. I'm sure you've come across things of interest elsewhere...perhaps on comercial sites like this: Reverend Guitar Construction I've heard these sound pretty good. Maybe you've played some of these alternativley built instruments and have an opinion/critisism. Anyway...that's the idea...to gather together various bits of information, experiences or opinion in the one place! psw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tirapop Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 This is sort of a companion to the Reverend, another laminate top guitar, the Formicaster. Girl Brand Guitars uses construction similar to Reverend. Girl Brand has really cool top designs that border on fine art. For non-traditional materials, I've noticed ads for stores carrying bamboo flooring (durable, sustainable - save trees for something better than floors). The bamboo fingerboards anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Here's a link to some reviews from Harmony Central of their Alternatve-X acoustic guitar with an Aluminium soundboard: Martin Alternative X Perhaps someone's had some experience with them...I've heard good and bad! Here's a gallery of Fouke's Industrial guitars...rivited aluminium: Industrial Guitars And here's a link to Switch Guitar's All Plastic Technology: Switch "Vibracell" Guitars Don't know what they sound like...they claim the technologies as good as the best tonewoods!!! Anyone got their own ideas or come across something interesting? It would be great if someone's tryed out some of these instruments and give a bit of an opinion psw Actually...someone, might be Yamaha, did come out with a bamboo bodied acoustic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suregork Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 You can take a look at the instruments on the site linked to in the following thread: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=16815 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Hey, I recently went to my local hardwood store to pickup some purpleheart that I am using for a solid body with a quilted maple top, and the store manager and I got to talking about woods gravity, weight, density and the like and he showed me a wood that I think has been used but is definitely not in common use named Jatoba. It seems to be a heavy wood that is very dense and is a beautiful brownish red. I'm unsure of the finishing aspects of this wood, like if the grain is open or closed and such. The store had it very cheap about the same as the hard maple(non figured)! I will be buying some soon to do a laminated neck with maple around it. Really great looking stuff! I will also be doing one with curly maple and purpleheart. Metal Matt a member of this forum has really turned me on to this purpleheart, it's incredible looking wood, also very heavy and dense and as he said it has very strong thick brightness to it, as well as a great bottom end. It sound perfect for a body for me and I can't wait to finish my project. And in my location it's also pretty cheap, but unfortunatly there was no beautifully figured pieces like some of what Matt had gotten, nice none the less. Maybe in the future I will do a purpleheart and jatoba neck, it would make a crazy looking neck, it would be a little heavy though. Just thought I would share some of the woods and ideas that I've had, that I haven't seen much of. So if you have had any experience with any of these woods or combinations let me know your opinions of them. Thanks for your time and have a good one! Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Thanks...though you may want to consider using paragraphs next time...little hard to read! Jatoba...not heard of it myself...anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 I wish there was a way to keep photos embedded in posts. When the host site goes down, craptasticness ensues. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 That's right...you do a search, find what you want and all you get as xxxx's...d'oh. Photos and most sounds went with fullservesite and even old GOTM entries have disappeared into the ether...very disappointing...but what do you do! I wish there was a site that would let me post sounds...anyone got ideas? psw BTW: craptasticness I'm adding that to my Vocab GP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onelastgoodbye Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 i'll just add basslab catalyst guitars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Nice one Tim... Here's a link to yet another question about using pine as a guitar building wood: Pinus Wood one of our estemed moderators replied.... 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. ← Those Catalyst Guitar Guys seem to have taken him at his word...apparently you can: From then on ceramics could be used for special products that needed a top quality like Space Shuttles and ... The 'rocket & roll scientists' of Catalyst discovered an unexpected property of ceramics: it's acoustic qualities. Well not really unexpected: think of your singing wine glass! Even better than very well dried tonal wood, ceramics don't absorb so much the vibrations of sound as most materials do. They have a crystal clear sound and a brilliant tone of their own (crystal is also ceramic!). So Catalyst thought of making a compound with ceramics simulating the cell structure of wood. This was done by using ceramic 'microspheres'. Think of them as very little glass bubbles. This recipe and the overall production method are worldwide patented as SoundCompound. One big advantage compared to wood is the non-existence of water in the ceramic cells. So, say goodbye to instability. Apart from the water, wood is anisotropic and inhomogeneous, which causes dead tonal spots, the killing of certain harmonics, warped necks and a lot more things those vintage freaks didn't warn you about. SoundCompound lacks those spurious, energy-robbing vibrations that make wood necks selectively deaden some notes and harmonics. Anyway.... Here's an idea of mine that I'm going to start experimenting with... How a bout a wooden centre block...thin sheet aluminium body shape...and the rest of the "shape" filled with expanding polyurethane foam. The result would be a sandwich of aluminium with a tough form filling foam centre to give it strength and control the metals resonances...not quite sure how to do control cavities...but the idea's coming along... anyway...anyone got some more? pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simo Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Hey, I recently went to my local hardwood store to pickup some purpleheart that I am using for a solid body with a quilted maple top, and the store manager and I got to talking about woods gravity, weight, density and the like and he showed me a wood that I think has been used but is definitely not in common use named Jatoba. It seems to be a heavy wood that is very dense and is a beautiful brownish red. I'm unsure of the finishing aspects of this wood, like if the grain is open or closed and such. The store had it very cheap about the same as the hard maple(non figured)! I will be buying some soon to do a laminated neck with maple around it. ← I've not used it myself but Jatoba is Brazilian Cherry, I believe Cherry is a relative of Maple so it should be fine for a neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pr3Va1L Posted June 11, 2005 Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 here's something kinda cool. i really like these types of necks... Warmoth Neck i remember a compagny that did 1 piece mahogany necks too... i think it's spector... (yep it is) http://www.spectorguitar.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Hmmm that warmoth link didn't work.... Here's some guys working on plastic alternatives for acoustics: CoolAcoustics Here's another article and links to their plastic soundboard ideas: polymer acoustic tops Here's a guy who has some interesting ideas and alternative materials and designs: teuffel guitars I liked this one: It glows green in the dark and has push botton switches to add hum and noise effects!!! Here's something on some south African Oil Can Guitars: Afri-Can Guitars Here's some stuff from Cornell university on composites as used by Rainsong: Cornell U - Rainsonf composite materials design Anyway...it really seems tricky to get too much info on designs and materials for guitar making other than the mahogany and maple used since the '50's...hmmm Perfect combination...or guitar conservatisim? psw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Unfortunately the maker Teuffal got an allegy to the composite materials for this one but a very different shape and some unusual ideas and materials: Here some of the maker's comments: The use of carbon-fiber and modern composite resins in the acoustic field was the starting point for the coco guitar. It turns out that materials, like epoxy-foam, possess extraordinary acoustic properties. The particular sound of this foam-material is very percussive and bony, similar to a hard spruce. By adding special fillers and by reaching a certain density, one gets a tone that surpasses that of most types of wood. In the end, results an instrument who's body only has a wooden core. This core is encased with epoxy-foam. The outermost layer is composed of various fiber-materials like carbon-fiber, glass-fiber, and cotton-fiber with epoxy. The wooden core absorbs the force of the strings and thereby generates the fundamental resonance. The lower mass of the epoxy-foam allows a very good emission of the sound and has a distinctly percussive attack. Overtones respond quickly. The production-process allows, in contrast to a wooden body, a completely three-dimensional form, so that the body of the coco is so contoured that i nestles itself against the body of the player. More can be found here: Coco Details This side view shows the extreme contours that are possible with such a departure from normal construction techniques... Interesting ideas.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted June 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 I don't know if other's do this as much as I do but you find really interesting stuff by checking out what others are looking at from the past while you're hanging around.... A "guest" was checking out this thread by someone proposing to make a fiberglass bodied Airline copy: Fiberglass body thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 I found this link on woods, and this page has the info on Jatoba. Some of the pics the wood seems a little light, all the boards of it I saw at the store were a darker and deeper red, very rich looking, and finished I would think it would be beautiful for a body top and headstock vaneer or even for a neck being that it is super hard and stiff and heavy. Jatoba Give it a look and let me know what you guys think. It said in the US it's called Brazilian Cherry, but it's not a relative of cherry. It is actually harder than maple with a bigger gravity and weight per volume. Also might make a great looking fretboard! If anyone is heading to their local shop anytime soon, check it out it will be worth your while! Thank for your time! Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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