Hi, I'm Mattia, And I'm A Tonewood Addict

[Mattia]

Just figured I'd throw this up, because I'm having WAS problems again (it's worse than GAS. That's just gear. Wood Aquisition Syndrome is a much harsher mistress).

See, I've got more wood than I will reasonably be able to use in the next 15 years, at the rate I'm building. I mean, on average, I've been completeing about 1 guitar per year (although I have been getting a tad faster, despite the busy life: 1 acoustic, 1 electric last year, 1 electric this year so far, 1 acoustic will be completed, 2 electrics will be completed). So when I mention I've got a good 36 acoustic back/side sets (12 different woods, give or take), an equal number of tops (Italian, Sitka, Engelman spruce, Redwood, WRC), a decent sized stash of mahogany boards outside for necks and/or electric bodies, and a good 5 sets of maple for carve tops, two for thinner drop tops, well..

And now I'm being severely tempted by a few other beautiful maple tops (quilt, flame, most rather unique) for carve-top instruments, and counting myself lucky that I'm not really interested in stock 1/4" thick (because some of that's really tasty as well). I know I don't need them, I'm fairly certain I'll still be able to get quality stuff later, but the wood's available now, my bank account's just about flush enough to pay for it, so...argh! I know it's never a bad investment, since re-selling them, should the need arise, should let me recoup the costs, although that thought in and of itself is kinda...distrubing.

Anyone else hopelessly addicted to tonewoods? Spend too much time trawling the 'net for 'lutheir porn', searching the 'bay for 'quilted maple', check all of Gilmer's 'unique board pages' every few weeks, and relish the thought of sorting through large piles of wood next time you go down to the local lumber yard, in search of that one perfect chunk of mahogany/maple/insert wood species here? Anyone else got too waaaay too much wood for the amount of storage space that you reasonably have?

And, uh, any way to treat it?

[Daniel Sorbera]

Welcome to the club!

The only way to cure is to buy more!!

Or you could just give me all your wood and go cold turkey

[TeiscosRock]

The only cure is more cowbell, my friend.

[unclej]

well, i don't make acoustics but i'm a wood junkie just the same. besides electric guitars i make wooden jewely and sculpt with wood so i've always got my eye open for the beautiful and the unusual.

i live by a river and every time i go fishing or swimming i come home with a handful of small to medium sized driftwood pieces. occasionally i'll find a larger log or root ball to lug home and let dry for some future project.

if i find a good deal at one of the austin hardwood suppliers i'll buy more than i need. for instance i bought a 2 1/2' x 10' x 2 1/2" slab of walnut last year at what i considered a steal. so far i've only made one electric and one lap steel out of it.

one of the reasons that i don't post "in progress" pics of my work is that i know i'd get flamed for the condition of my shop. piles of wood everywhere. sometimes it even scares me.

so yes, i'd say i'm addicted to wood.

[erikbojerik]

<raises hand> Yep, a guitar project is never more optimistic, or has more potential, than when it is sitting before you as a stack of lumber.

...except possibly that very first moment you plug it in, when the amp is on, the juice is flowing, but you have yet to play that very first note that makes it come alive.

[RGGR]

I have forced myself to finish the guitars I building first before buying more wood.

Hahaha....but can't say it's easy.

[bugman96]

and relish the thought of sorting through large piles of wood next time you go down to the local lumber yard, in search of that one perfect chunk of mahogany/maple/insert wood species here?

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I'm new to the wood acquisition business, but where do you guys live where your lumber yards have mahogany and other nice stuff. The ones near me only seem to only have construction grade cedar and pine (home depots by me have maple and oak, but that's about it).

[jmrentis]

I'm with RGGR, and the only reason for that is $$, if I had some more I woodn't (lol) be able to control myself. If I really get into this big time I might get a credit card only for guitar building equipment, sounds crazy but I have made it to almost 25 now with any plastic and have no debt, most of my roommates and friends that have them are in debt and most aren't in school or have a home yet, so their debt comes from stuff that was mostly uneeded.

I have a hard time not buying wood when I see it, but my empty wallet usually is inspiration enough to not. But I know the feeling of seeing the piece you have been looking for and a price tag of $300-$500 and just sit there dreaming about it. Then bust out the calculater and start dividing up the price into tops and seeing if you can bust even after selling a few while still being able to keep enough for yourself. Thankfully I don't have my own bandsaw yet, although I have one I can use, otherwise I might be in debt. Well I feel for you mattia! Jason

[westhemann]

and relish the thought of sorting through large piles of wood next time you go down to the local lumber yard, in search of that one perfect chunk of mahogany/maple/insert wood species here?

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I'm new to the wood acquisition business, but where do you guys live where your lumber yards have mahogany and other nice stuff. The ones near me only seem to only have construction grade cedar and pine (home depots by me have maple and oak, but that's about it).

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they are using lumber yard as a generic term...you get the proper woods at cabinet shops and hardwood stores

[Mattia]

I'm new to the wood acquisition business, but where do you guys live where your lumber yards have mahogany and other nice stuff.  The ones near me only seem to only have construction grade cedar and pine (home depots by me have maple and oak, but that's about it).

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they are using lumber yard as a generic term...you get the proper woods at cabinet shops and hardwood stores

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Well, if you're lucky enough (like me, if you ignore the rather insane prices), there are a few lumber yards that deal in exotics. The one closest is a lumber yard in the proper sense of the word, large palettes of rough-sawn boards (although they will plane it), mostly exotic timbers. Sadly, the one closest by is a bit crap when it comes to handling some of their stuff, so it's very much a 'pick through the piles of stuff for the nice stuff' game, but they've got mahogany a-plenty, more Wenge and Ebony than I can shake a stick at, and various other woods, depending on what's come in recently.

[RGGR]

I'm new to the wood acquisition business, but where do you guys live where your lumber yards have mahogany and other nice stuff. The ones near me only seem to only have construction grade cedar and pine (home depots by me have maple and oak, but that's about it).

There is thread on here posting pretty much all good wood sources.......Search on Tonewood should yield that thread.

Ebay is good source too.

Sadly, the one closest by is a bit crap when it comes to handling some of their stuff, so it's very much a 'pick through the piles of stuff for the nice stuff' game, but they've got mahogany a-plenty, more Wenge and Ebony than I can shake a stick at, and various other woods, depending on what's come in recently.

Matti, you're from the Netherlands too, so I figure you're talking about AF, right???

[Mattia]

Matti, you're from the Netherlands too, so I figure you're talking about AF, right???

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I am, yeah, but I'm talking about the Amsterdamsche Fijnhouthandel, not the Arnhemse, which, judging by the pics on the website, is a little more shall we say serious about wood storage, handling and such. But their prices are higher, the Amsterdam place is close to home, and they do have quite a bit of good stuff if you're willing to sift.

[fryovanni]

I don't think you have a problem. You have a hobby. As long as you are having fun hunting for nice pieces, no problem. If you get to a point where you want to unload extra material. You should offer it to others that have a harder time finding good pieces(it's a bit of a pain, but it is very helpful to more people than you would think). I don't like to search to try to find pieces for one guitar. When I build I like to pick and choose from my stockpile.

So lets see some of those acoustic sets! Sounds like you have some variety, and you should show off some of the treasures you have found.

Peace,Rich

[Mattia]

I don't think you have a problem. You have a hobby. As long as you are having fun hunting for nice pieces, no problem. If you get to a point where you want to unload extra material. You should offer it to others that have a harder time finding good pieces(it's a bit of a pain, but it is very helpful to more people than you would think). I don't like to search to try to find pieces for one guitar. When I build I like to pick and choose from my stockpile.

So lets see some of those acoustic sets! Sounds like you have some variety, and you should show off some of the treasures you have found.

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Yes...yes, that's it. I like your rationale better than mine ;-)

I very much agree it's a whole lot more fun to sift through the pile, looking at pieces of wood, trying to figure out what instrument is hiding inside them rather than designing, then buying for them specifically. Plus, y'know, if you're bored you can sift through them for fun.

Few links to pics of the general wood stashyness (don't really have any of the boards of 'stuff'). A few sample acoustic back/side sets (for most, I have more than one set. 'cept Ziricote, really). Some pics are wiped down with naphta, most are 'dry':

Macassar ebony

Madagascar rosewood

Quilted Sapele

Plain-jane Bubinga

'Waterfall' figure Bubinga

Cocobolo

Cuban mahogany

Pau Ferro

Ziricote

Cherry

US Sycamore

Lightly flamed black walnut

Couple of Zebrano boards I'm not quite sure what I'll do with yet:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics2...no/Zebrano1.jpg

'Bargain' figured maple carve tops (cost me 38 bucks each or something like that, and I don't always need insano quilt...although I would like some):

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ameDT%20010.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ernDT%20014.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ernDT%20017.jpg

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics3...ernDT%20019.jpg

Funky (wipe down) red/coral/partly spalted maple for carved top (wiped down version, dealer pic, so the color is more towards golden brown than the orangeyness it's got here):

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics5/redmaple01.jpg

Quilt maple for drop top:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvalente/guitarpics5/quilt01.jpg

And we're ignoring the mahogany, maple and cherry boards outside, for I have no pictures of them :-)

Right. Off to window-shop for s'more quilt maple...

[Setch]

There's a lot of good stuff in there!

The madagascar RW and the ziricote are very nice - the ziricote sap wood will look fantastic with a nice dark back strip for contrast.

You're in NL right...? Address? Any plans to go out for a few hours...?

[RGGR]

This one is pretty cool.....

[Mattia]

Sure, my address is....hang on...

...

Nice try, Setch :-p

I'm tempted to leave the ziricote sapwood without a centre strip, let the sapwood speak for itself, although I'll probably use something fairly sedate for the binding on that one (ebony, perhaps. Or fairly plain maple). Light bindings on dark woods, dark bindings on light woods, or same binding as wood but with contrasting purfling (which is there anyway) is my way of thinking. I'm still pondering whether the Ziricote should get a bearclaw or a regular Italian Spruce top.

Either way, methinks that particular chunk of wood is several years away from getting built with. Gonna start with the cheaper, less crazy!figure stuff, and save the figured exotics for later :-). Got an EIR Grand A, Walnut medium Jumbo and a Cherry Parlour lined up next.

RGGR: I've got 4 of those quilt sapele sets (I think it's 4, anyway). They're quite stunning. Most insane wood I've got in my 'stash', that's for certain.

Edited September 6, 2005 by mattia

[stiggz]

what is that stuff sitting there for?? for christs sake use that Sapele mattia!!!! that stuff is freakin beautiful. make the nicest acoustic outta that, stop collecting and build!!! build dammit!! lol

luke

[Mattia]

what is that stuff sitting there for??   for christs sake use that Sapele mattia!!!! that stuff is freakin beautiful. make the nicest acoustic outta that, stop collecting and build!!! build dammit!! lol

luke

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Heh. I'm building, I'm building! Got one acoustic to finish, some new bending forms to make (building molds are done), and then I'm starting three. That Sapele, however, is staying right where it is until I'm sure I can do it justice, both visually and tonally.

Besides, given LMI is selling pretty much identical sets for about 600 bucks (and I paid a good bit less than that for all four), well, I'm in no hurry to screw a set up, like.

[fryovanni]

Very nice man. I have some of that crazy Sapele myself. You know that those wide boards for acoustics are like gold. You will never lose a penny if you buy that material right. If you get overloaded. You can sell those sets so fast it will make your head spin. Keep buying right, and offer some up to the guys on the board if you feel like it. That kind of material can't just be picked up at the drop of a hat without paying way too much(like you mentioned LMI sells quilted Sapele $600, thats outragous. maybe $200-$250). Keep showing off your finds. Would you mind if I and some others through a couple pics of some of our acoustic stashes up here?

Peace, Rich

[Mattia]

Dude, by all means. Y'know that bit where I'm a wood addict? It's not just stuff I can buy/I own m'self. I'm perfectly happy to look at other people's 'wood porn'. I encourange the posting thereof, in fact.

[fryovanni]

Cool, I have a class tonight but I will shoot a couple pics in the next day or two. Do your your suppliers have good stocks of figured Maples? Have you ever tried Myrtle or Madrone?

Peace, Rich