can i do it?

[cartersymes]

Ive found some wood, its big enough and its by far thick enough, but it seem to be sort of ply wood, mdf styley. should i use it, its mine tohave for free, or i could spend loads and get some really expensive wood. i dont care aboiut the sounda really i was just wondering if it would stay tofgethe or fall apart?

thanks

damn ive just realised this should be in the solid body topic? o well

[Brian]

No problem we move topics for free!

About the wood though I think it would be great for practicing on but probably not so great as a guitar body.

[johnuk]

Hi cartersymes,

MDF is very easy to notice, it is exactly like very tightly squashed carboard, with absolutely zero grain to it. Unless it's been polished with wax or something, it'll almost certainly be a fibre like matt / satin finish. Plywood is a piece of wood built up from a number of layers put on top of each other, usually at 90 degrees to one another, for strength.

I go to a school at the moment where all the lower years are boys only (11 - 16), to stop them getting aggitated by, er... distractions. Then 16 - 18 we're invaded by nymphomanic chicks, too sexually crazed and mentally unstable to stay in an asylum, their only hope being to go to a building with 1500 men in it... I wish... Anyway, the point, the DT rooms obviously see a lot of guitarists try to recreate their own favourite axe from pine. Mine is down there right now drying, but mine is made from mahogany, not pine (phew). About 99% of all the lads in the 16 - 18 group have tried, or play, the guitar. It's very weird.

They try building guitars from these woods only to realise all the problems with grain and the likes associated with the cheap woods. Pine isn't easy to make pretty things with using DT lab hacksaws, it has a very open grain. MDF has no grain, and so is easier. But it also loves to rip, it'll tear just like cardboard with enough force, it doesn't split like normal wood. MDF is usually available with weather proofing chemicals in it and things. The dust is potentially a carcinogen. After a few years of use, the DT labs in school banned students from belt sanding it or blowing the dust around in anyway (apart from rubbing it into each other's jackets after it'd been raining).

Guitar necks are very thin near the nut, I would be concerned about strength here with MDF. I would be willing to bet I could snap the neck with my hands if it was made from MDF.

So, in short, it depends what you're using it for. You'll need to spray a solid colour finish almost certainly. Is it for something to go on a wall, or are you going to try and play it?

[cartersymes]

i want it to play, i am going to buy myown neck, i will paint and varnish it i think it is a better material than mdf a lot thicker and with slight grain it seem.

can i use it seeing that i dont care about th sound and i am going to paint and vaenish it.

[johnuk]

I would be real careful. I think even though it's probably okay for a thick body section, mechanically, I really think it might sound pretty bad. It's okay if you're out to experiment, and don't mind if it could potentially sound horrible, but if you'd like something that's garanteed to be okay then I'd go with something else.

I have a guitar that's made from a type of plastic resin, a plastic guitar if you want. What's more, it cost 3k pounds stirling, or $5000. Believe it or not, plastic is a usable body material. The sound it produces is very different to a normal hardwood body. It's sort of nasal and almost wah filter like. But I actually like the idea of having a weird guitar and not one which matches 30,000,000 others. I play the guitar daily, and the neck is building up a nice yellow hand print coating on it now.

Hardwoods aren't as expensive as you'd think. I bought way more than enough, by about half a metre or more, for an entirely guitar for about 35 pounds, and it was planed by the store as well.

I think you could do it, but think about spending 20 pounds or so and getting so really nice hardwood, like mahogany. Firstly, I'd try and work out what the wood is you've got. If it has a grain, it's very unlikely to be a man-made fibre board, like MDF or particle board.

[westhemann]

you could get enough alder at most hardwood shops to build a body for about $20.

if you can't find a piece big enough take 2 and glue them together to make the right size.

and it will sound much better than mdf.

basswood is even cheaper if you want that.

wood is the cheapest part of most guitars.

[johnuk]

you could get enough alder at most hardwood shops to build a body for about $20.

if you can't find a piece big enough take 2 and glue them together to make the right size.

and it will sound much better than mdf.

basswood is even cheaper if you want that.

wood is the cheapest part of most guitars.

+1

I spent about three times what I did on the wood just buying the bridge! Now there's still pickups & all the other bits to go.

[Reaper]

I spent about three times what I did on the wood just buying the bridge! Now there's still pickups & all the other bits to go.

I'm guessing the wood wasn't made out of several precision-machined parts....

[johnuk]

I spent about three times what I did on the wood just buying the bridge! Now there's still pickups & all the other bits to go.

I'm guessing the wood wasn't made out of several precision-machined parts....

Nope, it was made out of a tree that's probably a hundred years or so old!