Curbside Guitar

[JohnRossitter]

Hi everyone,

I didn't quite know how to search for this one, so sorry if it's a repost.

Do any of you know of a thread where people built guitars with woods found only on the curb?

I was driving around my neighborhood the other day, and noticed a wealth of trashed woods, and was wondering if any of you had ever taken those junk woods and made a guitar out of it.

I remember hearing about a story where a tech out at Fender built a guitar out of a wooden pallet.

Thanks

[ToneMonkey]

Here's the thread about the tele built from one fo those cable drums (which is good to know because I get through about 30 if them a week):

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=26921

There are a few people that have built some out of scrap wood. I remeber one that was built from about pieces of scrap. Looked well cool.

[Bizzar_Guitars]

Hey John,

I made my first neck through out of a pallet from my local building materials store:

Viking

The fretboard is a piece of discarded birch hardwood flooring.

The laminated necks on the rest of my neck throughs are made from crossers, the 4x4 wood they put between lifts of lumber. This one is made from Mahogany, Maple and Purpleheart:

Poseidon laminates

If you're picky enough, you can get plenty of good laminates. Some times a crosser will only yeild one good laminate, but what the heck, it is free wood after all.

Ciao,

Garth

[JohnRossitter]

Good job Garth!

I get a lot of my stock from a local cabinet shop.

They toss out soooo much good wood, simply because it's too small for what they need. I'm stingy with my scraps...I always find something to do with them.

[Desopolis]

and the story is about taylor guitars and this:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/models/pallet.html

I could be wrong though...

[Southpa]

I actually prefer to use woods that have already been in service over that cut from raw logs. My next project will have a mahogany back cut from a single sized headboard from someone's bed. Its already seasoned and already flat! What more could one want?

[soapbarstrat]

I have quite a big stash of found "tone woods" . Have yet to build a real guitar with any of it, but have made 7 "surrogate bodies" for bolting necks to for fret-work. One of them made of several pieces of poplar (from a pallet) sounds really good. (a heavy oak one I use for Fender 3 bolt necks, doesn't sound so good, but they don't need to sound good for this purpose)

Not every piece I find has a nice "tap tone" but plenty do.

I only come across what I do, because I do an hour long walk around my neighborhood every evening .(Really only for my dog's sake, but on "trash night" sometimes there's a perk for me).

If there's nice wood on the curbside, I will see it, and go back later with the car and get it. If it's inside of a trash can, I won't see it, because I don't look inside covered trash cans, or inside trash bags.

Last night a broken maple kitchen cabinet door, that had been curbside, was just what I needed for testing amber tinting for a Fender neck. It was the only piece of maple I had, that matched the bare maple color of the neck, and I have a fair amount of other maple, that I bought years ago.

Sometimes there's old furniture that I don't get, but I know lots of old furniture is a good source for pieces of wood. In the past, I've torn apart stuffed chairs and couches down to the framing, which was pieces of Ash, Alder, Maple, lord knows what else. Pieces like that should be great for building a "frame" for a hollow, semi-hollow, flat top Dano or Tele style body. (came across a really cool photo one time of a neat way to glue pieces together to make up a body frame from several pieces of wood)

Hardwood drawer sides : I've seen plenty that would probably make a great top or back on a Tele or LP sized guitar (2 pieces center-seamed).

And of course, I've found a few whole guitars on the curbside. (2 with 'bolt on' mahogany necks with rosewood fret-boards, in great shape).

And don't pass up those "pergo" flooring scraps. No end to the uses for that stuff when building jigs.

[Inisheer]

Somebody I know is getting rid of a bed soon and is throwing it away, but they said I could use any of the wood from the frame if I wanted it. I don't know what kind of wood it is or any details, but if it looks decent I will try to find some use for it. There have been several projects on this site before that were made from old furniture, etc...and hopefully I can add to that list.

[biliousfrog]

I spotted an acoustic on ebay by that guy that made that "Bender Distortocaster"....the front & back was made from chipboard.

http://www.brianeastwoodguitars.co.uk/bend.html

[JohnRossitter]

and the story is about taylor guitars and this:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/models/pallet.html

I could be wrong though...

Awesome!

That's the story I heard.

Thanks for finding it.