Synthetic (fake) Wood

[maynard85]

Has anyone made a guitar out of any kind of fake wood? How did it turn out? I was considering making one but I can't find anything on it.

[biliousfrog]

what do you mean by fake wood, plastic, metal, clay?

[Samba Pa Ti]

do you mean plywood/MDF (medium density fiber) mdf might be ok for a prototype if you used a big enough piece but plywood is crap (would be a lot of effort glueing it all together)

[maynard85]

No I mean...synthetic wood. There are different kinds. For instance I work on a contruction site and they made a bunch of stuff out of "plastic wood" as they called it. I am told it is ebonite.

[soapbarstrat]

I guess that means you can get scrap pieces of it for free and experiment.

I hope everyone who hasn't built a guitar with it, can just keep quiet about how they think it will sound. But then again, this place is notorious for opinions based on nothing. Yeah, and I know at least one version of the stuff is made from wood chips mixed with plastic grocery bags.

[Samba Pa Ti]

theres a guitar made of ebonite here (the fingerboard anyway, i presume they mean fretboard ?) http://www.switchmusic.com/guitar_view.aspx?pid=6

wikipedia says its a type of rubber :O

[Hunter]

I know Ibanez has a couple basses made out of some synthetic materials, and Gibson has a "Smartwood" series which is also some form of something that's not actually wooden.

[Bainzy]

A lot of people are fans of graphite guitars (eg. Steinberger), so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if someone made a guitar from synthetic wood and produced a different sounding but still good sounding instrument.

[Mattia]

Gibson's 'Smartwood' (the originals, anyway) were FSC-certified or otherwise sustainable timber guitars, an eco-friendly marketing gimmick, but very real wood nonetheless. Just not mahogany with maple.

[Jehle]

Has anyone made a guitar out of any kind of fake wood? How did it turn out? I was considering making one but I can't find anything on it.

There's an article in the latest New Yorker about Parker and the Parker Fly. A lot of his models are epoxy resin over carbon fiber. There's a little wood in the center of the body, but by in large it's all "synthetic". It weighs half as much as a "normal" electric according to the interview.

Too bad Parker seemed like a jerk in the interview.

[SwedishLuthier]

A lot of his models are epoxy resin over carbon fiber. There's a little wood in the center of the body, but by in large it's all "synthetic"

I was under the impression that the synthetic part of the Parker was around the thickness of the finish. Pretty much like an exoskeleton around the wood.

[WAK Guitars]

Does anybody know where you can buy ebonite? Cause I think it might be cool to try for a fretboard. Does anybody know how it is on tools?