whisky182 Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 HELP i'm just about to start making my guitar, but i don't know what wood to buy, what is the cheapest wood i can buy that will support a bolt on neck?!? (type of wood and an approx price please!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 First off welcome aboard. Prepare to get addicted to guitar building. Next off, we've had a lot of new people coming in asking the same question about wood. What's best, what's cheap, etc... We need a FAQ that we can link to. (Note to self, look for FAQ) As for choices, you could go with Alder, Basswood, Poplar. All three of those are pretty standard for a bolt on. Price is going to vary depending on what you get. If you get a slab of wood that's ready to go (minimum prep or sand work to begin) you could spend $50 up. If you want to do more work and prep the wood with planing, sanding, and glueing, you could drive the price down a little. For some price ideas, I would look at Luthiers Merchantile... http://www.lmii.com Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 ^ what he said ^ Brian has almost a hundred links in the supply section http://www.projectguitar.com/ref/supply.htm there's an entire catagory for wood at the bottom of that page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsl602000 Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 An important question would be: what guitars do you like and WHAT type of guitar do you wanna build? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 i would read the entire site and forum for research before making any decisions...and tsl is right,what wood type depends on what sound you like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whisky182 Posted October 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 well i quite like the sound of my epiphone lp100, and my fender mexican strat, what are they made of?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 mahogany and poplar i think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Page_Master Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 hi whiskey182 here are some questions for you to answer: what music do you want to play on the guitar? describe what you want your guitar to sound like? what shape are you planning to make your guitar into? do you want the body to be light or heavy? what is your favourite band/s? i know the last question seems irrelavent, but when you think about it, most guitarist have a guitar idol right? and they want to sound like them or similar, or a mix. so if you you say i want to sound like Kirk Hammet, i would say alder body. then if you said i want to sound like James Hetfield, i would say mahogany body. and that's how i came to a compromise with what wood to use on my solid body. i don't think the price of the wood is too significant at this stage, as you are still making your decision on what to use and you probably live in the states where exotic wood is cheap and very easy to obtain, which it is not where i live. Page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whisky182 Posted October 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 well in answer to your questions Page Master: I want to play rhythm on it (distorted mostly.) I want it to sound like my epiphone lp100 (i'm putting a single humbucker near the bridge.) I'm planning on making it in to a fender style shape (nothing that exists yet but a sort of combination of a strat and a jaguar.) i don't care how heavy it is as long as it isn't stupidly heavy! And if you hadn't guessed by the name "whisky182" i'm in to blink182 stuff (punk rock) any suggestions! please help!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 Your Lp100 is probably alder, so alder, poplar, or basswood would be similar - and they're all fairly cheap and fairly easy to find. Swamp ash, mahogany or maple are all excellent also, but heavier and probably somewhat darker sounding. Of course, a real old school punk guitar should be made out of stolen wood . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whisky182 Posted October 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 thanks lovekraft, one last question, which of those is lighter in colour, alder, poplar or basswood?! i'm going to put a very light coloured paint job on the guitar and i want the wood effect to show through but not the darkness of the colour! cheers for all the suppot i'm getting on this guys, hope i can return the favor sometime!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 they are all very light woods which need no bleaching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannoG Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 As westhermann said they are all light color wood. It soulds like you want to have a subtle grain showing through the paint. If so, I'd recommend Alder. Sometimes Basswood and Poplar has so little visible grain that you wouldn't see any if covered by paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YDoesGodMockMeSo Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 ^ or you can make it outta whatever wood and use a nice veneer to get some awesome grain/flame/etc color on it. w/o affecting the tone. I'm getting some veneer, gonna have extra. Its too small to use on a guitar. but i can maybe send you some so u can practice finishing techinques and colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.