Guitar Made With Oak?

[~davie]

how would a solid-bodied electric guitar made from oak (body) be like? how would it sound? I'm just curious

[Saxon Marsh]

Brian May's Red special was made from oak, & He makes it sound pretty good!!!!

[aidlook]

Impossible to tell, you can't give an exact answer to what a guitar will sound will sound like based on only what material it's made of. So many other factors come to play. You can't really predict what a guitar will sound like before you build it, no matter how many things you know about it.

Anyway, I built a semi-hollow oak body and neck guitar and it was a bit bright, but that may or may not be only because of the oak.

[al heeley]

Why is it oak is so rarely used in guitar building? Is it the high density or just so damn hard to cut, or maybe consistency with flaws, knot-holes, etc.?

I would have thought it would be pretty good from a tone-wood point of view.

[DougK]

its ugly and heavy!

/ cabinet maker rant over.

[orgmorg]

its ugly and heavy!

/ cabinet maker rant over.

:D

Glad to see I'm not the only one!

I got so sick of the stuff in my cabinet shop days, I now only use it for firewood, and structural applications where I need something real strong. Unless, of course it is old weathered barnwood, or quartersawn white oak, which can be quite lovely.

[!WOOD!!]

I have built an SG ;a bass and a Tele with a maple cap out of oak.The Sg and bass were painted and the Tele was dyed blue.It is very grainy and time consuming to grain fill.As for tone it is really subjective.My Tele sounded very good on the bridge humbucker but a little bright on the single neck.The bass guitar sounded excellent.The Sg sounds pretty darn good.Started out with a maple neck and was really bright then switched to mahogany and it seemed to even it out pretty good.I am also a cabinet maker and I also hate oak.As a guitar wood I think that I am done with it .All the oak I used was free and wouldn,t have used it if I had to pay for it.

[Woodenspoke]

May so many negative answers. I think oak is a fine hardwood and by the way comes in several species.

Negatives using oak

1. Large pores to fill so finishing is really a chore. All species

2. Some plain red and white oak is just boring. But like every wood there are some special pieces to be had red and white.

3. Probably not a great neck wood due to the large pores and unless you can get a good filler and do a super fantastic job making the finish super smooth then it will be more work than normal.

Positive side

1. Its less expensive so you don't have to mortgage your house for wood

2. Quarter sawn white oak is beautiful. I actually plan on using it in an acoustic build. I had some left over from making mission style furniture for my house.

3. White oak over red oak quarter sawn would be my choice for a guitar. White Oak has a tan appearance rater than a red hue. White oak is better able to handle humidity changes and can also be used out side. OK so you don't need a guitar which can double as a paddle.

4. Try it now before it becomes the new guitar wood to use and is jacked up 10,000,000 %.

Its as good a wood in terns of its stability as is maple. ash and mahogany. Not an easy wood to work or finish due to the large pores but very few in this short list are easy to work.

I hope this helps

[Prostheta]

I might add that the dust is particularly noxious unless you've got GOOD extraction. I'd rather work cocobolo than oak.

[SwedishLuthier]

I have built 2 necks from Oak and both sounds good. Not overly bright as indicated above, but well balanced and perfect for a single coil guitar. But I will think twice before using it again. Mainly because it is very tough on cutting tools, the pores mentioned earlier, the big difference in hardness between hard and soft parts and the tendency to split. It is not fun shaping a neck with spokes knifes! More of a nightmare…

On the other hand I have had a oak body Tele in for service and that was not on the heavy side (on the contrary) and sounded extremely good.