How Would Nato Work For An Sg/v

[Dudz]

Hi I'm planning on building an sg or v style guitar. just wanted to know how nato works for bodies and necks. I'm looking for something cheap that gets the warm tone of mahogany like gibson uses. Also, if you wre to make a neck out of nato would it need a fretboard or would a stripe or two of a hard wood on the back of the neck work to support it if it's too weak?

[killemall8]

nato is very common on guitars. bc rich uses it extensivly. it is used on a ton of acoustics also. it is actually really eastern mahogany. i wouldnt make a mahogany neck without a fretboard though, just bad taste to me ( of course i wouldnt know according to my builds )but if you want to then go ahead. nato willl be perfectly acceptable.

[G-Axe]

Depends on what you mean by Nato. Mora (specifically Mora excelsa and Mora gonggrijpii) from South/Central America gets called Nato, but the South East Asian Nyatoh (Palaquium and Payena) also get called Nato from time to time.

[voodoo]

I have a guitar with a maple topped solid Nyatoh body and a 3-ply Nyatoh neck, and the sound I get is like a "too clean" Les Paul. It doesn't quite have the same "bite" in the upper registers, or a whole lot of "growl", but it has a very thick bottom end and sustain. I chalk it up to a lack of resonance - I have a fake all-mahogany set-neck SG doubleneck that really vibrates when you strum it. I mean, it shakes and rumbles in your hands, all the way down one neck and back up the other. My nyatoh on the other hand has a fairly sedate vibe on the neck that you can barely feel through the body, (partly due to the top) and doesn't quite have the "edge" of a Mahogany guitar. It's still a good warm sound, and it's my main gig guitar - I just don't think you'd get that noisy, raw SG sound if that's what you're after. Still, it'll get you a lot closer to a big thick Mahogany sound than most woods.

[/voodoo]

However, sound voodoo aside, I can tell you from experience that Nyatoh is solid and stiff enough for a neck, as a body wood it's pretty bloody heavy. My Nyatoh guitar is pretty bloody thick too - it's SG shaped, so not overly large, just over 2" toward the middle, and carved down to about 1.75" at the edges - but manages to weigh almost as much as my mahogany double-neck, which is admittedly much thinner at 1.5", but with a considerably larger body, twice the hardware and twice the necks.

Of course, all that's pointless if you're talking about the other type of Nato.

Edited January 15, 2008 by G-Axe

[Dudz]

thank u for the help. Is there a cheaper finger board that would get good sg looks ad sound other than eony rosewood or pau ferro because I'm trying to save as much money as possible.

Edited January 15, 2008 by Dudz

[killemall8]

thank u for the help. Is there a cheaper finger board that would get good sg looks ad sound other than eony rosewood or pau ferro because I'm trying to save as much money as possible.

i dont know of any that look like that off hand, but rosewood is very cheap. usually from 15-30 bucks slotted.

[fryovanni]

thank u for the help. Is there a cheaper finger board that would get good sg looks ad sound other than eony rosewood or pau ferro because I'm trying to save as much money as possible.

Pau ferro, east indian rw, cocbolo are all in the $5-$10 range (for blanks). African Ebony is a bit more spendy running closer to $15 depending on grade (lower grades that can be died are generally a bit closer to $10), Madagascar Ebony is really getting kinda spendy at $25-$30.

I understand being buget minded and all, but the cost of wood for a guitar is pretty darn low compaired to the rest of the hardware, and is so important to the project. It is a good place to be sensable, but not cheap Saving 10% on the overall cost of wood by going just a little farther with lesser woods, will generally bite you in the backside. Learn what to look for in the wood you use, buy well dried material, buy it locally(save shipping), use common (but perfectly suited to building) woods (pass on the super exotic or crazy figured stuff), and you will keep your cost down and get very good material to build with.

Khaya for example is a $4-5 bd. ft. wood

Sapele is a $5-6 bd. ft. wood

Honduran is twice as much at closer to $9-10

Nice quality Alder is a wopping $3-4 bd. ft. wood

Hard Maple (plain) is only a $5-6 bd. ft wood

Black Walnut is a little more spendy at $8-9 bd ft.

Cherry is outstanding for necks at $4-5 bd. ft.

Pau Ferro is at $12-15 bd. ft.

East Indian Rosewood $15-18 bd. ft.

Cocobolo $15-$26 bd. ft

Ebonies generally are spendy ranging from $45-70 bd. ft. or sold by the lb.

A body is usually very close to 4 bd. ft. worth of wood

A scarf jointed bolt on neck is close to 1 bd. ft.

A thicker set neck blank is probably closer to 1.5 bd. ft.

A fretboard is less than 1/4 bd. ft.

Peace,Rich

[Tezifon]

i think the yamaha aes models ( les paul style ) where made from nato and they sounded nice

[Dudz]

Thanks again. I think I will go with just using the neck of an old guitar as I'm using the pickups off of it. However I've decided to go with nato and maple for the body.

Edited January 17, 2008 by Dudz