For The Uk Guys

[Dylanwad]

Have you ever made a guitar from uk wood only? I'm playing which the idea, thought it might be cheaper. What's good? Which species should I avoid

[dh7892]

I know of a guy that made a neck out of oak and (perhaps on a different guitar) did a lot of inlay in yew both looked very nice.

I can't see why you'd have any problems making a guitar out of UK-only wood.

I guess that your fingerboard might have to be a little less conventional than the usual maple/ebony/rosewood but I'm sure you can get away with anything that's hard enough.

Edited April 15, 2009 by dh7892

[jaycee]

Ash

[Mitch]

The body of my first guitar was made of uk cherry and all but the fingerboard of my second guitar was british wood.

Ash, cherry, beech, sycamore, a little bit of maple, poplar, lime (also known as basswood), alder, elm (became almost extinct because of dutch elm disease) and oak can all be found in the uk.

Beech and oak are faily heavy so its best not to make whole bodys out of them but necks out of oak and tops out of beech should be fine.

Sycamore is closly related to maple and tonally is about that same and colour wise maple is a bit yellowish and sycamore is more grey.

Cherry is great for necks and bodies as it is similar to maple and is easy to work.

British ash tends to be heavier than swamp ash and others but is still perfectly useable in guitars.

I don't really know anything about fingerboard wood but i know yew and hornbeam are very hard but im not sure how good they would be on a fingerboard.

I would definatly reccomend using british wood for a guitar and it will more than likely turn out a lot cheaper.

Hope this helped and good luck.

[Mitch]

I think we have walnut as well.

[Keegan]

I think we have walnut as well.

Yup http://www.woodfinder.com/woods/english_walnut.php

[dh7892]

It would nice to know what you end up using if you do make such a guitar. There are some woods that you can't grow in the UK that I really love but I feel a bit guilty chopping down rain forrests and shipping stuff around the world when we have some fine woods here.

It would be nice (and probably cheaper as someone else said) to try to use locally sourced wood for guitars and I'd love to hear how you get on. Keep us posted.

[Dylanwad]

Thanks for the replies guys, great info. I've been looking for local sawmills but I'm having trouble finding anything nearer than about 60 miles away! (most make fence posts and such). It seems to me that wood is something you want to see before you buy, seems a bit far to go on the off chance of finding what you want. Any one know of somewhere that sells these woods in North Wales (Bangor/Anglesey area)?

I'll make sure to let you know when I sus this better, I really do fancy trying building a guitar with British wood. Support your local trees!

[Mitch]

Thanks for the replies guys, great info. I've been looking for local sawmills but I'm having trouble finding anything nearer than about 60 miles away! (most make fence posts and such). It seems to me that wood is something you want to see before you buy, seems a bit far to go on the off chance of finding what you want. Any one know of somewhere that sells these woods in North Wales (Bangor/Anglesey area)?

I'll make sure to let you know when I sus this better, I really do fancy trying building a guitar with British wood. Support your local trees!

All the british wood I used was grown within 50 miles of here.

I'm lucky as I can acctually see the woodyard from my house.

I would look on the internet for wood suppliers. I found out that i have about 3 woodyard within 10 miles of here. If the woodyard isn't acctually listed as selling planked hardwoods then try them anyway. The woodyard that i get my wood from is listed as a firewood seller but they acctually work as tree surgeons (thats where they get most of their buisness so the wood is cheap) and most of their stuff is planks.

[Mitch]

Have you checked your yellow pages/phone book?

[Mitch]

http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do...ults=&ssm=0

[Dylanwad]

I've checked out the yellow pages and I've been googling. I've sent an e mail to Huws Gray Fitlock twice but they still haven't answered me (I might go have a look to see what they have, but I think it's a bog standard wood for the building trade sort of place), there is actually about 5-6 of them in the area! I used this too: http://www.coetirclwyd.co.uk/English/wood-directory.asp . These are the places that I mentioned as being further away from me, might get writing some more e mails tonight.

This place is in the other direction and is about a mile from a friends house: http://www.glasfrynfencing.co.uk/index.php

It must be cool having a wood yard on your doorstep Mitch.

[jaycee]

I am sure that Mitch is being modest but check out his Entry for Mays GoTM.

Something that I do, is go to a local joiners shop ( I find Saturday mornings good for them) and they usually have stuff suitable hanging around. I have got timber off them and they can run it through the thicknesser as well if needed.

[Dylanwad]

Joiners shop, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks jaycee.

How does the Mitch-o-caster sound Mitch? Looks good.

[Mitch]

How does the Mitch-o-caster sound Mitch? Looks good.

It sound great! Its fairly smooth sounding and quite trebley. You can't get as much bass from it as my first guitar(cherry body maple neck) but I prefer a more trebley sound. Overall I think it's a pretty good guitar as long as you dont mind a huuuuuuuuuuuuge fat neck(Fattest neck I have ever seen on a guitar).