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Tonal Qualities Of Oak


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I recently obtained quite a good amount of oak and I've already started doing an 8 string neck-through build out of it.

From what i've read oak is a terrible tone wood...but this could have been lies.

It seems like it would be a bright sounding wood because of its grain, but again I have no idea.

...and can anyone comment on the strength of oak?

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from what i understand most people shy away from oak because its hard to work and is heavy. but go ahead post in the in progress and finished section of the forum and keep us informed on what you find about working oak and how it plays. your gonna find they guys on this forum are pretty cool about expirementing with diffend woods and set ups.

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It has been discussed a few times although oak will not be search-able as the search engine need at least four letters...

I have made a few necks of oak. The sound isn't as bright at one might think. Not as bright as maple but brighter than mahogany. A bit brighter than walnut, but that is the closest I can think of. The reason to stay away from oak is that is eats your cutting tools and the huge pores make it unsuitable for any soft curves. If you want flowing curves and oak I think that a very hard sanding block might help, but is it really worth the pain? Anyway, the sound is really nice, no problem there.

Strengthwise...they used to build warships from oak...they seldom fold and sink because the wood was not stong enough.

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Thank you guys very much for the quick reply.

I noticed how hard it is to work with...which should have told me something about its strength I guess. :D

Im thinking of throwing in seymour duncan Blackout 8 string active pickups to try to hide the tone of the wood. But I may swap in Bare Knuckle Pickups in the future.

I plan on spreading this build out for a couple months, mainly because I dont have the money to pay for the hardware. And, I want to see this turn out good, not just all thrown together.

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IIRC, isn't Oak sawdust quite toxic?

Not any toxic than any other wood. To me I have a handful of woods that make me gag Oak is not one of them.

I built a white oak acoustic last year and it was fine. However on an electric its hard and heavy, hard to finish (deep pores) and frankly I dont see any design reason to use oak since I find it does not look great on an electric guitar. If you paint it who cares..

red oak is garbage white Oak if Riff cut has some interest

IMG_1013.jpg

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I note that you do not say what species of Oak that you are thinking of using, as a lot of timbers are called oak but are not really oak species.

This is because I have no idea what kind of wood it is. It is already in my possession, so i can take pictures if someone could identify it. I was only told by my woodshop teacher that it was oak, but he did not specify or give any detail.

I am only using this wood because I have it, and if it ends up sounding like garbage its fine because I can salvage everything out of it and just build with a wood that I know can do what I'm looking for.

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If you are building a solid body , just make the back out of oak and use something else for the top ,I would think a oak neck has been done ,too.Try it out ,if nothing else you will get good pratice with your tools.I am in the process of redoing a guitar .Took the fret board off and top of the body,a do over if you will.It has been a good lession in progress.

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If you are building a solid body , just make the back out of oak and use something else for the top ,I would think a oak neck has been done ,too.Try it out ,if nothing else you will get good pratice with your tools.I am in the process of redoing a guitar .Took the fret board off and top of the body,a do over if you will.It has been a good lession in progress.

I know for sure that this will end up decent at best, but it will be a good learning experience like you said. Im just going to go for it and see how things turn out, maybe do a "Things I Did Right vs. Things I Did Wrong" type chart and see how i can improve everything.

I have the resources and the help from a professional wood worker to make this thing work...but I only have access to a shop twice a week and only for an hour and a half, so this is going to take a while (not saying its a bad thing, I just like to be able to work at any time).

Thanks for the help everyone.

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Strengthwise...they used to build warships from oak...they seldom fold and sink because the wood was not stong enough.

They were able to hold up to Cannon ball blasts!

Don't try to smash it on stage, It'll probably bounce back and give you a concussion.

The way SwedishLuthier talked about the tonalities, and it seems interesting, but besides its brightness, What would the lows sound like?

If you feel you can work with it, go for it, I really hope this build works out for you.

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