Making A Bamboo Guitar

[Nile408]

Hi everybody, I've been toying around with the idea of making a semi hollow electric guitar entirely out of bamboo. I've been looking and I havnt found a whole lot of direct information on how to go about this, besides go with bamboo thats vertically laminated From what I gathered people have said go to a flooring company to order material, but when I think of flooring I think of very thin wide sheets of wood hardly enough for a guitar neck. So if anybody could tell me specifically what to do or share there experience with making a bamboo guitar that would be great I am a newbie so please do not flame me

[Tim37]

your kinda out there on your own with this one. i'm sure it has been done but i havent ever heard of it. so your gonna have ot think outside the box and do a lot of research on bamboo i dont think many poeple are gonna be able to help you.

[kpcrash]

The body shouldn't be difficult in bamboo - the neck I would question. While bamboo is quite strong, it's also extremely pliable. Vertical lam would be very strong - but I really think to do a neck in bamboo, you would have to create a lam that alternated grains in some fashion to overcome some of the elasticity - otherwise, you'd have relief issues. Again, this is theory.

As for getting it from a flooring shop - yes, it will be thin - between 8 and 12mm, but for a semi-hollow... it might work. Even the bamboo cutting boards (2-3" thick) that chefs use are lam strips and very expensive.

Not saying it can't be done - just from a physics standpoint it has some interesting challenges.

[Nile408]

The body shouldn't be difficult in bamboo - the neck I would question. While bamboo is quite strong, it's also extremely pliable. Vertical lam would be very strong - but I really think to do a neck in bamboo, you would have to create a lam that alternated grains in some fashion to overcome some of the elasticity - otherwise, you'd have relief issues. Again, this is theory.

As for getting it from a flooring shop - yes, it will be thin - between 8 and 12mm, but for a semi-hollow... it might work. Even the bamboo cutting boards (2-3" thick) that chefs use are lam strips and very expensive.

Not saying it can't be done - just from a physics standpoint it has some interesting challenges.

No I agree, but part of that is what has got me so motivated to do this. This guy built a baritone fretless guitar and according to his information he say's the bamboo is supposed to be 12% harder then maple so I thought it would make a ideal neck material. I am using information that I have gathered to try to make this possible, this guy made a telecaster out of bamboo http://www.bradslab.com/category/guitars/. Im confident that I can do it, just how to do it has got me scratching my head. Whats got me going is that I started a project guitar a little white ago when my friend paid me back by giving me a old dean explorer, the goal was to make a cheap guitar be as playable and sound good as cheaply as possible. It's gone so well that frankly im addicted to this and im trying to expand my skills into guitar building, I've already constructed a body made of white wood for another project based off my ibanez RG. I dont want to turn this to a "tonewood" war, in my eye's I think im gathering good experience working on cheap material before I start on something more. However, back to the topic I actually want to make another telecaster just like this one but a 7 string version instead. As for the pliability I was thinking to coat the neck and finger board in lacquer like a traditional 50's guitar I think that would solve any flexing due to moisture. Any Suggestions are welcome

http://www.unfretted.com/loader.php?LINK=/profs/ghd_fretless

here's my explorer project if you would like to check it out http://s842.photobucket.com/albums/zz345/M...ean%20Explorer/ not finished yet, but soon...

Edited June 1, 2010 by Nile408

[kpcrash]

So treat it the same way that you would a plywood build. Goodness knows there are musings galore on this site regarding that (in fact, I believe my signature has a link to my favorite one). I'll be the last to get into a tonewood war on this, but it will be important to watch grain direction on the strips of bamboo you use if you were to try and make the lam yourself.

The link you provided is of course referencing a man-made ply/lam that while advertised as 12% harder than maple doesn't necessarily equal 12% more resistant to flex. I would still use a truss rod to reinforce the neck. Otherwise, I'd be quite interested to see how this goes.

[Nile408]

So treat it the same way that you would a plywood build. Goodness knows there are musings galore on this site regarding that (in fact, I believe my signature has a link to my favorite one). I'll be the last to get into a tonewood war on this, but it will be important to watch grain direction on the strips of bamboo you use if you were to try and make the lam yourself.

The link you provided is of course referencing a man-made ply/lam that while advertised as 12% harder than maple doesn't necessarily equal 12% more resistant to flex. I would still use a truss rod to reinforce the neck. Otherwise, I'd be quite interested to see how this goes.

Sorry if I gave the impression that I was arguing my bad, but yes good counter point on the article. Well I looked around and im going to give this company a call to see if they will ship me a board in my ideal dimensions http://www.calibamboo.com/ hopefully pricing will be fair thanks for the input.

[Buter]

A couple of things to keep in mind when using bamboo

1. Bamboo is very strong along it's grain but it is beyond useless across the grain

This is one of the skateboards I've done. Even at 12mm thick without reinforcing the grain somehow, it would snap. The first one I did on comission snapped on the first day the new owner had it, I was more than a bit embarassed. I had thought that with 4 layers of boo, no two grain lines would match up... fail! The black lines you see between the layers is carbon fibre; that bitch ain't a gonna break no mo.

2. Bamboo is a pain in the ass to work with. It will just as happily split down the grain as it will rout out the pretty pattern you had planned for it. To minimize breakage you can stick some ply to your bamboo workpiece anytime you are cutting or routing it and that should do the trick.

3. Bamboo splinters f'ing hurt!

Good luck

Buter

[Tim37]

just a odd ball though maybe find a bamboo cutting board thats big enough. idk if they make them that big but its a thought

edit http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/20363-...ecode=AW4PF4070 that should be big enough to make a body out of.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Tim37

[masterblastor]

My only experience with bamboo is building custom fishing rods. I'd poke around the custom rod building forums to get some more info on building with grass. There is a sheitton of knowledge out there on the properties of bamboo. Remember You're not dealing with wood grain and growth rings, you're dealing with power fibers and nodal dams. Bamboo is a grass not a tree.

No way would I build a guitar out of it. The stuff is hell on tools.

Edited June 1, 2010 by masterblastor

[WAK Guitars]

This guy made a pretty cool tele out of bamboo, cool stuff -

http://www.bradslab.com/2008/11/

It looks like he started some bamboo necks too.

[Mr Natural]

for what its worth- Chapman Stick Enterprises make a bamboo model.

http://www.stick.com/instruments/bamboo/

Some of those are 36" scale - I count over 20 laminates on the 10 String Stick models.

[Nile408]

First Act actually makes a bamboo guitar pretty fair price at 400$ thanks for all the input guys appreciate it, btw that is a cool looking skateboard buter I like the divets in the material thats sharp. http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/20363-...ecode=AW4PF4070 now THATS a cutting board lol anyway I gave cali bamboo a call. The guy over the phone was very polite and helpful the bamboo plywood was a little pricey, however he pointed me in the direction of the bamboo lumber it looks a little questionable even for the sake of experimentation but fairly priced 100-200$ for 10 pieces of 2x4's. But it looks like kp crash is right I might have to order strips and do my own lamination http://www.juka-sound-craft.co.cc/intro.htm apparently thats what this guy ended up doing im gonna try to email him to see where he orders the strips from, the research continues! cool looking guitars though, kinda wants me to grab a chai tea and listen to some jazz lol def. will add carbon fiber strips though thanks agian buter

Edited June 1, 2010 by Nile408

[Dirge for november]

I built a bamboo guitar for my final project at school. We did the neck maple though, as we found the bamboo we had to flexible. The guitar has great tone on the brighter side of the spectrum. Good luck with the plans!

[guitar101]

Try this

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/...boo-caster.html

[Woodenspoke]

bamboo will most likely be an engineered product. I dont believe it is sold like a piece of wood, I have never seen it that way. The biggest pieces I have seen were in a museum and they were carved sculptures.

Probably your best best is a overstock flooring company selling it by the box. make sure its 100% bamboo.

It also is sold in dark colors and I believe they actually heat the product to darken it. Maybe a few dark stripes would look good in a light neck. bamboo this way is relatively cheap like $2 sq ft.

[ShadesOfGrey]

3. Bamboo splinters f'ing hurt!

Not to mention they tend to infect. A lot.

A week or so ago I found some mention of companies selling / exporting bamboo plywood. Maybe that's an option?

[Nile408]

3. Bamboo splinters f'ing hurt!

Not to mention they tend to infect. A lot.

A week or so ago I found some mention of companies selling / exporting bamboo plywood. Maybe that's an option?

I looked into the plywood it's waaaaaaaaay to expensive for what im willing to pay, I emailed juergen the luthier from the link I gave he replied to my email really a nice guy.

thx, from your mail I couldnt see where you live, so some addresses here:

http://www.bamboocraft.net/poles_raw_materials.html

http://www.alles-bambus.de/

http://www.bambus-conbam.de/bambusrohre.html

As to working with bamboo, the easiest will be if you order some pre-fabricated bamboo boards then you do not need to laminate individual strips, which are hard to get.

Due to the long fibers, bamboo has the tendency to splinter, so you need to be careful if you want to use the router.

if you have additional questions, feel free to mail

Bamboo, sounds good to me!

Juergen

the links are in german, but that's alright im sure I can work through that. I also found a Youtube user Center77 he made guitars using bamboo I messaged him, he replied with this.

I tried to reply to your comment but there was some kind of error.

For bamboo neck blanks (another other stuff) email oafstore@myfairpoint.net Tom at Oakland Axe Factory is great to work with.

I looked up that Oakland axe factory really really unique and beautiful guitars, I liked his story about why he got into building guitars also gave me a good laugh. However I'm going to contact all of these leads to get this project going the 7 string telecaster will be a reality!

Edited June 6, 2010 by Nile408

[Electric Mulch]

First Act sold one for a bit last year but seems to have axed the model since I looked last. Guessing it didn't sell well.

The only bit they used that wasn't Bamboo was the rosewood fingerboard.

EDIT:

Perhaps I should read the whole thread before commenting next time.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Electric Mulch