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Expensive Fender With Pine Body!


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Pine is great sounding wood. They actually used to make Teles out of it. A lot of boutique and relic guys are making them from pine again. Chances are Fender noticed the demand for them and jumped onboard. There are a lot of great sounding woods that are very cheap. Price should be more determined by build quality, etc..

That being said, I've never been impressed with Fender's quality, so it's still too much, IMO.

Edited by NotYou
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i dont know about the pine as tonewood but i think its toooooo soft to keep screws in...

It certainley is strong enough to hold screws...

I've built a pine guitar just for fun a couple years ago using two bords of some construction grade pine for the body which I bought for less then 10$ and which I laminated together. The neck (sapelli mahogany + west african ebony) was in my workshop for months, I could not use it because of an imperfection so it was perfect really to use for this experiment.

I also fit some Benedetto B-series Humbuckers on the guitar...

The body was very acoustic sounding! I stained the pine, then oil finished it.

Here is a picture:

dsc00935tx7.jpg

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i dont know about the pine as tonewood but i think its toooooo soft to keep screws in...

It certainley is strong enough to hold screws...

I've built a pine guitar just for fun a couple years ago using two bords of some construction grade pine for the body which I bought for less then 10$ and which I laminated together. The neck (sapelli mahogany + west african ebony) was in my workshop for months, I could not use it because of an imperfection so it was perfect really to use for this experiment.

I also fit some Benedetto B-series Humbuckers on the guitar...

The body was very acoustic sounding! I stained the pine, then oil finished it.

Here is a picture:

dsc00935tx7.jpg

Nice guitar ! hardware-store pine or no, I like the look of it.

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i dont know about the pine as tonewood but i think its toooooo soft to keep screws in...Besides the only experience from it is my bed..

it's out of pine!

Sure pine is a little soft - but any wood will strip depending on how the screws are over/under-tightened, etc.

I've used plywood, considered MDF, would definitely use pine - just want to make sure there's not much sap in it because I hate cleaning that crap off my router bits

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pine= fine

but that does not mean you can go to your local hardware store and use any old unseasoned pine to build a guitar. all these expensive pine guitars seem to use old stuff - and if you look you will find plenty of old pine suitable for guitars... probably a lot closer than the local hardware store. my local crematorium has the best pine i have ever seen for its pews. is it wrong that i noticed that at my gran's funeral?

not to say pine trees these days are not worthy - but it needs to be seasoned and it needs to still meet the basic characteristics for a guitar build. close grained pine will be better than something with a grain line every two inches

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exactly! doesnt rule out any pine - but it does mean we should warn those newbies not to pop down to the obvious sources for wood that looks like a banana and is still seeping sap

the same rules apply whether its pine or finest south american mahogany - it needs to be dry and stable, preferably free from major flaws and preferably straight. this adice doesnt go out to all the people who know about working with wood - its for all those thinking they can build their first guitar out of the stuff they could buy easiest (in the uk that means a shop called B&Q who sell pine so bad i wont even use it for DIY)

people need to learn how to choose wood - not what wood is best

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why would people consider pine too soft but not have a problem using bass wood?

btw i got a stack of old growth pine that i need to figure out how to mill. one day i started counting rings at 25 or so what would be considerd harvesting age now a days it was only a few inches in diamiter.

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basswood is both soft and strong to keep screws due to it's structure.Pine's is softer...

anyway i cannot abort this question which is very common i think..Please forgive me if i repea tmyself..

DO WOODS PLAY ROLE IN THE TONE OF ELECTRIC INTSTUMENTS???

i cannot accept this price for a pine and for alder...(ok,they choosed the best wood but there is a huge difference)

how can we prove if the answer is YES???please suggeest an experiment to see with my own eyes and ears...if there is!

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basswood is both soft and strong to keep screws due to it's structure.Pine's is softer...

anyway i cannot abort this question which is very common i think..Please forgive me if i repea tmyself..

DO WOODS PLAY ROLE IN THE TONE OF ELECTRIC INTSTUMENTS???

i cannot accept this price for a pine and for alder...(ok,they choosed the best wood but there is a huge difference)

how can we prove if the answer is YES???please suggeest an experiment to see with my own eyes and ears...if there is!

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basswood is both soft and strong to keep screws due to it's structure.Pine's is softer...

anyway i cannot abort this question which is very common i think..Please forgive me if i repea tmyself..

DO WOODS PLAY ROLE IN THE TONE OF ELECTRIC INTSTUMENTS???

i cannot accept this price for a pine and for alder...(ok,they choosed the best wood but there is a huge difference)

how can we prove if the answer is YES???please suggeest an experiment to see with my own eyes and ears...if there is!

All this talk about this or that brand or model being too expensive for whatever reason really doesn't make any sense.

The price is dictated by the BUYERS, not the seller. If customers are willing to buy at that price, than that's the price it's going to be. Period.

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DO WOODS PLAY ROLE IN THE TONE OF ELECTRIC INTSTUMENTS???

we had a little debate about this in the 'sapele VS mahogany' thread below this - have a read, play some guitars and make up your own mind!

but dont take the use of pine as proof the woods are not important in the tone of the instrument, especially when almost everyone using it talks about its tone

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please suggeest an experiment to see with my own eyes and ears...if there is!

I have an experiment to suggest...Why don't you build a few guitars and find out for yourself.

Any reasonably logical person can figure out how to buy a set of electronics and build two necks and two bodies and swap them all out,then actually play them..

I have done it with an EMG bridge pickup and an alder strat body,a poplar strat body(both Jackson),a Warmoth mahogany neck,and a maple old school Ibanez neck(one with a strat neck heel)..it's one of the first dumb experiments I ever did..

Since then I replaced the maple neck on my Ibanez sabre with that Warmoth neck while I try to refret the original neck(I prefer the maple neck on that body),and I have built a few guitars with similar electronics,and I am satisfied with my conclusions.

So why don't you start doing your own due diligence,since obviously you are never going to be satisfied with everyone else's differing opinions? :D

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you are absolutely right,but i believe that hearing people having gone to one "wrong" way can help you avoid it...Just for it..Of course i make guitars .My curent project is a Tele with a Cedar of LEbanon (over 250 years old),old mulberry neck and wenge fretboard.I am in the stage of finishing.BUt i have not played with others to gain experience and see the difference.....

so,can you tell me your opinion from experience if the woods itself play rolle in the tone???

Edited by theodoropoulos
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Robert Benedetto made a pretty freaking awesome archtop acoustic from flatsawn construction grade pine. he says that appart from the cosmetics you cant tell a difference between any of his other guitars, its sounds and plays just as well. that being said if you can make a great sounding archtop acoustic out of construction grade pine i have no doubt that you could make a pretty great sounding solid body electric with the stuff.

galleryKnottyPine1993.jpg

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Robert Benedetto made a pretty freaking awesome archtop acoustic from flatsawn construction grade pine. he says that appart from the cosmetics you cant tell a difference between any of his other guitars, its sounds and plays just as well.

i think its always worth quoting benedetto's point here. he actually says:

Despite the obvious, this guitar plays and sounds as good as any made from expensive tonewoods(p6)

maybe that's jut me being picky, quite possibly

A few other things he says:

A wide-grained top will more likely produce a mellower sound than will a close grained top and will have to be carved slightly thicker or braced heavier. Selecting woods for the backplate is no less important than wood selection for the top plate. A hard maple ... will produce a bright sound ( etc...) (p3)

It is not theory or opinion but absolute fact that fine professional musical instruments can be made from so called inferior tonewoods. The progress one makes as a luthier will often depend how he deals with obstacles and challenges. If master grade tonewood is not available, use what is available. It is the maker, not the grade of wood, who will determine the end result. (p5)

Tap tuning is an intuitive skill which takes many years of experience to develop and perfect (p77)

when bob makes the claim the construction pine instrument still sounds just as good - he is making a point about a skilled acoustic builders ability to shape the sound of the instrument (eventually to something that could be described as their characteristic voice). readings bob's book it is clear that he sees the tone of an archtop as a combination of both the woods used and the way its built/shaped/tap tuned

to me, he does not clearly say 'construction grade pine is great for guitars', at least not without the caveat of 'if you have spent years learning how to control the sound a guitar will make'

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That last quote (the p5 part) from Benedetto is right on. Every builder needs to get it tattooed on themselves, or at least write it down. What book is that from? I've got to read that.

One of the best sounding guitars I've ever built was from redwood that was leftover fom somebody's deck job. If nothing else, learning to work with what you have will make you more observant and an all around better builder in the long run.

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