sdshirtman Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 I was at the lumber yard picking up some birch for a display I'm building for my business today. The price for birch was about the same as the price for hard maple. Maybe just a little more. ($6.40 vs. $6.20 a board ft.) To me they look like similar types of wood and a little bit of research confirms a lot of similarities. I was wondering why you never really see birch used in guitar builds. Can anyone tell me why? Is it just considered a second rate wood? I havent worked with it yet but it seems it would make nice neck wood. I would love to hear opinions from some of the more experienced builders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauliemc Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Juha Ruokangas uses birch for some of his tops as far as I know. Never used it as a neck material before, but as a carved top its fine, never had any complaints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 always liked the look of masur birch, but not had chance to use any yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 I seems like there was a very nice figured birch top in the GTOM last fall(?). Maybe late summer. It had a deep blue green finish I think. Very nicely executed build. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Birch neck in progress; Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musiclogic Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Birch has been used as a neck wood since the early 1900's, but always second to maple fo a couple of reasons. Maple trees are much larger than birch, grow more up and down, where as birch are known to twist and wander in different directions, making it more difficult to get straight grain abd quantity of maple, also [some]maple is slightly lighter than Birch where weight is concerned. While birch will figure, the trees are rarely heavy enough to create the amount of grain compression during growth to create the impactful figuring of Maple. Hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 also Maple is slightly lighter than Birch where weight is concerned. Weird - the birch we have here is lighter than Maple. There must be different species of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musiclogic Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 There are many different species of birch, Yellow in North America(Paper Birch) average 38 specific gravity, equal with red maple, more than silver maple 33,soft maple 36 and big leaf 34, less than sugar 40 and black maple 44. just to provide the correct numbers and agree with the poster above that there are Maples that are heavier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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