Questions For Aussie Builders

[fretbrner]

Hello,

I have a few questions that I hope Australian builders can answer.

I know that a lot of builders (USA) use titebond for their glue of choice. I have not been able to find any here. What glue do you use?

Where do you source your timber? I am in the Newcastle, NSW area. And what native species would be good to use?

Also, do you source your parts locally or order from overseas?

Thanks

[demonx]

You can buy Titebond from ALS in QLD. I use F9 from a local joinery supplies.

http://luthiersupplies.com.au/

[fretbrner]

Thanks for that. I thinking of using selleys, as it seems similar to Titebond. But if I can get Titebond at a reasonable cost, then I will use that. I haven't priced timber from other suppliers, but $200 dollars just for a body blank seems pretty dear. Not that I am cheap. I have no issues spending $200 and up for a genuine Floyd Rose or the same for a Bareknuckle pickup.

By the way Demonx. think your guitars are brilliant. I am a huge fan of Charvel/Jackson style guitars, and through necks and dig yours as well.

[curtisa]

Titebond can be bought from Carbatec, who have stores in NSW and do mailorder. There are probably specialised joinery shops in your area that sell it too. Even down here in Hobart I was able to locate a store that had stocks of Titebond I, II and III in various sizes on the shelf. I think I paid $15 for a 500ml bottle.

A quick interweb search shows that Nover and Co are the distributors for Titebond in the Newcastle area:

http://www.titebond.com.au/distributors/index.htm#nsw

I have a sneaking suspicion that there's probably no real performance difference between Titebond Original and Selleys Interior Aquadhere. Was thinking of doing some quick glue strength tests in the near future to check it for myself.

Regarding wood, befriend your local timber stockist, particularly small private operators. Just last week I bought a piece of stripey-grained blackwood big enough for a body from a small timber store for $40. There's nothing saying you have pay for the import costs on a piece of alder, ash or mahogany for your builds. There are all sorts of native timbers that perform excellently in guitars. Check some of Mr Searls work for examples of QLD maple, Vic/Tas blackwood, Vic ash. Lots of others to choose from - silky oak, Tas oak, jarrah, wandoo, gidgee, blackheart sassafras, myrtle, sheoak, musk, celery top pine...

[demonx]

I don't reccomend Vic ash/tas oak. Horrible stuff for guitar making. I used it once years ago and said never again. A couple months ago I bought a plank that looked really tight/dense grained, I thought it'd make a difference. Nope. Still sucks to work with.

Blackwood is great but it kills your bandsaw blades and router bits very quickly. It also makes a very heavy instrument so you need to plan weight loss in the body area in advance of the build.

I forgot carbatec sold titebond. I buy tools and things from carbatec often.

[fretbrner]

Hey thanks for that. I was looking into using solely Australian timber. I have been reading up a bit and it does seem that people do love blackwood. Never heard a guitar made out of it , that I know.

Carbatec seems to have a good price for titebond.

[demonx]

Theres hundreds of thousands of guitars all over Australia made using blackwood!

Maton use it. Cole Clarke use it. I've used it on at least half a dozen guitars.

I've just finished an all Aussie timber 7 string thats mostly blackwood and I've got in paint stages at the moment an all Aussie timber 8 string that has a blackwood top. If you find my build thread or facebook page you'll see both of these.