Inlaying Stainless Steel Into Solid Body Guitar! Good Idea Or No?

[boaty]

I work on a remote scientific research station where i have access to a work shop and some limited supplies and thought that making a guitar as a project would keep me sane over winter (or put me over the edge, one of the two).

I can get my hands on some Mahogany which i've found kicking around for the body and ash for the rest of it but i've also seen some stainless steel knocking about and thought it might be nice to inlay that, which got me thinking....."I haven't seen any guitars with stainless in them" and maybe thats for a reason? i.e it messes with the sound somehow?

If anyone has any useful info about this it would be gratefully received. This is my first guitar build, still in the RnD stage at the moment!!!!

Thanks

[killemall8]

It isnt that it messes with the sound. Its that it is so dang hard, it is nearly impossible to cut or sand by hand.

If you inlay it into a board, you would never be able to level it. All teh wood around it would sand away before the steel would.

[Tim37]

Sounds like a cool job. There are softer stainless alloys out there but even then they are gonna be harder to work and getting them to level out is gonna be a bitch. Try it on some scrap and see what happens.

[YetzerHarah]

If you fully anneal it to work on it (& bend it to match the radius of the fretboard) then quench it before putting it back in, I think you can do it w/o a problem.

[Tim37]

I dont even see a reason to harden it. Even in an anealed state the steel would wear slower than the wood around it

[YetzerHarah]

I think if you don't quench it, you're going to have a hard time keeping a polish with strings rubbing against it, but who knows I've never tried it

[pauliemc]

been there, done that. will never do it again.

Its not that shaping the pieces is fro the fret board is that bad, its that its so hard compared to the surrounding materials that it makes it difficult to level your board. So you have to level it & first. then inlay the steel.

The body is easier, but then you are in a position where you have a polished material that wont take a finish in a similar fashion to the surrounding timber, so four finish goes to crap in about 6 months.

You are far better off using mirror backed mylar or some other metalised plastic. But then you probably dont have that kinda stuff where you are.

[Prostheta]

Welcome to the board and in spectacular fashion I might add. The only way you could top that kind of entrance is by being on the ISS.

I agree with all that has been said however I would add to Killemall's thing about sanding metal flush....if it is being milled as opposed to your more typical woodworking techniques then it is possible to inlay it. Planemakers like Karl Holtey, etc. commonly do the opposite by using wood infills into metal plane bodies and milling them on Bridgeports and similar machinery. The mix of fluids and wood dust is not to be sniffed at of course!

As for your choice of materials, I would go the opposite way. Mahoganies are better used as neck wood and Ash for bodies as opposed to vice versa as you implied. That's not to say it will not work (both are good hardwoods) however Ash necks can be problematic for a number of reasons such as pore size, hardness between early/latewood, overall hardness, etc.

From a logistical standpoint you named two open-pored woods which will prove problematic when put into a situation involving metal debris. Extracting this from the wood during finer finishing work is nigh on impossible unless it can be magnetically extracted!

Well, I hope you have a good Internet connection whichever end of the world you are on or corner you are in and it would be great fun working through this project in those circumstances! I hope you have strings.

[boaty]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me with this, it's given me much to think about. Decided to abandon the stainless idea, with what I have available I think it would be unworkable.

At the moment the plan is to replace the stainless with either ash or possibly beech. I'm going to have to order the rest of the parts in (machine heads, pick ups ect) but they won't get here till Oct/Nov so will try and do as much as possible in the mean time.

Thanks again and I'm sure there will be more questions to come in the future!!!

[Prostheta]

Look forward to it, plus it would be interesting hearing what you guys are doing out in the research station!

Please tell me it's the ISS. That would certainly be a first.

[boaty]

Prostheta, sorry mate but I don't know what the ISS is or does!!! I however work on a British science base as part of the support crew. I drive boats for the marine scientists (when the sea isn't frozen) basically a glorified boatman!!!

Thanks again for answering my questions, I've started the build, so far the body is cut I'm just waiting for dimensions for the pickups so i can router them in and then start shaping. In the mean time I'm trying to sum up the courage to begin the neck!!! The whole thing is going to be a combination of walnut and ash. I'm still undecided on what to use for the fretboard, I have walnut, ash, mahogany, beech or oak, which out of those do you think would be most suitable?

[Prostheta]

Oh you know, just that space station thing...that's all.

I'd say that out of that list, Oak is the best choice. Be British and go the same route that Brian May did on the Red Special! Even better if the Oak is quartersawn or you can plane it up to the quarter.

Love it if you posted some photos of where you are. Really curious since you appear to be one of the more exotic builders here in terms of location. Not had any pygmies or Amazonian tribespeople yet so you get to keep that trophy for the foreseeable.

[Juntunen Guitars]

I look forward to seeing this build if you post it. I've made necks out of ash and would deffinatelly do it again. If you like open pore finishes it's awesome otherwise it can be porefilled if you want to go that route. If you go with the ash neck I'd use walnut for the fingerboard but that's my preference. I love the look of walnut and ash together. Good luck with the build either way!

[Prostheta]

I would be hesitant about the Walnut Ryan, since I had a bad experience with it as a neck wood. It felt very soft and ended up giving me a rubbery neck. Its fret-holding capability would need to be tested for reliability, perhaps?

[FireFly]

If you did a natural finish that just seals the wood, and weren't too worried about the stainless being level, it could be very pretty. Hard as **** to cut, but none the less, very pretty. I could see some guitars with very small accents of SS in it I guess...

It shouldn't affect the sound. It might make your tap tone a little dead, but other than that, if you were to inlay small amounts of steel (say something the size of a quarter or dime in random areas) I doubt it'd have any noticeable before/after results.