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Posted

Hello everyone!

I was thinking of building a guitar out of pine (because I'm a student with almost no money, and im a newbie concerning guitarbuilding).

So my question is:

Is It possible to make it sound good, allthough it's pine?

Thanks.

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Posted

I think that the general concensus is that it's quite poor as a body. However Alder isn't expensive and sounds quite good so I'm lead to believe.

Posted

Dunno to be honest. Where abouts in the world are you. I'm sure somone will help find cheap wood. Be warned though it's not that cheap to build a guitar, especially if you need to buy tools. My projects are on hold because I've run out of money.

Posted

there have been people to build necks out of alder but i couldnt' find the original page i saw this from so i dont 'remeber the status of it as a working wood for necks.

as far as pine goes sugar pine is quite nice for a guitar body and long as you dont' expect it to sound like expensive wood.

i have played plenty of tele strat and lp bodies from this wood and it was nicer than basswood anyday, [ok i know not saying much there] but it was quite nice. and from plenty of reports some of the early fenders that were sold were in fact sugar pine as the first broadcaster was cut from that. and i belive the first 100 or so guitars done out of it. i found it online at fenders homepage when i did a report on the evolution of guitar in college a few years back. but like wes said and i have to agree, its easier to work with alder or any other wood as pine will splinter and shred and just a pain in the arse to work with. if you plan on just temping a body out, then i say go for it. and expirament. alot of my crazy ideas have been done with pine and then taking to someone who knows more than i about wood and done withh some good hard woods.

[woods not to start without experience] osage orange. i dont' remember how to spell it i know i did it wrong.

played a lespaul made from that... only once.. too heavy for my back. 26 pound guitar. solid osage orange.

Posted

Although Alder is generally a cheap wood, it depends on where you live. Here (eastern Canada) it's actually cheaper to build a guitar out of mahogany than alder. The cheap woods available are poplar and basswood, but then, you'd be saving like 20-30$ compared to mahogany...

Maple, of course, is plenty and I can source all kind of maple (quilted, flamed, bird eye, hard, etc), but I've never played maple bodied guitar I liked (yet).

Posted
b c rich uses a type of pine, i was reading in guitar world

Their "platinum" series guitars are made out of Agathis, a type of eastern pine. It' supposed to be cheap, plentiful, and have "remarkable resonance".

Make your guitar out of whatever makes you happy, although hard woods are preferable to soft.

:D

Posted
there have been people to build necks out of alder but i couldnt' find the original page i saw this from so i dont 'remeber the status of it as a working wood for necks.

as far as pine goes sugar pine is quite nice for a guitar body and long as you dont' expect it to sound like expensive wood.

i have played plenty of tele strat and lp bodies from this wood and it was nicer than basswood anyday, [ok i know not saying much there] but it was quite nice. and from plenty of reports some of the early fenders that were sold were in fact sugar pine as the first broadcaster was cut from that. and i belive the first 100 or so guitars done out of it. i found it online at fenders homepage when i did a report on the evolution of guitar in college a few years back. but like wes said and i have to agree, its easier to work with alder or any other wood as pine will splinter and shred and just a pain in the arse to work with. if you plan on just temping a body out, then i say go for it. and expirament. alot of my crazy ideas have been done with pine and then taking to someone who knows more than i about wood and done withh some good hard woods.

[woods not to start without experience] osage orange. i dont' remember how to spell it i know i did it wrong.

played a lespaul made from that... only once.. too heavy for my back. 26 pound guitar. solid osage orange.

If basswood is so bad why is Yngwie using it on the body of his Strats' and ESP on the 250 LTD's (this ain't the cheap 100's). Ijust went to a Yngwie concert here in Baltimore and the guitar sounded just like the records. Not too bad for a basswood body, not to mention the F300 that Hetfield is using now :D

Posted

The general consensus is:

You can build a guitar out of epoxied packing peanuts if that's what you want. However, why would you go through the expensive and time consuming process of building a guitar that won't sound as good, play as well, or last as long as one made from the proper materials. Alder, poplar, and basswood, and in some cases even mahogany, are cheap and plentiful. Do the job right.

The way I see it, if you're gonna shell out $100-$250 for electronics, and as much as $200 for a trem bridge, what's the matter with shelling out $40 instead of $20 for a body wood that will produce inferior results?

$.02 :D

Posted
what's the matter with shelling out $40 instead of $20 for a body wood that will produce inferior results?

i only pay about $20 for a body's worth of alder

If basswood is so bad why is Yngwie using it on the body of his Strats' and ESP on the 250 LTD's

it is just lacking in mids

Their "platinum" series guitars are made out of Agathis, a type of eastern pine. It' supposed to be cheap, plentiful, and have "remarkable resonance".

imo agathis is the worst sounding wood i have ever had the displeasure of owning a guitar made out of....

i would use maple for the neck...it is fairly cheap and is tried and true...plus maple and alder are a classic combination for guitars playing anything from country to metal...

Posted

This just reminded me, I have this kind of old ash chair that the leg is broken on, If I got it planed it would be the right size for a couple of body wings. I may do some hacking in a few weeks.

Posted

Correction to my last post, the F250 is mado from Agathis, I was told it was Basswood. A haven't played and Agathis jet but the ESP reputation speakes for itself. What guitar you played that was agathis Wes? I plan on buying the F250 in a few months, and I will go to Guitar Center to play one before buying it.

Posted

If you would have mentioned using pine a few months ago, I would have agreed that it would be a bad choice. But recently, I came across some info on the web about various people using pine for guitars. There was the Taylor "pallet" acoustic with the top made of pine, and info that Benedetto made an archtop that sounded as good as other guitars with " better wood" tops.

A respected amp repair guy named Mark Norwine has raved about his pine Tele, and I think I saw him say he was having another one made.

I think it should be a very dry piece of pine. Fender made a bundle of re-issues of the first Fender solid body , which has a pine body. I heard they used pine from the stairs of a 100 year old church that was torn down. If that's true it's pretty cool. How often does a house of God get turned into an instrument of the devil ? :D

I think a maple neck is a must. 25.5" scale might be a must. I'm even wondering if it would work well with the neck having stainless steel frets.

I've heard hot pickups are a must with a lighter body like this.

I plan to build a pine body, with old 2x4's , if that's the oldest , most dry pine I come across.

Now before some, if not all, of you try to tell me that alder, mahogany, etc etc are better than pine, I'd like to remind you of how much time you spend tweaking the tone knobs on your amp because you have yet to get " the holy grail of tone" from your flamed maple top PRS copy.

Rob

Posted
Correction to my last post, the F250 is mado from Agathis, I was told it was Basswood. A haven't played and Agathis jet but the ESP reputation speakes for itself. What guitar you played that was agathis Wes? I plan on buying the F250 in a few months, and I will go to Guitar Center to play one before buying it.

There's a difference between an ESP and an ESP LTD...

I've played a few LTDs and they all sounded dead to me. Metallica use the real thing live, and they've switched back to Gibson recently...

Posted
the ESP reputation speakes for itself. What guitar you played that was agathis Wes?

esp ltd f series...i don't remember what # it is...it is my wife's guitar and it sucks balls tonewise

Posted
there have been people to build necks out of alder but i couldnt' find the original page i saw this from so i dont 'remeber the status of it as a working wood for necks.

as far as pine goes sugar pine is quite nice for a guitar body and long as you dont' expect it to sound like expensive wood. 

i have played plenty of tele strat and lp bodies from this wood and it was nicer than basswood anyday, [ok i know not saying much there] but it was quite nice.  and from plenty of reports some of the early fenders that were sold were in fact sugar pine as the first broadcaster was cut from that. and i belive the first 100 or so guitars done out of it.  i found it online at fenders homepage when i did a report on the evolution of guitar in college a few years back.  but like wes said and i have to agree, its easier to work with alder or any other wood as pine will splinter and shred and just a pain in the arse to work with. if you plan on just temping a body out, then i say go for it. and expirament. alot of my crazy ideas have been done with pine and then taking to someone who knows more than i about wood and done withh some good hard woods.

[woods not to start without experience] osage orange.    i dont' remember how to spell it i know i did it wrong. 

played a lespaul made from that...  only once..  too heavy for my back.  26 pound guitar.  solid osage orange.

If basswood is so bad why is Yngwie using it on the body of his Strats' and ESP on the 250 LTD's (this ain't the cheap 100's). Ijust went to a Yngwie concert here in Baltimore and the guitar sounded just like the records. Not too bad for a basswood body, not to mention the F300 that Hetfield is using now :D

some bass wood can sound fine dependign on how you build it. there was a great arch top builder. [i am forgetting in his name right now however] who proved that it doesnt' all lie in the wood he built a archtop guitar out of a pallet. that was as beautiful sounding as any other one he had built out of expensive wood.

not sure on the yngwie guitar however the only time i have seen him was videos of his playing and he is playin his old fenders. and they are not basswood. and i checked out his signature model. and it isnt' basswood either.??

as far as esp goes.. well i played two gutiars of theres one was basswood one was something else..

basswood really depends on what you want to play.. if you use a lot of high gain and effects the general rule of thumb has always been use something like basswood as it is light and it doesnt sound bad but it has been a chosen slide wood for years cause it doesnt' have as much sustain as other woods but more than others.

but every wood has its quirks. and really i don't like any esp gutiars personally cause they just dont' speak to me. something about the playign of the necks.. but i am spoiled from my custom necks. i really only use extended scales and flat necks.

as far as debating which artist uses what.. look at Steve Vai.. he used basswood for years.. every production jem up to the white series was basswood. he went with alder on that one and it has been his no.1 guitar since then.

"info taken from ibanez site and www.vai.com"

Posted

Thank you all for the answers, and i think that I'll wait 'til i start working before i start building a guitar, so that i can buy more expencive wood. :D

-Daniel

Posted

Im making a "practice bass" out of pine this week. I picked up a 2x12x10 the other day at lowes for 10 bucks. I figure I can get more than enough for a compleat bass body and neck out of that. The hardware ill put on it I will later remove and put on the real bass im making. This way i figure that I can get some good experence with out spending all the money on messing up good peices of wood.

It will also be eayser to work with than hardwoods.

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