Table Top Guitar book

[stevenh]

I purchased a book and some plans from a guy named Sean Mara who wrote a book showing how to build a solid body guitar with regular 2x4 lumber. I was thinking about using 2x4 and 2x6 spruce. I wanted to see if his techniques worked. Has anyone read this book?

What do you think about using Spruce for a neck through guitar?

[Jehle]

That's neat. I'll have to look at the 2x4 guitar book. I bet you could make a guitar body out of Spruce. It may sound a little bright if anything. I know that Spruce is used for a lot of the boards on the outside of my house and it wears really well. Dumb old pine warps like crazy but the spruce seems more stable. It would be worth just playing around with.

Welcome aboard, BTW.

[Pex657]

I am still trying to figure this out. How does the wood effect the sound that is coming becuase the strings are being picked up through the pickups.

wouldn't what type of strings and pickups affect the sound, and not the wood.

I am just confused

[truerussian558]

I am still trying to figure this out. How does the wood effect the sound that is coming becuase the strings are being picked up through the pickups.

wouldn't what type of strings and pickups affect the sound, and not the wood.

I am just confused

the best way t think of it is that the strings are atached to the wood at both ends, thsui different physiccal properties of the wood, affect certain overtones differently because the string is governed by the properties of its the ends, which are atached tot he wood, thats my theoiry by the way, but there is a TON of debate on how (and if) wood choice affects tone, but it is shown that differnt woods sound different, even if it is an electric

[PaulNeeds]

Yeah!

The structure and density of the wood will affect how the vibrations travel through it.

Therefore, as TR says, because ultimately the strings are in contact with the wood, this will have an effect on how the string vibrates - eg if it dies away quickly because vibration is absorbed almost totally, or sustains or rings for a long time because the wood is dense and uniform in structure.

There are then tradeoffs in what wood you'd use - weight being an obvious one, but also tone, the size and therefore playablilty of the neck for you, and so on.

Guitarists are a pretty conservative bunch - I believe most of us find a look or sound we like, and pretty well stick with it.

So if we like a Les Paul type of sound, we'd go for mahogany neck/body with a maple top because that's the wood that helps get that sound (as well as pickups).

Hope that helps a bit...

[Pex657]

that makes more sense, now I have to figure out which wood is used for more of a Rock sound.

[erikbojerik]

I know that Spruce is used for a lot of the boards on the outside of my house and it wears really well. Dumb old pine warps like crazy but the spruce seems more stable.

I guess that's probably why most acoustic guitars have spruce soundboards.

[PaulNeeds]

that makes more sense, now I have to figure out which wood is used for more of a Rock sound.

What kind of 'rock sound'?

Screaming Les Paul sound - mahogany with humbucker pickups.

Super-strats (pointy ibanez etc (shudder ) Maples and alder I'd have thought.

You sound like youwant high-output pickups.. there are many here better suited to advise on these than I - my Fenders are pretty traditional. Even though I changed the pickups, I didn't go for the ultra-high output kinds.

[soapbarstrat]

80% of the Les Paul sound is because of the scale length. Put a 24 3/4" scale neck (even maple) on a strat body with buckers and it almost always sounds close to a Les paul. I had a strat like that, and played other non-LP guitars that shared the scale, but used other hardwoods.

I think you would need to use typical hardwood, just nothing extremely exotic like a rosewood or ironwood body, etc. I think you can still get an LP sound with an alder or ash body.

[Jivin]

I dont mean to stir up anything, but what you said has thrown me a fair bit. Im not an expert by any means, but ive been led to beleive that the typical mahogany w/maple cap wood selection with humbuckers is what yeilds a lot of the les paul tone

I just cant see the scale length being such a critical factor in the sound, and yet the wood selection being -almost- irrelevant. Well at least thats what I got from your post?

[Noodle]

The scale length influences the tension on the strings. (the longer the scale, the more tension you get. )So it affects alot of things but from what i know the scale length isnt more important than the choice of wood.

But if you put Gibson PAFs in a strat it will sound different (d0h)...

i think he had a mahogany strat

[soapbarstrat]

Not mahogany. I think that strat had a poplar body. And yes, I certainly mean it when I said the scale length is 80% of the sound of an LP. Scale length is a huge factor on how a guitar sounds. And for the wood, I said it should stay within a certain type (ie: I don't mean balsa wood). Mahogany and Alder or Ash or poplar are not THAT different.

Not all LP's have a maple top.

I had a friend with a 24 3/4" scale Peavey (maple neck, oak body, I guess ??). He got STP's LP sound dead-on

[scott from _actual time_]

i think attributing 80% of the Les Paul tone to the scale length alone is way too high, even if only because you're limiting the effect of the body wood, the neck and fingerboard wood, the bridge type, and the neck joining method to only 20% combined. i would rate body wood and pickups as the most tonally important factors, say 30% each, followed by neck joining method [bolt vs. set vs. thru], bridge type, and fingerboard wood.

i would agree with the mahogany body + maple cap yielding most of the LP tone, and part of that is the large size/weight of the LP body. you can get close to this tone with that body wood combination in guitars with other types of necks and bridges, and other scale lengths. i have an LA Custom Shop Ibanez that's mahogany + maple cap. even with a floating trem, bolt-on neck, and 25.5" scale, it does the LP tone well. not exactly, but well.

and you can get the same string tension as an LP on any longer scale guitar by tuning down. i bet a half step or even less would be all you'd need on a 25.5" scale to get the same tension.

Super-strats (pointy ibanez etc (shudder ) Maples and alder I'd have thought.

actually, almost all the 'shred' type Ibanezes, and lots of Jacksons and ESPs, are made of basswood. it has a tonal spectrum kind of like a scooped mids EQ curve, lots of highs and lows with not much mids. i've heard of some production shreddy V's made out of maple, perhaps because of the smaller body size, but i don't know of any company making a strat or LP size production guitar out of maple.

[krizalid]

i'm so sorry to come in like this, but, is there any site that change the inches to mm? or, can anyone gives me the measurement of 27" scale length in mm?

thanks.

[soapbarstrat]

Be smart and book-mark it , like I have :

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

[Jehle]

Be smart and book-mark it , like I have :

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

Or you can google it.

go to Google and type in "27 inches ="

It gives you the result here.

[litchfield]

...i don't know of any company making a strat or LP size production guitar out of maple.

ESP for one

[perhellion]

80 % of Les Paul sound from the 24 3/4 scale? I've never actually played one, so there is some room for erroe=r, but nobody every said Vivian Campbell had the "Les Paul sound" with the Kramer Nightswan. Short scale was all it had in common with the LP. Bolt-on maple neck, Floyd. Not meant as an argument, but I'd really like to be able to capture the "LP sound" in a non-LP, because I hate the way they feel, and I've always wondered how similar a custon guitar would have to be (for example, I feel a short scale bolt-on with mahoghany body and neck, hardtail bridge, PAF-ish PU's, rosewood board, maybe a maple cap would sound like a LP) but I've wondered what could be eliminated from this equation.

[Hardtailed]

i think attributing 80% of the Les Paul tone to the scale length alone is way too high, even if only because you're limiting the effect of the body wood, the neck and fingerboard wood, the bridge type, and the neck joining method to only 20% combined. i would rate body wood and pickups as the most tonally important factors, say 30% each, followed by neck joining method [bolt vs. set vs. thru], bridge type, and fingerboard wood.

Although I agree with that, my band's singer has a MIJ Fender Custom Telecaster FMT which has a mahogany neck and body with a flame maple top, the neck is set-in and it's of course a hardtail. It has 2 humbuckers as well. Still, it sounds like a ... Telecaster! The only differences with a real LP are: 25.5" scale length, string through body (vs tail piece) and thickness.

Of course the pickups are from Fender, I bet if you put some Burstbuckers it would be different.

Another thing about scale lenght, a 25.5" downtuned a half step will have pretty much the same string tension has a 24.75" with standard tuning. Although I have to admit downtuning a bit makes my 25.5" guitars more Gibson like...

[soapbarstrat]

nobody every said Vivian Campbell had the "Les Paul sound" with the Kramer Nightswan.

Nobody said it sounded like a strat either. I don't think I ever heard it, and didn't really want to , since he started using solid state amps and a huge rack system about the time Buddy Blaze gave him the prototype nightswan. The full-shred pickup would probably hide much of the natural tone of the guitar.

I kind of think he thought that his Charvels on the post 'holy diver' records , did not sound as good as his black LP. He was probably trying to get more of the LP sound back. He is a LP player. He smoked everyone with his LP.

[perhellion]

I alway thought the Nightswan design had something to do with the feel of his LP neck rather than the LP sound. He probably would have gone for more PAF-ish pickups rather than the Full Shred if he wanted the LP sound. Nightswan not only has short scale but narrow at nut (R1 Floyd nut, I believe, only 1 1/2"). I thought maybe he has small hands.

P.S. Don't forget John Sykes (from same band even) for "smokin'" LP playing. Liked his sound, too. Vivian is great, but I always thought his "I'm gonna play really fast mode" ended up sounding the same regardless of song, band, or guitar. (Sykes is kinda guilty of this one also.)

[Wademeister]

As for scale length influencing tone, this is an interesting read. Novax Guitars techinical info

And as for spruce bodies, aren't the higher model Parker Fly guitars made from spruce? I tried one one time and really liked it. Not sure how it wood have sounded ( I hadda do it) on my amp at home, but it sure was great in the store.