gwm

That looks like ash to me.

I can't speak about swamp ash, but northern, hard ash is very stable (more so than most maples I've encountered) and plenty strong. The only drawback using ash for a neck (that I can see) is the open grain.

this place has lots of good stuff

http://www.certainlywood.com/

I vote for fake. Check out the capital 'D's. A lot are pretty similar.

no prob

here is one from Ron Thorn

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p...=doV3BL/599H32&

Devon is right on about using a very very sharp iron (blade) and light cut. You can plane just about anything like that. I have a low angle stanley block plane that works great. The only catch is you have to keep it sharp. This is an art in itself and is worth learning.

I usually hone my iron after ~10 min of constant use. You can tell the iron is dull when set for a fine cut, it won't shave anything off. Then you expose some more blade and POW... tearout (or the blade will 'skip' across the wood). You want to plane the wood so you can see through the shavings when held up to light.

Good luck, Hope this helps.

Just to clarify, there are hard and soft maples growing in the eastern U.S. "Eastern" is a pretty non-descript term.

gwm

Yeah, I tried searching over there too. Didn't work, hence the link.

Ron really seems to know his stuff. His guitars are amazing too.

ok, I feel bad about not giving the address for the Thorn forum, so here it is.

http://p213.ezboard.com/fthornnewsanddiscu...opicID=69.topic

check out thornguitars.com. Go to the discussion forum, there was a thread a while back on the shopbot.

Ron Thorn builds his own cnc machines, so he knows what he's talking about. His opinion of the shopbot is that it is pretty much crap. Cheap parts and large tolerances. Check the thread for more in depth info. Sorry, no link.

gwm

thats great! thanks for the tip.

"Our thought was that different wood types don't actually enhance certain frequencies; rather, they damp the ones you don't hear."

Yeah, that is exactly right. The wood cannot enhance frequencies, as it does not supply energy to the system. Wood is passive in this sense.

Kinda like why you need batteries for active pickups, to put energy into the system and enhance certain frequencies.

gwm

sounds like a cool project!!

in one of my eng classes we determined the speed of sound in a steel bar. the details of the experiment escape me at the moment, but an accelerometer was attached to one end of the bar. the bar was then tapped very very very lightly.

i think if you did something similar, but maybe tapped the wood harder to get a whole range of frequencies you'd get some neat results.

i think the mount for the piece of wood would be key though. depending where you clamped it you'd get different responses.

keep us posted.

gwm

if this is going to be your first guitar project--USE CHEAP WOOD!!! basswood is a good choice. most people will mess up at some point building a first guitar, and its not cool to mess up expensive wood. trust me, i know about this.

if you just need wood to practice on, try going to house building sites. there are always lumber and plywood scraps big enough (with some laminating) for guitar bodies and necks. most carpenters would probably be happy to let you pick through their trash.

make sure you know EXACTLY how deep your truss rod channel is before shaping the back of your neck. i butchered 2 necks by not doing this.

my $0.02, stay away from the router. shaping the neck by hand forces you to learn what feels good and what doesn't. it is also lots of fun.

i have used (with good success) a plain half round bastard file and a half round autobody file for the rough shaping. the autobody files are kinda tough to find (check eastwood.com), but they work great. better (smoother cutting) than most rasps i've used.

gwm

if you wanted to, you could get an angled head using just one board and a scarf joint. i believe this is what ibanez does to achieve the angle.

be careful with the wenge. that stuff can give some nasty splinters.

cool. good luck!

gwm

Ki swordsman,

i did not in any way mean to imply that all basswood is bad or sounds bad. wood from one basswood tree has the possibility of sounding completely different from any other basswood tree. yes, i totally agree that there are good sounding basswood guitars out there.

gwm

the first guitar i made (and only completed one at this point) had a basswood body. personally, i think it sounded like crap. granted, it was my first and there were some mistakes that could have had a detrimental effect on the tone, but if it were me i'd go for the walnut.

gwm

skibum,

what is your source for the pau ferro? i've been interested in checking out the stuff for a while. do you know, off hand, if they have straight grained pieces large enough for a neck through? thanks

gwm

skibum,

this won't help you with your search, but i live about a half hour from west penn hardwoods. very cool place. several months ago, they had some HIGHLY figured imbuia that was just spectacular (but not cheap). you may want to email them and ask for a pic if they have any left. i really can't explain the figure too well. all the boards i saw were different, but all cool. it smelled nice too.

gwm

truerussian,

if you can, buy the book "make your own electric guitar" by melvyn hiscock. it explains all the questions you are asking here. stewart macdonald has it in stock for under $30. money very well spent if you ask me.

gwm