Guitar Tone Woods???

[101Volts]

Certainly on a solid body electric guitar the body wood isn't the main source of tone.

Terry

Food for thought, I have a LP copy by Global (A Sears brand from the 60s or 70s) And the body is made out of plywood. Acoustically, It is quite loud and I like it. The neck however is made out of a soft wood and combined with neglect from the last owner (Leaving it tuned about five notes above normal tuning) It warped a lot.

Austin

[TerryTNM]

Is there a basic guide available to desirable characteristics of tone woods? I ask because I live surrounded by spruce trees, namely Sitka spruce. The area is also dominated by hemlock, yellow cedar and alder. The other half of the question would naturally be, is there a market for new sources of suitable tone woods?

Handbrake,
Like I said above, I'm no expert. All those woods you have growing around you with the possible exception of hemlock have the potential for instrument making.
The problem among others is the drying. In most cases the wood needs to dry for a long time before considering it usable to make guitars or other stringed things out of.
I think most suppliers of lumber use a kiln to dry woods to certain moisture content.

Are these trees on your property? You might think of contacting a mill to see if there'd be any interest in purchasing them.

Terry

[handbrake]

Hi Terry,
Thanks for your reply. My property? Well, let's call it our property. I live amid the largest of the national forests which, up until recently, has been treated to dramatic clearcutting. That practice has given way to smaller, targeted timber sales and even select-tree harvesting. As a community and a region, we're trying to revitalize a manageable and sustainable wood product economy.

Aside from commercial logging, another focus has been restoration. For example, an effort is underway to remove some of the dense thicket of trees that have grown at the site of clearcuts. This in turn creates some biomass for use in alternative heating systems that are being investigated and developed. I wonder how many other communities will have a Coast Guard station burning wood to heat it's hangar?

Anyway, whether furniture or guitars or whatever, I'd like to see wood harvested for uses that capture it's greatest value as raw material.

Terry, will you be at Deke's event? Does it make any sense to bring you a sample of Sitka spruce? What's a useful dimension for you?

Thanks!

[handbrake]

All those woods you have growing around you with the possible exception of hemlock have the potential for instrument making.

I don't know if it makes any difference, but most of the hemlock around here is infected with a parasite that causes trees to grow very slowly. And hemlock has always seemed to me to have high mositure content, but maybe that's just the long-ago observation of a boy who is really tired of chopping wood.

[Sarah93003]

Hello Sarah,
All the best on your project. I've never built a solid body guitar but certainly the species makes a big difference in weight. But I'm not so certain on how it effects audible sound. There are all kinds of emotions when it comes to tone wood but I'm not so certain that it's a measurable quantity.

Master luthier Bob Benedetto states in his book 'Archtop Top Guitar - Design and Construction' - To test a theory, Bob built an archtop guitar, made just like his standard
jazz guitar that would normally be built with a select spruce top with 5A maple back and sides but this one he made from KNOTTY PINE. . . It sounded every bit as good and the spruce/maple version.

So, ever since reading that, I've been very sceptical when someone says something like "Oh, you get a much brighter sound from an ebony fingerboard than rosewood, or something like that. I think those kind of variations may only be seen on an oscilloscope wave, not by human ears.

Certainly on a solid body electric guitar the body wood isn't the main source of tone.

Again, good luck and happy building on your project. Keep us up to date on your progress. If you're going to Deke's Geek Fest stop by our table. I'd like to meet you.

Terry

Thank you Terry. Yes, I'll be at the Geek Fest and will definately stop by. I'd like to meet as many forum members face to face as I can. I've been wondreing about wood and tone, esepcially with solid bodied buitars. And, I agree , I can't tell the tonal difference between ebony and rosewood fretboards. I like the looks of ebony , so that's the fretboard of choice for my little porject coming up. Incidently, Gretsch made a guitar in the 1950's of Knotty Pine called the "Roundup". They have reissued the guitar and you can see it below. I know someone who has one and he loves it. Also, didn't Danelectro make guitars from masonite?

[Sarah93003]

Hello Aaron,

No, haven't seen oak used for guitars. For me anyway, the weight doesn't justify the looks and then it's an open grain wood that's harder to finish. I don't see
an obvious technical reason not to use it. It is fairly stable and very ridged. I would imagine there have been some who've tried it.

There are several luthier forums on the net populated by some very knowledgeable builders. That is a good source of information on just about
every aspect of construction. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an archived thread out there about using oak in instrument making.

Take care,

Terry

Terry, I would be interested in a good luthier forum if you have one to suggest. I think I'd learn a lot from that.

[Sarah93003]

Talking about woods reminded me of this guitar. It is for sale by a local collector but he doesn't remember who made it. The construction of the body is amazing and several types of woods. If you zoom in you'll see what I mean. If I had an extra $3,000 lying around I'd consider it!

[dorkrockrecords]

Sarah -

I believe that is the short-lived Dobro brand foray into solidbody electric guitars, made back in the late '70s or early '80s.

Adam

[JimPage]

Hey, Terry and Aaron--

>>No, haven't seen oak used for guitars. . . .

It seems to me that the last time I was up at the CF Martin factory, back in May, they had some guitars there made to see how oak worked as a tone wood. If I remember correctly, it was used as a back-and-sides wood, of course on an acoustic guitar.

Martin is an amazing company in that they are testing not only any material one could possibly think of to diminish the use of rare woods that cannot be easily replaced, but they have spent a mint on soundproof chambers with custom equipment to measure everything possible about how a guitar sounds and resonates.

Chris Martin IV takes his responsibility concerning sustainable materials very seriously, and is willing to put his money and rep where his mouth is on the deal.

Sorry if this is sort of off the topic of purely electric guitars, but if you are ever near Nazareth, PA, it is worth the trip to see that they are doing there. And their new museum will take a day to truly appreciate. Do they have a nice room where you can sit and play all the new Martins you could ever want? Yep, they do! And their tours are cool in that you can actually shoot the breeze with the employees doing the various tasks.

--Jim

[Sarah93003]

Sarah -

I believe that is the short-lived Dobro brand foray into solidbody electric guitars, made back in the late '70s or early '80s.

Adam

That would be very interesting Adam. Can you point me in the right direction to look into that?