Source of Wood?

Hey everyone,
I want to try my hand at building a guitar. I was wondering where most people get their wood for builds? Would I be able to find it at a Lowe's or Home Depot, or would I have to go somewhere else for good wood for building a guitar?
Thanks,
Thomas

In the beginning I glued up 3 2x6 pieces of std construction lumber. Short pieces but long enough for a body. They actually have decent wood patterns and are well suited for shaping. I have also glued up 3/4" boards and layered them making a 1 1/2" body blank.

You can put thin veneer over tham or leave them plain.

I have also carved them out of a log with a chainsaw. You can order exotic wood blanks, but I would geta few under my belt before that.

If you have a local Rockler, pay them a visit. I've gotten some amazing hardwood at good prices at Rockler.

In the beginning I glued up 3 2x6 pieces of std construction lumber. Short pieces but long enough for a body. They actually have decent wood patterns and are well suited for shaping. I have also glued up 3/4" boards and layered them making a 1 1/2" body blank.

You can put thin veneer over tham or leave them plain.

I have also carved them out of a log with a chainsaw. You can order exotic wood blanks, but I would geta few under my belt before that.

Can you use the same stuff for necks?

I built a few bodies out of "construction grade" lumber. The thing about that stuff is that its often not dried very well. And forget about the pressure treated stuff... its got poisonous chemicals in it, and it will crack and twist in short order.

For the price you'd pay getting wood from Lowes or Home Despot to glue up a body blank, and the effort you'd have in jointing and gluing the pieces, you'd probably be better served going to a lumberyard, or a place like Woodcraft and getting your lumber.

The Maple carried by Home Depot is great for making necks, but sometimes their asking price is a bit high. The one near me is having a killer sale on their Maple though, its down to $1.40 a linear foot so I picked up 6 neck blanks.

Woodcraft (at least the one near me) sometimes has 8/4 poplar, and they usually have a good price on it when its in stock.

Here are a couple bodies I made from materials from Home Depot:

This body is made from a core of Cedar 2x4's jointed and glued together, with a Maple cap laminated on front and back:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/300823_10100775587463350_185207722_n.jpg

This body is made from a Douglas Fir 2x6, jointed and glud together, with a Red Oak cap and back jointed, planed, and glued on:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/293606_10100774361345500_1293930321_n.jpg

I built a few bodies out of "construction grade" lumber. The thing about that stuff is that its often not dried very well. And forget about the pressure treated stuff... its got poisonous chemicals in it, and it will crack and twist in short order.

For the price you'd pay getting decent wood (not the construction-grade stuff) from Lowes or Home Despot to glue up a body blank, and the effort you'd have in jointing and gluing the pieces, you'd probably be better served going to a lumberyard, or a place like Woodcraft and getting your lumber.

However, the Maple carried by Home Depot is great for making necks, but sometimes their asking price is a bit high. The one near me is having a killer sale on their Maple though, its down to $1.40 a linear foot so I picked up 6 neck blanks.

Woodcraft (at least the one near me) sometimes has 8/4 poplar, and they usually have a good price on it when its in stock.

Here are a couple bodies I made from materials from Home Depot:

This body is made from a core of Cedar 2x4's scavenged from the scrap bin. Then they were jointed and glued together, with a Maple cap laminated on front and back:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/300823_10100775587463350_185207722_n.jpg

This body is made from a Douglas Fir 2x6 scavenged from the scrap bin, jointed and glued together, with a Red Oak cap and back jointed, planed, and glued on:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/293606_10100774361345500_1293930321_n.jpg

yep

Should I "cap" the lumber with a different wood? Is that just laminating/gluing a new wood on top of the other lumber?

I love the red oak grain.

Can you use the same stuff for necks?

I do not. I have only made from scratch a couple necks and I have used figured hard maple I bought via ebay. As I get better I will experiment with cheaper woods. Hard Maple is a tried and tested species for guitar necks.

Should I "cap" the lumber with a different wood? Is that just laminating/gluing a new wood on top of the other lumber?

I have but the pine and fir construction grade lumber has interesting grain and knot figuring. I am going to cap a Douglas Fir body soon, but it will be a semihollow thinline style tele or jag.

You don't need to cap the lumber, but my the time mine was planed down it was kinda thin so I added the caps to get the thickness back.

A construction grade 2x6 is really only 1.5" thick and I had to plane a good 1/2" off of them to get them flat, leaving me with a blank too thin for a body. So I glued on two 3/8" thick layers to get the thickness back to spec.

The "dimension lumber" sold by Lowes and Home Depot... the good stuff that is properly dried, is usually only offered in 3/4" thickness. So you'd probably have to glue together 2 layers to get a 1.5" thick body.

A 3/4" thick board is just right for a neck blank. You can add on a 1/4" fretboard blank for somewhere like Woodcraft, Stew Mac, or LMI. Or you can rip another 3/4" board into two fretboard blanks.

The Home depot maple is the hard maple. I'm working on a neck built from it now:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/552966_10101402136908240_1435646838_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/600140_10101402018226080_1974517336_n.jpg

I love the red oak grain.

Thanks, thats actually 3 separate pieces and I managed up to line up the grain to make it look like a single piece.

I'm a new builder too & what I did was google map my zip code & lumber next to it...you will not find any guitar wood at Lowes or HD! I paid $145.00 for a 8-9 foot board of Alder that had some knots in it but I got 5 blanks out of it (3 tele 2 strat) ((1 tele 2 strat with no knots)) it was 2 inch thick & 14 inches wide so all I had to do it plane it...didnt have to get into joining wich was good....down here in SFlorida ash & popler is more populer but i was lucky this one place had the Alder....just finished my first tele body & did a good job covering the one knot in the middle but I didnt use a sealer so the grain showed thru:
http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt16/funkymann1/P1020709.jpg

There's a sawmill about a half hour drive away that's my source for body lumber. You never know what they're going to have on hand... Last fall I bought a Jazzmaster sized piece of poplar for $9.00. It's a small operation, and they are very accomodating. They'll joint or thickness plane, answer questions, or just bs while I'm digging.

It might be worth calling around to see if any of your local sawmills sell to the public. Body length pieces can often be had for little or nothing, though full width blanks are rare, I do find them now and then.

Poplar is a good wood for a first guitar body. It works easily, cuts and sands well, and takes finish well. It does not have attractive grain, so it would need to be painted. You can buy 3/4 inch poplar at Lowes or Home Depot, and glue it up to 1.5", or try and find thicker boards at a local supplier. For the neck, as OpenGCapo4 mentions, 3/4" maple from HD or Lowes, if you can find it, is adequate for the neck, if used with 1/4 inch fretboard, which can be ordered inexpensively from places like Luthier's Mercantile International (LMI) and other sources.

BTW, you probably have noticed here that it is very rare these days to build a guitar body that isn't glued up, at least from two halves, so don't hesitate to glue up a body blank to get the size you need.

Also, the tools available to you probably should influence the wood size and shape you utilize. If you have a complete shop with at least a bandsaw, planer, and jointer, you can get just about any size wood you can afford, and mill it down to suit your needs. otherwise, it might be actually more economical, and less frustrating to order a body blank from one of the many suppliers, and work from that point.