Sitka Spruce?

I have a big plank of Sitka Spruce that I'm thinking of using for my next build. What do you guys think, will it be too soft for a solid (or maybe a thinline) Tele?

I'd use it :wink:

Hmmmm. It would be OK for a solid tele, it dents easy but is some of the strongest wood out there. Parker's original guitars were done out of solid spruce, as were the necks (the necks were covered in carbon fiber). For a Thinline I'd use something else for the back and sides.

We had a lot around at SCGC when I worked there. One of my coworkers made what was more or less a Tele-shaped acoustic guitar, maple back and sides and a x-braced spruce top, no f-holes or soundhole, P90 pickups. Far heavier bridgeplate than you'd normally use, as he used a standard tele bridge and it had to screw in. Sounded GREAT.

I have a big plank of Sitka Spruce that I'm thinking of using for my next build. What do you guys think, will it be too soft for a solid Tele?

Mine's holding up nicely...
And sounds great, with a distinctive midrange thump...

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1090967.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1090964.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1090960.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1010515.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1010516.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1010519.jpg

It will me light and strong. It is used in aeronautic construction. many a piper cub has sitka spruce for the ribs and spars.

I plan to make one - I used WR Cedar for a tele and it looks/sounds amazing. The high-end has a 'roundness' that is very interesting and musical. I could not get that roundness on other teles by component or pickup swapping.

OK then, Sitka Spruce it will be.

What about finish? Would it be a crime to paint it? I'm not sure I like the look of the simple stained body, although it might look cool with some violin style purfling around the edge or fancy binding like a nice custom acoustic.

OK then, Sitka Spruce it will be.

What about finish? Would it be a crime to paint it? I'm not sure I like the look of the simple stained body, although it might look cool with some violin style purfling around the edge or fancy binding like a nice custom acoustic.

Unless it's just a stunning grain, by all means paint it, it's going to be your guitar :wink:. Shellac makes a fine sealer/primer BTW, and can be wet sanded smooth to 400 grit before you even spray it with paint :wink:

Love Sitka!

Double ivroid bound, tooled leather pickguard with a violin varnish finish....tasty!

Rob

Mine's holding up nicely...
And sounds great, with a distinctive midrange thump...

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1090967.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1090964.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1090960.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1010515.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1010516.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/Sprucecaster/P1010519.jpg

Olgabowl, are my eyes deceiving me, or do you have a wound B string on your Tele?:shock:

Olgabowl, are my eyes deceiving me, or do you have a wound B string on your Tele?:shock:

It looks like it's a baritone, so the 2nd string would be the same as a normal 3rd string, but they are usually wound on baritones.

Beautiful guitar, Olgabowl. That's a nice piece of quartersawn sitka.

I make my ukes and (now) a classical out of sitka; it's my favorite tonewood for acoustics. The denting is as bad as any other spruce; keep a clean bench and you should be fine.

I count 24 frets......

If I am not mistaken, Ron Kirn built a strat out of sitka a few years ago. A beautiful guitar.
IMHO, if you can put it on the top of an acoustic, I don't see why you can't build a solidbody with it. You always hear that soft woods are no good for electrics because they are not durable and can't handle rough handling, but there are hundreds of really old sitka topped acoustics that put the lie to that. My electrics suffer no more rough handling than my acoustics do.
The only problem with soft woods is IMHO if that wood is so soft that it will not hold screws. Otherwise, I say build with it. I know for a fact that I would in a heartbeat.

Hey Mike,

My pine-bodied Snakehead sounds outstanding. It is on the soft side but holds screws just fine. One luthier trick with soft wood/ screw issues is to soak the screw holes with CA. This can get you a good strong thread grip. Sitka is also used in some aircraft due to it's strength to weight ratio. If it's OK by the FAA my guess is it's fine for a Tele. And you gotta love that grain! :mrgreen:

Rob

Hey Mike,

My pine-bodied Snakehead sounds outstanding. It is on the soft side but holds screws just fine. One luthier trick with soft wood/ screw issues is to soak the screw holes with CA. This can get you a good strong thread grip. Sitka is also used in some aircraft due to it's strength to weight ratio. If it's OK by the FAA my guess is it's fine for a Tele. And you gotta love that grain! :mrgreen:

Rob
Yeah, the CA trick is used a lot. But I have a pine bodied P bass that just has the bridge screwed right into the body. No CA or anything like that. And the pine used is over a hundred years old. It was so light and so seasoned that when you worked it, you didn't get shavings or filings, just dust, lol. It's the only guitar I've ever worked on that I was afraid of it crumbling away into nothing before I got it done. When completed, the body weighed a whopping 2 pounds! It's holding up just fine. I can't imagine having a problem with sitka.

A bass with a 2 lb body? Is it a little neck heavy?

A bass with a 2 lb body? Is it a little neck heavy?
Slightly, but not as much as I thought it would be. But I use a strap on it that doesn't slide around, so that helps a huge amount.
One thing I've learned with this bass is that a huge amount of the weight of a bass is the tuners. If i can find some conversion bushings that will work( they've gotta make 'em) I'll be putting Hipshot Ultralites on 'er.
Ron Kirn's spruce strat.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/104487-ok-so-i-promised-here-ya.html

Depends how it was grown I guess. I'm working on a forestry project at the moment and a lot of forest stands here in Scotland are Sitka Spruce. All planted at the same time, so they compete for the light and grow up and up and up.

Perhaps if it was grown in a really low density area of trees it would be a better tree. My lasting memory is, as a teenager, going out into the local Sitka Spruce plantation with some friends and pushing over the stunted trees that never got more than 10m high.

I have a spruce tele built from a Rutters body. It has an explosive midrange crang kinda like swamp ash. I finished mine in amber shellac and it almost has a blackguard look to it.

I plan to make one - I used WR Cedar for a tele and it looks/sounds amazing. The high-end has a 'roundness' that is very interesting and musical. I could not get that roundness on other teles by component or pickup swapping.

Oh come on Mojo. Everyone knows that the pickups and the amp make an electric guitar sound the way it does. You can't possibly be saying that the wood type might actually play a role in how an electric sounds.:twisted:

I'm being totally facetious in case you didn't guess. I have a fir tele in process, and a Cedar tele is on deck. Been looking for Spruce too.

I'd just take the same precautions you'd use for any soft wood -- keep your cutters and blades clean and check for gum and pitch buildup so things don't start to smoke, and take nibbles with the router bit since the wood can tear out, and as pointed out already use some kind of light colored cloth on your workbench that you can shake off and avoid having any wood chips on it to cause dents. Oh, and when you sand, don't sand too much with the heavier grits or you'll just dig out the soft earlywood leaving ripples of harder latewood (or is it the other way around?). The first layer of any finish, no matter whether it's alcohol based or lacquer thinner or water based, will fuzz up the grain so just plan for it with a thinned washcoat and sand back gently before you proceed. I would not attempt any kind of stain since it might/would splotch but you can use some tint in the topcoats after it's sealed if you want a shaded look.

And please post pictures.

Now that you've got me thinking about a spruce-caster, what if you did binding on the top edge of the body, paint the sides and back, and leave the top clearcoated, maybe it would give you the vibe of a jazz archtop or acoustic? Ohboy now look what you've started...

I count 24 frets......

And since the last fret falls about where you'd expect, I'm thinking the scale's longer than a normal Tele. Someone further up the thread mentiontioned "baritone"?

OK, I'm back on it. I've decided to revive this thread and make it my build thread.
The board was over 6' long. Should be enough for 2 bodies. I'm only going to build one now, so the first step was to cut it in half.

Sorry, I should have rotated that last pic. Anyway, since the board is 2" thick, my next step was to plane it down to 1.75". I have a planer that I got in trade for a guitar I built for a buddy. I've never used a planer, but how hard can it be? Just in case, I bought a pc of 2x pine at Lowes to use as a test first. That went smoothly so I went ahead and planed it down.

Finally I took it back down to the basement, cut it in half again, and glued it up. One end had a partial saw cut in it (I guess I bought it that way) that I had to plan around. There were also some knots that I had to work around too.

I'll pdate and add more pics as I go, but this will not be a fast build, so don't hold your breath.

I finally found a little time to continue on this yesterday. First I traced the outline of the body using the template. The join line will not end up at the centerline of the body due to the knots that I have to avoid. I had to buy a new blade for my little old band saw, but once i did, I was able to cut it out pretty quickly.

I spent some more time sanding closer to the line so that the router won't have to do take off too much. The less the router needs to do, the less chance for tear out. Then I attach the template with a couple of screws and I'm ready to route....as soon as I clean up my router table. By the way, I'm using a deluxe style template because it had the cleanest outline. This is going to be a traditional tele, so when I start routing for the pickups and controls, I will use a different template. All of my templates have the screw attachment holes in the same spot (in theory) so I should be able to switch between them easily.

Hey Mike,

My pine-bodied Snakehead sounds outstanding. It is on the soft side but holds screws just fine. One luthier trick with soft wood/ screw issues is to soak the screw holes with CA. This can get you a good strong thread grip. Sitka is also used in some aircraft due to it's strength to weight ratio. If it's OK by the FAA my guess is it's fine for a Tele. And you gotta love that grain! :mrgreen:

Rob

+1 on the CA in the screwholes - drill them first too, where practical: Even the pickguard holes - soft woods will crack, but CA in holes and any tiny cracks that emerge will fix that.

Unless it's just a stunning grain, by all means paint it, it's going to be your guitar :wink:. Shellac makes a fine sealer/primer BTW, and can be wet sanded smooth to 400 grit before you even spray it with paint :wink:

Dave's got a lot more experience than I do, but IMO softwood grain is amazing - I've always used shellac or just clear coated softwood bodies. One of the cool things if you use something like ReRanch's clear lacquer is that the finish will age very quickly: Since the wood surface will flex more than the finish's ability to hang on. The result is a very natural aged look - not reliced really - just warn in. I love to seen the grain and shelac or clear lacquer has been my favorite finish on softwoods.

To keep the finish from aging like that, perhaps poly or Tru-Oil or Antique Oil Finish would work better.

I'm not usually a big fan of clear finishes that highlight the grain, but you've got me thinking about it. I might start with shellac and see how it looks and then decide. I kind of have my heart set on red with white binding.

Routed the outside using the usual method. Start with a bottom bearing bit on the template, then remove the template and go as far as the bit will allow. Finally switch to a top bearing bit and finish it.

The grain at the join line is kinda cool looking.

Started routing for controls and pickups. First I hog out as much as I can with the drill press, then carefully line up the template on top and route to the correct depth. I want to wait until I have a neck in hand before I route the neck pocket.

she's lookin' fine…. personally, I love the look of spruce…..

Ron Kirn

I also managed to get the string-through holes drilled. I used the pin trick.... Drill part way through from the top, then flip it and line up the hole on the pin and drill the rest of the way through. Then I switched to a larger bit that matches the ferrule diameter and drill to the correct depth so that the ferrules sit flush.

Well it's been a while since I've posted, but I haven't stopped working on it. I ended up getting a Mighty Mite neck with a rosewood board. Checked to make sure my neck template was good, finished up the routing, and then cleaned it up with this Japanese saw.

This is only my 2nd attempt at binding, so I haven't perfected it yet, but I'm determined to at least improve on my last attempt. I'm using white binding from Stewmac. I studied up a bit by reading the seminal binding thread (the Emeraldcaster thread) before I started. I'm using super glue to hold it in place.

It took a few nights, and much tape and strategically placed clamps, but I got it all on there.

Nice to see you back! Hope you have good luck with the SM bindings; I tried them on my challenge build and had issues with non-CA cement (I usually do wood bindings), so yours ought to go on just fine.

Here it is with the binding complete. The rabbit bit I have is not the correct depth for the thickness of binding I got, so the binding ends up sticking out from the sides of the guitar after it's glued in place. I trimmed it using the trim bit on the router and then then scraping it with a razor blade until it's flush. It's a lot of work, but it turned out pretty good. Also you can see where I've routed out for the neck plate. This is one of the details I do to all of my guitars. I route it out so the neck plate sits flush with the back of the guitar. I waited until the binding was finished before I did this step. I also waited until after the binding to put in the jack hole because I needed the bearing of the trim bit to travel on that wood.

And just like that... it's painted. Of course there were a few extra steps in between. Several coats of sanding sealer (Deft brand works fine for me) and then mask the binding, spray some primer (Duplicolor laquer based primer from Autozone), pull the masking, re-mask the binding, and finally paint. I was originally planning on Red, like a Dakota red or a Fiesta red. Then I started thinking about a 2 tone paint job with a lighter shade of green on the top and back and a darker shade on the sides, but I couldn't find any greens that I liked. I studied a picture heavy thread on here about the best colors for bound telecasters and I kept going back to the Lake Placid Blue. But I really like spraying these Duplicolor laquer paints that I can get in quart size cans. This is called "Deep Blue". It's a little darker than I originally thought it would be and it has some metalic like shine to it that I didn't expect, but it's really grown on me.

Very nice colour!

Very nice colour!


Agree, even without the extra u. :grin:

This is pretty much where we stand today. I have a few coats of clear laquer on it (Watco brand). I need to let that cure for a couple more weeks. But I couldn't resist the preview shot.
The whit binding was such a nice contrast with this blue, that I've decided to take full advantage of the theme. I found some white witch hat knobs and a white switch tip on ebay. Then of course I had to go the next step and paint the pickups. This is an old MIM pickup that I'm not using that I decided to paint as a proof of concept. I think I like it, except I need to find a whiter paint. I ordered a set of Rob Di'Stefano's pups - the Lion and the Lioness. The Lioness neck pup doesn't use a chrome cover so it will be white too. I'm really diggin this.:cool:

Sweet build! :grin:

Thanks Dave, I was just checking out your lap steel build. Now, I'm thinking a Lap steel will be my next build. I've never played one, but for some reason I suddenly have to have one.

Thanks to everyone else too for the kind words.

Thanks Dave
Your most welcome :smile:

I was just checking out your lap steel build. Now, I'm thinking a Lap steel will be my next build. I've never played one, but for some reason I suddenly have to have one.
Yeh, I feel your pain/gas :grin:, but heed this please. Everything I could read said NOT to start learning with a C6 tuning. As I have found, truer words were never spoken :lol:

It looks like it's a baritone, so the 2nd string would be the same as a normal 3rd string, but they are usually wound on baritones.

It looks like a wound (first) B string on a baritone

Or High (first) E on a standard guitar.

Finally finished this thing. I used Rob DiStefano's (FretTech) Lion and Lioness pickups and a 4-way switch. It's become my go-to guitar. The only drawback I see from using the Sitka Spruce is that it's noticeably softer. I have more little belt buckle dents from 15 minutes of playing with a strap than my other Alder Tele has from 3 years (although it may also have something to do with the new belt I've been wearing lately). Mind you I kind of like the fact that it will relic naturally pretty quick.

It went together really well. Took far less tweaking than most of my other home builds. I may be getting better at this game. :lol:

Bravo! :grin:



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