Mesquite wood

[david_lewis93]

Ok, I know it is an exelent wood for cooking,I have seen furniture made from it (BEAUTIFUL STUFF!!) I was wondering ,,How would it do for a Tele body??
Just a thought , Mr.Kirn or any of the other builders chime in on this too.

bend em tight and let er scream.

[sonserve]

Its pretty and hard. I bet it would sound fine. A bit heavy? Perhaps swamp mesquite?

[Ronkirn]

Hears the deal on various types of wood…..

For over 100 years, the guitar in it’s current configuration has been made. It has been made by untold numbers of luthiers, all trying to develop some “hook” to separate their product form the others.

One of the “main” features has been the incorporation of unique lumbers… but… look around today… after all that time, and millions of guitars, a few species of lumber consistently find their way back to the top of the list….there has to be a reason…. And appearance is somewhere around “last” on that list…at least for musicians that want to make music..

Guys that are buying “wall art” or Furniture to sit in the corner of a room, see it differently, for those guys the voice of the guitar is secondary, if THAT important, they simply are looking for something to hold up, show to folks, and say, “Lookit what I got. . . cool ain’t it?” They sure don’t want to hear a follow up question like, “Can ya play it.”

Now, there are some pretty darn nice looking woods out there, and many can make pretty good guitars. But… Nobody ever asks, “What wood produces the almost best tone….?”

Then there are those that make a guitar out of something unique, then begin touting its remarkable sound, as the best ever. Such leads to all those other posts about all the peripheral influences on the sound produced, of which one of the most important is, do your ears hear the same as the next guys?

Ron Kirn

[Jakedog]

It is an extremely hard wood, seems nearly petrified when you try to work it. Mesquite also lack anything resembling a straight grain. Very twisty and such.

Could you make a guitar out of it? Yes, you could, I've seen it done.

The results are less than stellar to say the least, and IMO, not worth all of the effort it takes to work with a wood that's that hard to work with.

[stephent2]

I built two Mesquite topped teles in the '90s.

My buddy Bill Sheffield has one and I don't know who has the other now. It's a bright wood and hard, I had some stock that was wide and thick enough for two tops, book matched. Looked cool for sure, did i say it was bright? I think a solid Mesquite tele body would be very heavy.

[E5RSY]

Here's a mesquite Stratocaster:

http://stratoblogster.blogspot.com/2...tom-texas.html

There's a guy out there I've seen making basses out of mesquite, too...I think entirely. Talk about heavy.

[tonewoods]

Originally Posted by Ronkirn

a few species of lumber consistently find their way back to the top of the list….there has to be a reason….

Amazing, ain't it??
Look at the history of the violin....
Spruce and maple, and for damn good reasons...

Originally Posted by Jakedog

It is an extremely hard wood, seems nearly petrified when you try to work it. Mesquite also lack anything resembling a straight grain. Very twisty and such.

Yeah, but mesquite is one of the most stable hardwoods there is...
It has a shrinkage and expansion ration that is very similar both lengthwise, and side-to-side.

I have a cutting board made out of the stuff that is probably only 5/8" thick, and it has never moved at all...

Remarkable stuff...