Alternative woods?

  • Thread starter Geoff738
  • Start date
    • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
edvard

edvard

Friend of Leo's
Joined
May 15, 2016
Posts
3,378
Location
Bremerton, WA
My #1 is made from Douglas Fir 2x4s and topped with Red Oak taken off some pallets. It's a touch on the heavy side, a smidge lighter than my '03 Affinity Strat, but not Les Paul heavy. It's also very soft; I can dent it with my thumbnail. You can get Douglas Fir in CVG (clear vertical grain), which looks nicer and has no knots. I think if I chambered it, I might gain back a pound or so, and the Oak has that crazy cross-grain that looks nice under a gloss finish. Nice like furniture maybe, but nice. Acoustically, it's pretty loud.

An alternate fingerboard wood would be Holly, if you can find a piece straight enough and thick enough to avoid knots. I can't dent it with my thumbnail, and I made a few picks out of some I had. It's very white, and stays that way, might be a good replacement for Maple as a fretboard.
 
Freeman Keller

Freeman Keller

Doctor of Teleocity
Ad Free Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2018
Posts
15,880
Age
80
Location
Washington
T
Swirling Snow said:
I was looking at the ebony, and missed this on my first pass. Where did you get that top? OMG!!
Click to expand...
That is some Lutz spruce that I bought maybe 15 years ago. I got into a group buy on a lutherie forum, picked up six sets and have built several guitars with it. I've got two sets in storage (and some incredible quilted mahogany that would make a stunning little guitar) one of these days I'll get around to building.

Lutz is a hybrid of Sitka and Engleman as I understand it, stiff, with pretty even grain. Another slightly unusual wood.
 
Geoff738

Geoff738

Doctor of Teleocity
Joined
May 11, 2007
Posts
11,903
Age
61
Location
No longer in Toronto
Not mentioned so far is basswood. I suppose given the Jeff Beck Strat and many of the EVH models, among others, it really isn’t an alternative species at this point. And, if it is good enough for those guys, probably good enough for me.

Cheers,
Geoff
 
Greenmachine

Greenmachine

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Posts
1,732
Location
BC
I built a micawber tele clone using yellow cedar. 10 coats of tru-oil. It looks like a butterscotch blonde guitar without any pigment necessary. It gets a lot of compliments.
 
Greenmachine

Greenmachine

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Posts
1,732
Location
BC
Geoff738 said:
Pics please.

Cheers,
Geoff
Click to expand...
Okey dokey. It’s difficult to tell, but that’s a gotoh brass bridge that’s not plated in chrome. Special order from japarts.com
IMG_1921.jpeg
 
DekeDog

DekeDog

Friend of Leo's
Joined
May 12, 2019
Posts
2,934
Location
Carolina
Sapele îs in the Mahogany family. It supposedly is a little harder and brighter sounding. Used in my Eastman E1SS-SB on the back and sides.

495370449_10023691131027961_6784067448695609534_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
maxvintage

maxvintage

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Mar 16, 2003
Posts
8,172
Age
66
Location
Arlington, VA
I’m less interested in spectacular figure and tropical hardwoods than I am in sustainability. I’ve built a bunch of solid bodies, and one experimental arch top, out of cherry and walnut, both of which can sometimes have handsome but not gaudy figure. Obviously maple—I’ve found some highly figured maple at Home Depot. Sycamore has interested grain patterns. Birch sometimes has nice figure. In the 19th century instrument makers often used fruit woods like pear. I have a really excellent upright bass with willow back and sides.

Ps yes I understand that furniture making, rather than musical instruments, is the primary driver of deforestation and threatened status.
 
maxvintage

maxvintage

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Mar 16, 2003
Posts
8,172
Age
66
Location
Arlington, VA
Geoff738 said:
I think cocobolo can be absolutely stunning. As in those pictures. I don’t know how abundant it is or isn’t. I have also heard it can be hard to work with, oily I think.

Cheers,
Geoff
Click to expand...
For me at least cocobolo was fine at first but soon it started producing really really bad allergic reactions. Not just eyes and nose streaming but also weird and unpleasant psychotropic feelings. It’s beautiful wood but I would not use it now without a lot of dust abatement and hepa filter type mask.
 
El Tele Lobo

El Tele Lobo

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Posts
9,229
Location
Florida
maxvintage said:
I’m less interested in spectacular figure and tropical hardwoods than I am in sustainability. I’ve built a bunch of solid bodies, and one experimental arch top, out of cherry and walnut, both of which can sometimes have handsome but not gaudy figure. Obviously maple—I’ve found some highly figured maple at Home Depot. Sycamore has interested grain patterns. Birch sometimes has nice figure. In the 19th century instrument makers often used fruit woods like pear. I have a really excellent upright bass with willow back and sides.

Ps yes I understand that furniture making, rather than musical instruments, is the primary driver of deforestation and threatened status.
Click to expand...

We are going to need pictures, sir…
 
Jakedog

Jakedog

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Posts
28,993
Location
The North Coast
Both my main gigging electrics have basswood bodies. They’re great.

I’ve had guitars with Pao Ferro, Grenadillo, Caribbean Rosewood, and Richlite fret boards. All were fine.

My main gigging acoustic is made of all alternative woods. It’s a Cole Clark. Made in Australia. All the wood is sourced from there, and sustainable.

The top is Bunya, which has been described to me as a pre-historic conifer that dates back about 60 million years. The back and sides are Tasmanian Blackwood. Which from what I understand is almost identical to Koa. Fingerboard and bridge are “River She-oak”. The neck is “Queensland Maple” which is very similar to traditional mahogany.

I’m all for sustainability and responsibility. I also don’t believe for a second that you can’t get great sounding guitars out of non-traditional species.

After all, Leo didn’t choose the woods he did because of “tone”. He chose them because they had suitable strength and appearance. They were also extremely plentiful and met his price point. There was no point of reference when he started to say what solid bodied guitars would even sound like with those woods.

I say try new stuff. See if it works. 🤷‍♂️

I have a buddy with a small indie guitar company here locally. He’s been building a lot of his bodies out of Catalpa. It’s a cheap and plentiful tree that grows around here. It’s also fairly light, and looks and works pretty much just like Ash. He’s built some real nice stuff with it.
 
printer2

printer2

Doctor of Teleocity
Joined
May 24, 2010
Posts
11,418
Location
Canada
I need to finish this one. Bought a light piece of wood that was a mahogany looking type of wood but about the density of spruce. The body made of balsa, why? Just because.

bYQzzsm.jpg
 
Freeman Keller

Freeman Keller

Doctor of Teleocity
Ad Free Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2018
Posts
15,880
Age
80
Location
Washington
I see the alternate wood question as three parts

Alternates for those woods (and other materials) that you simply cannot get anymore - Brazilian rosewood, some ebonies, ivory, tortoise shell

Alternates for woods that are scarce - Red spruce (Adirondak), all rosewoods, ebony

Alternates for wood period - guitar bodies, necks, fretboards

For the first group there are substitutes. For the second we can control harvest, replant, use lower grades and substitute woods with similar characteristics. For third we need to look at engineering properties.
 
Last edited:
El Tele Lobo

El Tele Lobo

Poster Extraordinaire
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Posts
9,229
Location
Florida
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Posts

Top