anyone used elm for a body?

[cormorant]

Might have some vintage elm on offer, planks 1" thick so would have to be a sandwich maybe with a thin stripe like the rosewood teles, anyone ever built a body from elm? Any good? Weight? Never worked with elm at all.

 

[LGOberean]

I'm no luthier, so I haven't personally done it. However, my son-in-law has a custom made thinline that has elm veneers top and back on a pine core. Looks, plays and sounds great, but to tell the truth, I don't notice a lot of difference tone-wise between his thinline and mine (seen in the background in these pics) with alder veneers. But I will say that his elm (with a Coral Red finish) has beautiful wood grains.

 

[LeftyAl]

that is beautiful.Did you build them yourself?

 

[LGOberean]

Thanks. And the pictures don't do the guitar(s) justice.

And no, I didn't build them. As I said, I'm no luthier, and I don't have the tools and skills for such work. My son-in-law's elm veneered thinline was built by Bob Logan of Logan Customs, as were the two other T-styles of mine in the background. On the left (seen most clearly in picture #4) is a solid mahogany body with a Birdseye maple neck/board w/ amber tint, equipped with a vintage style bridge pup and a P-90 in the neck position. On the right in the background of the same pic is my alder-veneered "Logo" thinline (the cutout on the body approximates the script "L" of the "Logan" logo on the headstock), with a honey blonde finish.

But back to the topic of this thread, the elm didn't yield drastically different tones from my alder bodied thinline, but, depending upon the wood grains, can yield a very satisfying tone...and look, and feel.

I hope any others having experience in working with elm for a T-style body will also chime in here. I just wanted to contribute what I could to this thread, hopefully to get the ball rolling.

EDIT: In my 3rd paragraph above, I accidentally conflated to draft forms of the sentence/paragraph. My re-write of that paragraph is as follows:

But back to the topic of this thread. The elm didn't yield drastically different tones compared to my alder bodied thinline, but does give a very nice tone. And the look and feel of this elm guitar is also very nice.

 

[Bortyeast]

I have a 5 string bass with a solid elm body. Nice grain, medium weight. Maple neck/fretboard, slap & pop with clarity. Very nice bass.

 

[soulman969]

Geez that's a beautiful guitar Larry. That L logo could just as well be your personal monogram as one that stands for Logan.

 

[LGOberean]

Thanks. Bob builds beauts. (Accidental alliteration there, sorry! ) And yeah, I do think of that "L" cutout as doing double duty! BTW, mine (again, the honey blonde in the background) is the prototype of the "Logo" line that Bob built.

Bortyeast, good information. For elm as well as other tonewoods, I would expect that factors like grain and weight are variable, but general. IOW, not all elm will yield nice grains and medium weight, but that's a good generalization. You wouldn't happen to have pics of that bass you could share?

 

[LGOberean]

I'm really not trying to highjack this thread, it just happens that my only personal experience with a T-style made from elm is the one Bob built for my son-in-law. Given Cormorant's interest in working with elm for a tele build, I thought it might be helpful to post a pic of the body that Bob sent to me before she was finished. In this group shot of several "Logo" thinlines he was working on at the time, my son-in-law's elm is the second from the left.

Cormorant, I hope this is helping.

 

[Luthier Atlanta]

Elm would be a very good choice for a body ...
In veneer form or solid, it can be a very attractive wood..

(link removed)

(link removed)

 

[tiskit86]

An elm body is going to be a lot different than an elm veneered body. Elm is hard, kind of heavy and tends to move a lot as it dries. I'm sure it could work, pretty much anything can be made into a solid body guitar, but it's not used as a tone-wood very often probably for a reason. It can be quite attractive, though, as LA's links show. Check out what's being offered and see what it looks like.

Isn't it commonly used for flooring? If that's any indication.

 

[Luthier Atlanta]

Not so much;

Origin of Wood Type:

England
Botanical Name:

Ulmus procera
Specific Gravity:

.55
Avg. Weight Per BF (?):

3.25
Color Range:

Cream- Gold- Brown
Rarity / Availability: (?):

Available
Typical Avg. Width:

3" to 20", can be found up to 60" inches wide
Typical Avg. Length:

5' to 16' feet
Avg. Waste Factor (?):

50%

Wood Uses:

Fine Furniture, Cabinetry, Architecural Millwork, Wood Turning, Boat Building,, Automotive / Aircraft Interior, Veneer, Flooring and many other uses!
lumber Grades (?):


Flitch

Other Trade Names:

English Elm

Description:


Many English cabinetmakers consider wych elm to be the finest English hardwood. With its mixtures of green, red, brown and gold blazing wych elm has a chatoyancy that is only surpassed by the finest koa. When wych elm is heavily burled few can argue its supremacy as one of the most sensational of all timbers. These elms are also under distress by the Dutch elm disease.
*Superior hardwood lumber
*Can be highly figured
*Takes a mirror finish
*Swirly / wavy grain
*Can be difficult to dry
*Prized veneer (has been used and seen in automotive)

 

[LGOberean]

Good stuff, L. A. Given your comments concerning English elm (ulmus procera, "tall elm"), I'm guessing that they generally apply also to ulmus americana, American elm, White elm). I've assumed up to now that the elm veneers on the body on my son-in-law's thinline were from American elm. And I'm not sure what species/variety of elm the OP has access to.

 

[cormorant]

species

No, no idea of the species LGO but as it was a table top (English manufacture "Ercol" ) I would think English elm. Not got any wild figure or burl, kind of warm piney colour, but still very pleasant, not got a photo unfortunately. More than 50 yrs old so hopefully well dried out.
If too heavy I guess could rout out both halves before glueing together. Other option is a Northern ash body I already have (pretty, but heavy - 6 1/2 pounds - will rout it) with a very nice piece of vintage mahogany I have as a capping. I am working on the premise that routing a body usually loses about 25% weight? Not done a thinline before. Won't have f-hole. I don't like guitars to be too light, just under 5 pounds is fine for me.

 

[Bortyeast]

Don't know if this will work....

[edit - hey, it did!]

 

[Codger]

Elm's interlocking grain makes it very resistant to splitting. For that reason it's been very highly valued for certain uses, and it has a beautiful grain. However, one of it's qualities is that it's not dimensionally stable (it warps). For that reason I don't think I'd choose to use it for an instrument unless it was as a veneer. For example in England it was used for Windsor chair seats in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's attractive grain and resistance to splitting made it a great choice for that, but in my experience, 100% of the examples I've seen have had warped seats. Unless one of the legs has been cut, only 3 of the 4 touch the floor and the chair rocks. ( Bad choice of words, maybe rocking is a good thing?)

 

[sir humphrey]

Elm's interlocking grain makes it very resistant to splitting. For that reason it's been very highly valued for certain uses, and it has a beautiful grain. However, one of it's qualities is that it's not dimensionally stable (it warps). For that reason I don't think I'd choose to use it for an instrument unless it was as a veneer. For example in England it was used for Windsor chair seats in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's attractive grain and resistance to splitting made it a great choice for that, but in my experience, 100% of the examples I've seen have had warped seats. Unless one of the legs has been cut, only 3 of the 4 touch the floor and the chair rocks. ( Bad choice of words, maybe rocking is a good thing?)

I've got a big old chunk of Elm (a rafter removed from my kitchen) that I've been itching to have turned into a guitar and was told the same thing about warping.

You've got to remember that the traditional solid guitar woods were picked, contrary to popular belief, not for anything to do with their tone but because they were inherently stable (and took stain well).

So there's usually a good reason why certain woods aren't seen often in guitars - either too expensive or not suitable.

Still fancy turning the rafter into a Tele one day though!

 

[cormorant]

thanks guys

Oh well was a nice idea as the grain looked so nice - maybe use the wood as a capping for something else or stick to the ash/mahogany I already have. That bass looks good tho.....maybe a thinline in ash with a 1/4" elm cap next time!

 

[FilthyTerrible]

I've got a telecaster custom made of Elm. It's the heaviest of all my guitars and noticeably heavier than ash and alder. It's a three piece body. I really can't see it warping, I mean it feels like a butcher block. I thought heavier might be better, but now the novelty has worn off and it's just an unnecessarily heavy telecaster, and consciously and subconsciously I'm put off by the weight and the thought of the strap digging into my shoulder. I do love to look at it, but Elm and Ash look pretty similar, so why not opt for Ash?

My tele looks almost exactly like that bass pictured above. There are stronger hints of yellow in places and the grain is pretty straight. And when I look at that bass I think, wow that's pretty, then I think, I bet that weighs a tonne.

 

[aerhed]

I've only used elm as spar blocks in the landing gear of my wooden airplane (replacing cracked ash). So far, so good.