Building my first guitar...with third-world (exotic?) lumber!

You want wood that is dry. The rule of thumb is to let it dry for a year for each 1" of thickness. Around here, Hardwoods are sold by lumber yards or stores. You can use the wood for whatever you like. The boards are sometimes surfaced or not. You can turn them into furniture or guitars. The end product is up to you.

Our wood is dried to a moisture content a bit lower than air drying, depending on locale. What you need to consider is the weight of the end product. Being in a humid area is another concern. I would consult a furniture maker for some advise and see if they could sell you some that is already dry.


Oily woods may need to be wiped with Acetone to remove some of the oil before you glue them together too.


https://www.bellforestproducts.com/info/janka-hardness/

This list is by the latin name:

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrp/fpl_rp643.pdf

 

Drying wood is drying wood. The concepts of furniture makings is very similar to instrument building. Woodworkers don't want their projects to become warped or twisted after a few months or years because the wood was not done moving or drying out. If your are is full of furniture makes then honestly the best/cheapest place to start would be going to those businesses and see what they do with their off-cuts. You could very easily get some amazing pieces from their crap that you could make into a guitar or atleast have practice pieces so you can learn how the wood works and how your tools fair with them. Just my 2 cents though.

 

I have found this to be helpful

http://www.wood-database.com/wood-finder/?fwp_paged=4

My humble opinion is that the specie of wood isn't all that important for a solid body electric guitar. I use various mahoganies for most of mine, and mahogany is a pretty standard furniture wood. The necks are the most critical part and a good stable wood like mahogany or similar would be my choice there too.

 

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General rule of building guitars: the first half dozen should be from cheap scrap wood to make sure you have your techniques and tools figured out. Then do your fancy wood guitar. Usually people learn the junk wood guitar plays surprisingly well and they don't need to spend on the exotics. Saves demand on those exotic forests too.

Looks like you are planning an acoustic build. The braces are critical. Top just needs to be uniformly thin enough. Back and sides don't need fancy wood because your body is wrapped around them. Research the top braces and proceed cautiously there.

Good luck!
And post pictures as you do the build.

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I guess I have found it useful. Mahogany (usually Honduran) is sort of the go-to wood for necks for everything except Fender style guitars - I use it for them too. It is very stable, very workable and looks good. Rosewoods (EIR, Mad, and of course the wonderful Brazilian) are a little more problematic in the US altho a recent CITES change will make them less of a problem for finished instruments. I use a lot of rosewood for both guitar bodies (I build mostly acoustics) and for almost all of my fretboards. I did use one rosewood neck and thought it was fine but I really prefer good old Swietenia macrophylla.

If the previous post is correct that you are building an acoustic then a lot of things change. You want the highest stiffness you can get which usually means one of the spruce family, possibly cedar or redwood. Mahogany is an acceptable top wood, as is koa, but I would not consider rosewood for a top. For backs and sides of an acoustic you need to consider bendibility as well as appearance - but there are lots of good candidates for an acoustic.

I'll add that if you are thinking of an acoustic then dryness becomes very important - after my wood has been dried I try to keep it at 45% RH for a significant length of time before I build and I try to keep my shop at close to that RH.

 

I've build 4 guitars out of Malaysian Rubberwood dinette chair seat pans for the bodies. They all worked good and have a bright tone to them and wouldn't have any issues using that wood again.

Oily woods used for furniture have been dried out a good bit already and probably won't need much more drying if any. IMO

Just be careful of what wood you choose for the neck, don't want anything too soft.

 

I think a lot of your local wood will make some fine guitars! You should certainly have some good neck woods, with the Dalbergia and Diospyros.

I would to see some pictures of your guitar!

 

One last piece of information - I happened to be rereading an interview with Ken Warmoth and he was describing the way they condition woods for necks and bodies. They have their own kilns and they take the wood down to 6.5 percent moisture content and hold it there (in the kiln) for a week. They then sticker it in their warehouse for six months, he says a year is better for tropical exotics, and let it stabilize.

I store my wood in a root cellar in my basement that stays at about 45% RH - I don't know what the moisture content of the wood is.