Guitar Builders: Where Do You Get Your Wood?

All good-quality wood is expensive. The only times you can get true deals is from a cabinet shop that has drops (cut-off scrap) from larger jobs.

The best thing to do is find a local hardwood dealer and go look at all their stuff. You can usually get a better deal from a local place than you can from an online dealer because shipping is expensive too.

Yet another option for deals on wood is a salvage supplier. These places stock bricks, doors, lighting fixtures, windows...and wood removed from buildings under renovation or slated to be demolished. Beams and joists are really good sources for guitar timbers. If you go this route, get yourself a small metal detector to scan your timbers to ensure no nails/screws are in the wood before you machine it.

 

Ebay for curly maple and genuine mahogany , swamp ash and alder. In many cases they are just commercial entities selling off lumber.


http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338148343&icep_item=232761803590


http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338148343&icep_item=114416138024

I have a local Hardwood lumber dealer. for poplar, basswood, regular maple and other domestic woods. Luthier supply houses for acoustic woods. Look for hardwood lumber in your closest city. This woodfinder link has smaller mill types.

www.Woodfinder.com

 

I buy from a local hardwood dealer as well. I just got a 10’ plank of 8/4 clear alder for $55. I’ll be able to get 3 two-piece bodies from it.

 

Sorry....this thread isn't what I thought it would be...

 

Oh, Lord. So many Beavis & Butt-Head cartoons are playing in my head...

 

Local hardwood dealers, local sawyers, historically some material milled off my property, occasionally something online or from another woodworker. I sometime buy lumber that "tickles my fancy" when a good buy is to be had and it waits in my racks until the right project comes along. I recently used a piece of 5/4 cherry I've had since about 2002...

 

Keon Lumber seems pretty reasonable.

https://shop.keimlumber.com/solidbodyblanks

 

I never bought anything from these guys but they seem interesting ... I stumbled on their site while looking at local options:
https://www.woodtoworks.com/

p.s. it seems that once wood is somehow deemed guitar wood and is milled to the right size its value jumps right up. Similarly table top slabs. I'm willing to bet that maple log that makes all these maples tops costs 1/100th of what all the tops sell for. I guess that's all to be expected, free markets in action...

 

from these -


Cut down friend's tree, milled into planks, kiln dried, build guitar. Four step process. ;-)

Try and find a local sawmill. Generally that will be the most cost effective. Local woods should be fine for guitar building. There are a couple of exotic wood places within 45 mins of me. If you live close to a medium - large sized town it should be similar.

Cheers Peter.

 

I dunno, I just wake up in the morning and there it is!

 

find a local lumberyard, look on facebook marketplace and craigslist for local guys that are harvesting wood. You can get maple at menards or Home Depot usually. be creative, you don't have to buy "tone wood" by any means. People love pine fenders for a reason.

 

As everyone is saying find a local hardwood supplier. Much cheaper than online. I bought 2 8 ft. maple boards yesterday for $80 from a local supplier and will get 6 regular necks and 2 bass necks from them. That's about $10 each. Online are 3 to 4 times that. If you're making Strats or Jazzmasters you will probably want alder for the bodies and it's the same thing. Online will be a lot more. You'll be able to personally pick and choose locally but not online.

 

from the local recycled timber place....DF rafters, wall studs and pine table tops....

cheap as chips.... made some great guitars/basses from these...

 

Go where Fender, Martin and other go....

https://www.madinter.com/en/?___store=en&___from_store=default