telekazamm
Tele-Meister
I have some cedar that i think is western red cedar or aromatic cedar not sure ho to tell the difference, anyone used this on a tele before?
is cedar any good for a tele build?
- Thread starter telekazamm
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DocG
Tele-Holic
If it smells like a cedar chest, it's aromatic cedar.
Cedar is good for the soundboards of acoustic guitars and is traditionally used in flamenco guitars. One of my acoustics has a cedar top and it sounds gorgeous. The problem with using it for a guitar body is that it's a pretty soft wood, so it dings very easily. I'd guess that a cedar Tele body might not be strong enough in the neck pocket, but I could easily be wrong about that.
Cedar is good for the soundboards of acoustic guitars and is traditionally used in flamenco guitars. One of my acoustics has a cedar top and it sounds gorgeous. The problem with using it for a guitar body is that it's a pretty soft wood, so it dings very easily. I'd guess that a cedar Tele body might not be strong enough in the neck pocket, but I could easily be wrong about that.
Anchoret
Friend of Leo's
It's too soft. It will shed screws and ding like crazy, and it will probably be a bear to get smooth.
Stick to hardwood -- from deciduous trees.
I just got a Warwick Rockbass Streamer yesterday that despite obfuscating the body wood by a creative naming, turns out to be absolutely nothing but framing-grade spruce lumber, like from Home Depot.
Took it out of the box and the strap button pulled out in my hand. Body like balsa wood, stripped screws everywhere, rough finish, awful in every way.
$1300 (!!!) Chinese piece of utter crap.
Stick to hardwood -- from deciduous trees.
I just got a Warwick Rockbass Streamer yesterday that despite obfuscating the body wood by a creative naming, turns out to be absolutely nothing but framing-grade spruce lumber, like from Home Depot.
Took it out of the box and the strap button pulled out in my hand. Body like balsa wood, stripped screws everywhere, rough finish, awful in every way.
$1300 (!!!) Chinese piece of utter crap.
pjholland
Tele-Holic
My tele is cedar. It is however covered in a thick finish. Has to be or else it would be covered with dings.
JeffOlson
Tele-Meister
Cedar is supposed to be a great tonewood. What with the relic craze, cedar and other soft woods should be very popular.
This is one I built out of Cedar. Blue dye on the redish cedar give a spectrum of different blues/greens to almost black depending on the light.
I built it for a friend who wanted the blue, I'd never have done that myself, but it looks great with the gold hardware. Sounds good and he loves it.
The wood is very soft to work with, but with finish it's fine. Certainly has no trouble being strong enough to hold the neck or screws for bridge/pickups/etc.
I built it for a friend who wanted the blue, I'd never have done that myself, but it looks great with the gold hardware. Sounds good and he loves it.
The wood is very soft to work with, but with finish it's fine. Certainly has no trouble being strong enough to hold the neck or screws for bridge/pickups/etc.
tiktok
Poster Extraordinaire
How much softer is cedar than...pine, now a universally recognized tone wood of extreme vintage mojo?
Anchoret
Friend of Leo's
Mojo=silliness, particularly this coniferous slab-body fad.
Actually, there are some fairly hard pines. All varieties of cedar I've ever worked with were very soft.
Coniferous woods are fine for well-braced acoustic soundboards if they are extremely tight-grained and well-cured, but the fencepost grade stuff should stay out of instrument making completely. Warwick needs to get the memo.
JeffOlson
Tele-Meister
A lot of classical guitar NECKS are made out of cedar. Lots of tops, of course, but the stuff must be sturdy enough and good enough for some of the big dogs of classical guitar lutherie.
paulskirocks
Tele-Holic
Well, I made my tele body from redwood, which is probably as soft as cedar, and I love it... Sure, it dings, but I don't care, and which is why I went with a wax finish... Next time I will try wipe on poly...
tangelolemon
Tele-Meister
The 'ding' issue is why they make this stuff:
(link removed)
It says "for decayed or rotting wood" but I've seen/read about people using it on pine and fir solidbody guitars with good results.
(link removed)
It says "for decayed or rotting wood" but I've seen/read about people using it on pine and fir solidbody guitars with good results.
Here's a link to my WR Cedar Tele build.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/165142-western-red-cedar-tele-build.html
Here are some pictures:
There is no "mojo" wood and pickups have a lot to do with tone - I agree with all of that, but it's like making a thanksgiving meal: All of the parts have to work together to make a great guitar - sometimes that combo has more gravy sometime it's all about the turkey and cranberries.... So, there's nothing that's magic about body woods, pickups that makes things automatically work - so I think people have to try different things to get some interesting combos that work for them. Using a WR Cedar, maple neck and Fender Hiway-One Hot AL3 pickups has worked out really really well for me.
After playing some pretty good instruments over the last 3 1/2 decades, I was amazed by the balance and sweetness of the tone as well as the ideal weight and sustain of this WR Cedar Tele. This is my main guitar for playing clean jazz type stuff. The tone has some extra thickness in the lower mids that makes it especially good for single not soloing and the complexity of the high end makes it pretty good for overdriven solos as well - getting the second harmonics to "pop" on single notes is pretty effortless. The sustain has a lot to do with how well it's all connected mechanically, but the sustain I get with this guitar is better than the bolt-on guitars I have bought over the years.
I think this body would work well with more vintage pickups as well.
I've been playing it every day for 1 1/2 years and have swapped out bridges, pickups and HW quite a bit on it and never had a problem with screws stripping. It's also finished with a really thin coat of Nitro and it's holding up really well even after playing out with it a few times. Any guitar will ding, so I think if that's a concern I think one should get used to patching their finish because a ding in ash is just as bad as a ding in cedar IMO - it will show either way; I don't feel like I have to treat this guitar any different.
WR Cedar sounds pretty unique, it has a wider tonal response acoustically that comes out really well with single coil pickups. I can practice without an amp pretty easily while watching TV...
It is soft wood - about 1/2 the harness of the harder pines, and until you get a few coats of a finish on it you will need to work on a padded surface, but it does finish really well.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/165142-western-red-cedar-tele-build.html
Here are some pictures:
There is no "mojo" wood and pickups have a lot to do with tone - I agree with all of that, but it's like making a thanksgiving meal: All of the parts have to work together to make a great guitar - sometimes that combo has more gravy sometime it's all about the turkey and cranberries.... So, there's nothing that's magic about body woods, pickups that makes things automatically work - so I think people have to try different things to get some interesting combos that work for them. Using a WR Cedar, maple neck and Fender Hiway-One Hot AL3 pickups has worked out really really well for me.
After playing some pretty good instruments over the last 3 1/2 decades, I was amazed by the balance and sweetness of the tone as well as the ideal weight and sustain of this WR Cedar Tele. This is my main guitar for playing clean jazz type stuff. The tone has some extra thickness in the lower mids that makes it especially good for single not soloing and the complexity of the high end makes it pretty good for overdriven solos as well - getting the second harmonics to "pop" on single notes is pretty effortless. The sustain has a lot to do with how well it's all connected mechanically, but the sustain I get with this guitar is better than the bolt-on guitars I have bought over the years.
I think this body would work well with more vintage pickups as well.
I've been playing it every day for 1 1/2 years and have swapped out bridges, pickups and HW quite a bit on it and never had a problem with screws stripping. It's also finished with a really thin coat of Nitro and it's holding up really well even after playing out with it a few times. Any guitar will ding, so I think if that's a concern I think one should get used to patching their finish because a ding in ash is just as bad as a ding in cedar IMO - it will show either way; I don't feel like I have to treat this guitar any different.
WR Cedar sounds pretty unique, it has a wider tonal response acoustically that comes out really well with single coil pickups. I can practice without an amp pretty easily while watching TV...
It is soft wood - about 1/2 the harness of the harder pines, and until you get a few coats of a finish on it you will need to work on a padded surface, but it does finish really well.
true aromatic cedar (juniperus virginiana) is almost 3 times as hard as western red. it's between honduran mahogany and american black walnut.
oigun
Tele-Afflicted
I think the name cedar is a bit confusing... Thee are numerous species of cedar and also the cedrela family wich is often called cedar too.... Al with their on characterisics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar
rsclosson
Friend of Leo's
This is one I built out of Cedar. Blue dye on the redish cedar give a spectrum of different blues/greens to almost black depending on the light.
I built it for a friend who wanted the blue, I'd never have done that myself, but it looks great with the gold hardware. Sounds good and he loves it.
The wood is very soft to work with, but with finish it's fine. Certainly has no trouble being strong enough to hold the neck or screws for bridge/pickups/etc.
I WANT one of them!!
ievans
Tele-Meister
I'm currently making a carved top that has a WR cedar body, with a maple cap. This is where I'm at currently:
WR cedar smells great, dings easily, and is brittle. Tearout was a problem with this one:
It's super light, though, and I imagine it'll be pretty resonant. For routing, take whatever your "shallow" pass is supposed to be, and reduce it a little more. Or maybe use a robosander. I also bought some bench cookies to rest it on while working on it, mostly to keep the bottom from scratching with every bit of dust.
I did pick up some of that Minwax wood hardener, and a fingernail test on some scrap has it increasing the dent resistance.
WR cedar smells great, dings easily, and is brittle. Tearout was a problem with this one:
It's super light, though, and I imagine it'll be pretty resonant. For routing, take whatever your "shallow" pass is supposed to be, and reduce it a little more. Or maybe use a robosander. I also bought some bench cookies to rest it on while working on it, mostly to keep the bottom from scratching with every bit of dust.
I did pick up some of that Minwax wood hardener, and a fingernail test on some scrap has it increasing the dent resistance.
jefrs
Doctor of Teleocity
The very aromatic Cedar of Lebanon has been used for wood working for thousands of years, not the same timber as Western Red, or any other American "cedar".
That used for traditional flamenco and some classical types would be true cedar: the better ones would use alpine spruce and Honduras mahogany. Problems with dry splitty timber may be attributable to over-ambitious kiln drying, tear-out due to router cutter direction: you have to go away from the grain on curves and ends.
That used for traditional flamenco and some classical types would be true cedar: the better ones would use alpine spruce and Honduras mahogany. Problems with dry splitty timber may be attributable to over-ambitious kiln drying, tear-out due to router cutter direction: you have to go away from the grain on curves and ends.
ievans
Tele-Meister
Yup, I know. I did, and also followed the "downhill" routing thing to the letter. Still tore out, since I was taking too deep of a cut, even though it was thin passes.
As for the overcooked kiln thing, that's certainly possible.
Jack S
Friend of Leo's
Actually, I thought the traditional wood for Flamenco guitars was Spanish Cypress. Most of them I have seen were made from it, I believe.
It is an outstanding tonewood.
Aromatic cedar is fairly soft, and its right there with lightweight eastern and sugar pine on the softness scale. But its not like its going to fall apart if you look at it wrong.
Minwax wood hardener is just thinned polyurethane. Its thinned so it can penetrate rotten wood and knots, soak into its porous structure and harden. making the physical structure of the wood stronger. Putting it on top of normal wood is just like adding a poly finish.
I'm currently making a carved top that has a WR cedar body, with a maple cap. This is where I'm at currently:
WR cedar smells great, dings easily, and is brittle. Tearout was a problem with this one:
Where the grain is straight or quartersawn, those straight flute router bits love grabing hold and ripping chunks out! Walnut is just as bad. I use my oscillating spindle sander on troublesome areas and wood.
It's super light, though, and I imagine it'll be pretty resonant. For routing, take whatever your "shallow" pass is supposed to be, and reduce it a little more. Or maybe use a robosander. I also bought some bench cookies to rest it on while working on it, mostly to keep the bottom from scratching with every bit of dust.
I did pick up some of that Minwax wood hardener, and a fingernail test on some scrap has it increasing the dent resistance.
Bench cookies Rule!
Everytime I have tried Jack's downhill routing, I have had huge tear out problems.
