Recycled wood and parts

[Caveman_Tas]

I've been renovating 100 year old houses for the past few years and couldn't bring myself to throw out the old wood from demolition. So, as a learning process, I started with some structural pine beams and turned them into a Tele body. I pulled a neck off an old strat copy and cut the headstock down to resemble a Tele head. Put on a new bridge and control plate with some moderately priced pickups. Cut the pickguard out of a piece of steel sheet found under a laundry floor, tried etching in some scrollwork. I used this site extensively for help, so thanks to everyone out there. The guitar is finished, but working on some fret buzz and some static noise from the metal pickguard with the neck pickup only. I can renovate a house, put the for sale sign up and walk away, but every time I see this home built guitar, I have to stop and smile.

 

[RickyRicardo]

Nice!

 

[O- Fender]

Good stuff.

I'm in the same boat. I renovate for a living and sometimes end up with some good old wood.
I put together an esquire from a pine table top and leftover parts.

I am working on a baritone neck from some mystery wood. It looks like poplar. It's at least 50 years old. Not the best wood for a neck but then again Danelectro used poplar in their necks for a while. It's mostly just to perfect making a neck, so if I string it up and it lasts a few hours, it will be worth it.
I am also thinking about a neck made of oak from an old stair tread.
Poplar and oak aren't considered good tonewood (probably for a
good reason) but the price is ideal.

edit: for the bari neck I'm thinking about a tele body using 2x4s that are so old they are 2"×4" .

 

[Caveman_Tas]

A fellow renovator, excellent. Just had winter in Tasmania so stuck to shed projects and the guitars are the result. Being able to use smaller bits of wood for guitar bodies that I would normally have put in the skip just seems like a good thing to do. Helps me sleep better.

I admire your ability to make a neck, and would love to use a character wood like you are. We have plenty of what is known as Tas Oak, but is actually a mix of species of native Eucalypt hardwood. Very dense and heavy, pinkish with a nice even grain.

I have met wood in inch dimensions, too! Can be fiddly to match up in a house build.

 

[Orpheum]

I really like that, the principle of construction and the result!

 

[JohnnyThul]

Beautiful guitar, love the contrast between the wood and the satin aluminium pickguard!

Upcycling parts for guitar building is so much fun! Around my parts their are a lot of old staircases available made of mahogany that one can use for guitar bodies and necks. I also upcycled some handbags which were decorated with mother of pearl plates and used them as inlay material. Or old Lego parts, or plumbing hardware or....well, it's just fun

 

[old wrench]

That old re-cycled wood can be some mighty fine stuff

One project I did involved the demolition of two houses that were both built right after the Civil War - circa ~ 1867 - 1868

They were both 2-1/2 story balloon-framed structures - plenty of clear pine and other stuff that was 26' and 28' feet long - the project had to move along so I wasn't at liberty to spend much time picking through material, but I found homes for quite a bit of it

That old wood is prime guitar building wood - it's been through countless thermal cycles and naturally aged

Did you torch the wood to get that effect?

Nice work on the pickguard! - very much out of the ordinary!


.

 

[Caveman_Tas]

You know, when I started this, I thought I was the only person in the world using recycled materials! So glad to see others on the same track and thanks for your comments.

The finish on my pine guitar came about by accident. I stained it an even dark dark brown with "Black Japan" to start with and wanted to try the "ceruse" silver finish that picks out the grain structure. I rubbed in the silver wax as per a few videos I watched and then tried to buff out the wax to reveal the finish I was after. Nothing happened. The body just stayed a streaky silver grey colour all over. The harder I rubbed the more it stuck and masked the grain completely. So out came the sander and I sanded pretty hard to get rid of the silver coat - and at this point I thought I liked the worn out, faded stained look, so stopped there.

I then used several coats of hard wax oil to seal it and a final wax polish over the top.

The pickguard was a similar story - it was a painted bright red sheet when I found it under the lino in the laundry, so I sanded it back with an random orbital sander and 240 grit paper, and as the paint came off the underlying steel developed a 3D kind of shimmer surface from the action of the sander. Again - stopped there and went with that. Put a light coat of wax over it. The scroll design was hand drawn on two bits of duct tape, stuck in place just in front of the bridge and then I cut out the design using a small knife. I used a 9v battery and salt water to etch the scrolls in and then tried to stain the etch with some gun blue. However, the gun blue didn't take very well and most rubbed off. Anyway, just learning as I go.

 

[MelodicBend]

I love this kind of stuff. I'm a wood guy all the way and a tree advocate.
Anyone have a finished project for sale or to show off?
I simply must own a T body or junior style reclaimed wood guitar someday.

 

[trev333]

Just a few of the bodies I've made from a piece of D/Fir rafter... $8 worth...

most get painted....some I stain and clear coat....

tele body runs @ 4 1/2 Lbs....

 

[Jim_in_PA]

One of the "masters" of using recycled/upcycled materials in guitar building is Tim Sway on the 'Tube. It's pretty eye opening in that respect. I think you're doing a good thing by looking down that route. I've personally been trying to do that more in my general woodworking overall; most of the lumber in my rack was milled off our old property, for example, and several recent projects involved fixing/reinventing existing items, either for a new purpose or to bring them back to life for their original one instead of landing in a landfill.

 

[mjr428]

I'

Good stuff.

I'm in the same boat. I renovate for a living and sometimes end up with some good old wood.
I put together an esquire from a pine table top and leftover parts.

I am working on a baritone neck from some mystery wood. It looks like poplar. It's at least 50 years old. Not the best wood for a neck but then again Danelectro used poplar in their necks for a while. It's mostly just to perfect making a neck, so if I string it up and it lasts a few hours, it will be worth it.
I am also thinking about a neck made of oak from an old stair tread.
Poplar and oak aren't considered good tonewood (probably for a
good reason) but the price is ideal.

edit: for the bari neck I'm thinking about a tele body using 2x4s that are so old they are 2"×4" .

I've made several necks from poplar and haven't had any issues with any of them. I'm in the process of making a pine neck, if I can ever find a place to finish it...

 

[hemingway]

I'm with you. I've never been able to throw away a piece of wood. I've made so much garden furniture from old roof joists it's scary.

Although these days I don't have a garden . . . so it's other people's garden furniture.

 

[Caveman_Tas]

This is great stuff - the picture of the old grey plank in the backyard and then the "after" shot as a Tele body is inspiring. I went looking down the local river banks last week to see if I could spot some old piece of water worn, grey timber to use... found a 3m piece of 2x4 hardwood wedged into rocks in a steep-sided gorge, but how do I get it out? I'd need a helicopter, or backpack my 12v saw in.

 

[trev333]

After a while, every piece of timber looks like guitar wood...

no idea what wood this corner table was made from. It's as hard as rock, yet light enough for a body.... 240 paper just polishes it without scratching...the old saw was smoking through the cuts...

 

[monkeybanana]

Really cool

 

[Bob J]

I’ve used “woods of opportunity” on all my builds so far. Stuff I’ve found laying around (Doug fir 2x lumber, an old pine shelf), lumber from the used building materials place (red and yellow cedar), mill ends from the wood store (maple and walnut sold by the pound)… the only premium wood I’ve purposely bought for a guitar project was a couple pieces of macheche for fretboards and some 1/4” ash for some tops/backs. Most get transparent finishes so the beauty of the repurposed wood can show through.

 

[Peegoo]

@Caveman_Tas That is a nice-lookin' Tele!

I am all about keeping wood out of the landfill.

A year ago I made this from 2x4 scraps (the back) and pallet wood (a 5/8" thick front cap) of several species.

PRS rejects some wood due to checking, etc., and it piles up in the cull bins; it gets sold to a recycler that makes wood stove pellets, etc. The good news is they allow employees to pick through it all before it ships to the recycler. I grabbed a whole boatload of the stuff when I was working there. Almost every day I carried out a stick or three. Wood is expensive.

The stack on this dolly in my garage is 24" x 34" x 6' feet high. It's mahogany, ash, korina, maple, and a few other cats and dogs. I have three other stacks like this one. I've used it to make some cool stuff.

I've even used a few rejected tweety-bird fingerboards in my builds. This is a coffee table and an end table that's a giant guitar pick. That other thing belongs to a dentist HAR HAR!

 

[Caveman_Tas]

My head is spinning with the ideas and craftmanship I have seen here: I seriously need to get back in that shed and warm the router up. Today is Saturday here in Tasmania, so I had some time to spend getting some tunes out on my recycled Tele, and, I'm not sure, I could be biased, but it's the best sounding machine I've ever played.

I found a specialist wood working tool shop in town and the guy there offered to run my lump of cupped 'oregon' through a thicknesser for me, so I should be good to go next week some time. Been thinking about putting a piece of contrasting colour/grain wood into the body to get it wide enough having seen some of the photos above (thanks @Peegoo and @Bob J).

I'm also building a table out of 100 year old Tas Oak at the moment, and as I cut the legs to size today, I couldn't help but wonder what one of them would look like as the front man in a Tele body.