Where are you based?

Firstly, genuine Honduran mahogany is going to be hard to source from the states, because of CITES laws restricting it's export.
Luckily, Sapele and Khaya (both African Mahogany) is plentiful and grown much closer to home.

Local places to try could be:
Rarewoods: http://www.rarewoods.co.za/
Country woods: http://www.countrywoods.co.za (just tried now and their website seems to be down, try again later I guess)
and tegs: http://www.tegs.co.za/

Enjoy ?

Try Country woods in Sandton.

Thanx guys.

I am based in Pretoria. But paying courier fees is not really an issue. Importing Euro woods and so on will be much more expensive. That's why I'm looking into sourcing local.

Shibbibilybob wrote: Firstly, genuine Honduran mahogany is going to be hard to source from the states, because of CITES laws restricting it's export.
Luckily, Sapele and Khaya (both African Mahogany) is plentiful and grown much closer to home.

I am in fact more interested in African Mahogany. ?

I did come across Country Woods while browsing the web.

How do I decide on a piece that I'll purchase? Do Country Woods etc sell body blanks or simply sell pieces at whatever size you want?

Also, how would I know that the wood is dry enough or aged enough? Is there anything else I need to take into consideration before buying the wood? I know it's not simply a matter of finding a piece of timber and building a guitar out of it.

Also, do you guys know of any local suppliers where I can source the other components for a guitar build?

Tuners, Truss Rod, Floyd Rose, Electronics, Routing templates, and all that?

And then, http://www.prosono.co.za/en/woods_stringed_instruments.shtml

There are some nice LOOKING woods there. But I'm not familiar with any of them. Except for Ebony which is what I'd want for the fretboard. But I'm gonna probably buy a pre assembled Compound radius fretboard from stewmac.

But do you guys know anything about these woods?

Pro sono is run by a guy called Philippe in fourways. He is one of the worlds leading sources of african blackwood, an incredibly dense and heavy rosewood grown almost exclusively in namibia.
He also has some pink ivory and other local woods, as well as some palisandre, which is very similar to indian rosewood.

I have bought acoustic back and side sets, as well as a few african blackwood fingerboards from Pro-sono. nice woods, all of them. I have not built with the back and side sets yet, they are still just chilling in the humidity cupboard.

As for the piece of wood you are looking for, none of those supplies is going to have pre-selected electric guitar bodies. You arte going to need to determine the size of the plank you need and approach them for a piece that size. Your best bet would be to get them to cut you two bookmatched blocks from the same plank. That is to say, if they have a block that is 20cm thick, you slice it down the middle so that each one is 10cm thick. and then join them at the centre, like an open page of a book.

For solid body guitars, you will be using quite a hefty chunk, so you're unlikely to suffer from the issues usually associated with flat sawn tone woods, however, I would still look for something quarter sawn, for strength, and stability when drying out.
This image should show you what I mean:


Finally, as for the drying of the wood, the only way I know to be certain is to keep the wood on hand yourself for long enough. Keep in mind that a big, thick plank like that needed for an electric guitar will take much longer to dry out than the thin back and sides of an acoustic...but would also be prone to less warping as it dries.

Oh and as for local hardware, I don't know of a shop.
internationally you have stewmac, about whom you already know, and LMI.
www.lmii.com.

I was hoping to find something that was totally Quartersawn. I will have to start contacting suppliers for this then.

I'll need to get the two bookmatched pieces, as well as another piece from the bridge to the peghead which I'll have to cut down myself with a bandsaw. I'm still looking for decent plans for through neck guitars. I am particularly still looking for a good cross section through the body and neck of the guitar. I have to figure out the angle of the fretboard in relation to the body (I'll build a flat body) and also the height of the fretboard above the body of the guitar.

I know that the peghead should be 8 degrees.

So yes, essentially, my first goal would be to get the Neck and through body piece done and the two wings of the v shape glued on to the "Core".

From there it's the finer details I guess.

How long time would normally be required for the wood to dry? Also, do you think I should let it dry before cutting it into the pieces I need?

What sparked this whole mission of mine, is a friend in Italy, plays for a band professionally, and he had a custom guitar made out of very old, super dry mahogany. He said what took the longest was to find the driest, oldest piece of mahogany they could possibly find and then the actual building of the guitar took 6 weeks.

I mean, I wouldn't want to build the guitars for the next 2 years. I'd like to start building it, finish and start playing the axe on stage. You know?

Silverton timber merchants usually allow you to rummage through their stacks, making it possible to find the orientation/weight/tap tone you are looking for (may set you back a cooldrink). Also closer to Pretoria.