Rare Electric Guitar Body Woods - opinions please :)

HoodRobin · 2014-12-23T11:41:53+00:00

Hi there. So, one of my mates' 21st is coming up mid Jan 2015, and he's told me a number of times he wants to shape and put together a guitar one day. So I...

Rare Electric Guitar Body Woods - opinions please :)

peterleroux

One of the other trends at the moment is to use old recycled timber -either some old wine barrels or an Oregon Pine beam. Might be a bit cheaper, has a great history and a more well behaved wood to work with than a highly figured piece

Wizard

I made my "violincaster" from a reject offcut from rarewoods. Cost about 30 ront

Wizard

Other really cool thing about recycled woods and a rustic feel is that the manufacture tolerates error

Brastep

Rarewoods has an offcuts section where one can usually find a slab big enough for a body - for very little ronts. I built one out of white wenge. Weighs a ton, even with a bunch of cavities cut out. Applied a red stain to accentuate the grain - see pic

canonball

Brastep wrote: Rarewoods has an offcuts section where one can usually find a slab big enough for a body - for very little ronts. I built one out of white wenge. Weighs a ton, even with a bunch of cavities cut out. Applied a red stain to accentuate the grain - see pic

That is the business, @Brastep!

Shibbibilybob

If African is what you're after, then I'd say go with a sapele or khaya body, with a hardwood top.
Country woods in cape Town used to have plenty Wenge (panga panga) which is a very dark brown, open grained wood. You could also look for Kiaat, although it is less dark in colour, you do get some pieces with vivid colours and lots of colour changes, usually varying between dark orange/red and a pale yellow/white/grey, although a great deal of this wood is rather boring looking, and just plain old light brown.

Your nicest figured woods would usually be incredibly heavy and expensive, so you'd be better off, as Chocklit_thunda said, with a khaya/sapele (both known as african mahogany) back, and then a figured top. I disagree with his choosing of padauk as a body wood tho...padauk is very dense and very heavy, tho it does tend to have a very lively tap tone (if you can handle a heavy guitar, I expect a guitar with a padauk body would be sound great (I can promise about through pickups and an amp, but I'd expect a lovely chime if you knocked it with your knuckles).

Unfortunately, a lot of the african woods that are dark in colour are usually rather homogenous when it comes to gran and figure. African Blackwood and African Ebony are both very dark, but with little figure. African black wood is dark enough as to appear pretty much jet black under finish, with no real visible grain unless you're very close and hold it in the light.
The ebony also has very little going on in the way of figure, although you could expect occasional grey/brown patches.

Of the african woods, I expect figured Bubinga would be the best option as it ticks the dark colour/nice figure/african boxes.

Wenge would probably be my choice of top wood, over bubinga. It is less figured than the figured bubinga, but the open grain means that interesting grain patterns are often visible on flat sawn pieces...and the quarter sawn stuff has very nice visible stripes too.

domhatch

peterleroux wrote: One of the other trends at the moment is to use old recycled timber -either some old wine barrels or an Oregon Pine beam. Might be a bit cheaper, has a great history and a more well behaved wood to work with than a highly figured piece

there was this one astrophysics student chappie i heard of, recycled an old fireplace mantle into something resembling a decent guitar with his old man. went on to make a bit of a name for himself in certain circles apparently.

no need to be too picky, i don't think, you can evidently work miracles with just about any old hunk of carbon
dh|

Wizard

Panga panga / wenge is tricky to work. Splinters easily which usually embed themselves in your fingers and get infected easily. I'm personally a kiaat junky. Wenge is also a pain to finish.

HoodRobin

Thanks for all the advice guys! Really appreciated.
So I've been sold on not having the whole guitar out of Padauk.
But how easily does one attach one piece of wood onto the top of another? Sounds expensive. I'll also need holes for pickups cut and everything..
Thanks

Shibbibilybob

Oh it's very simple to join the body and the top. You just make sure both surfaces are perfectly flat, then spread glue on one of them and clamp the other one down onto it. I'm not sure how well this would work with plain old Ponal, but with Titebond, it's incredibly strong.

And yes, wenge splinters are the worst.

Chocklit_Thunda

White PVA wood glue ? That's about it

As shibbibibibibibibibibibilybob said, make sure both sides are flat and spread the glue evenly and clamp hard. Lots of clamps! If you think you have too many clamps on it, put more on.
You can never have too many clamps 8)

Shibbibilybob

Too many clamps? NO!
Too much clamping pressure? Yes, that can happen.

Brastep

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: White PVA wood glue ? That's about it

As shibbibibibibibibibibibilybob said, make sure both sides are flat and spread the glue evenly and clamp hard. Lots of clamps! If you think you have too many clamps on it, put more on.
You can never have too many clamps 8)

To get the surfaces nice and flat... make a sanding board. Glue a sheet of sandpaper to a suitably sized offcut of flat particle-board. Spray adhesive or thinly spread contact glue on a melamine-surfaced board works best. Make a few with different grades of sandpaper. Now you have some nice flat sanding boards that will take off the high-spots in no time.

.... And when gluing, put some softwood/masonite cauls between your clamps and the wood to spread the pressure and avoid nasty dents in your beautiful top.