Starting guitar project, Where to find good wood

InFlamesWeTrust

Hi there

I've been toying with the idea for a while and recently I decided im going to be building myself a new guitar. Im still messing around with the final design but it should be something based mostly on a more modern explorer shape. What I do know is that I want it to be a neck-through guitar and I plan to make the neck and body from mahogany or perhaps some similar wood. I plan to make the neck and body myself and will order an ebony fingerboard from stewmac along with the truss rods, electronics, and tuners. I know I want a fixed bridge with string through setup, does anyone know where I can get a tune-o-matic bridge somewhere in black? My plan is to stain the ebony finger close to black I want all the tuners, knobs etc black as well, pretty much everything black is something i want ?. Anyways what I came here to ask is where can I find the wood. I'm looking for mahogany or something similar, is there anywhere in Cape Town I can procure some such wood as I would like to see it first. If not wheres my best bet. Im looking really forward to this project hopefully I can get it started soon. Feel free to poke some holes in my idea im always up for constructive critisism.

Thanks

jingerwarrior

Hey Dude Sounds like its going to be a fun project with a Dark result ?

Have you tried looking at the wood available at www.lmii.com, I know its overseas but they do have a lot of good stuff.

Otherwise there is always Country woods which is an awesome place, thats where I bought my supply from.

Here is a link and the Cape town branch email.

www.countrywoods.co.za

cntrywdct@iafrica.com

I wish you much luck!

Im also sure you will find lots of help and support on this forum.

Sweet man!

\m/

Wizard

+1 for Country Woods.
Very nice people. They also deliver & take payment via EFT or credit card.

Alternatively Rare Woods.

TomCat

There is also Ian Fuller agencies countrywide.

Chris-Mason

Lookup Rhoms
there is a branch in four ways and one in selby. they will have the wood you are looking for.
Good luck with the guitar.
saddle and nut

inflames

My plan is to stain the ebony finger close to black I want all the tuners, knobs etc black as well, pretty much everything black is something i want

I see a green door and I want to paint it black!

Going to be a interesting guitar, looking forward to it!

Gearhead

Staining Ebony is not a straightforward job since it does not really accept most fluids. Go for the specialist Ebony stain, if you get a good result I'll gladly buy the remainder of the stuff. A Mahogany replacement that has a good price/tone ratio is Sapeli.

InFlamesWeTrust

Ok I went to rare woods today and got myself a piece of african mahogany. Im finished with the design and ive made up some paper templates for now just to see what im working with. I've decided to make a 7 string as im pretty happy with my current 6 string. Problems though, where can I find a pre-slotted/radiused fingerboard that is wide enough for a 7 string? So far I havent had much luck and the ones on from stewmac seem like they aren't wide enough. Also does anyone know of a good woodworking/machining workshop in the Cape Town Area? I basically just want the entire neck piece to be cut out with the taper on a good table saw to make sure the edges are perfectly straight, I can then cut out the side profile and the wings on a band saw or jig saw etc i just want to make sure i dont end up with a skew neck ? . Ive got some pictures of my design and templates and my big piece of wood. Hopefully tomorrow I can get started on the woodworking side, must start hardware and other bits too. Anyways it feels good to have got the wood and got on my way.

InFlamesWeTrust

Oh I also wanted to ask, due to the increased tension on a 7 string neck would it be a good idea to add two of those thin carbon fibre strips on either side of the truss rod to stiffen the neck up a bit, would this have any negative side effects?

Gearhead

Offer: buy a slotted ebony board from me at 7 string width. PM me if interested. The table saw is imho not good enough to make the glue faces, but it's up to you. I use a straight guide for my router and get perfect results that way (you battle to see the glue line after joining). I see that you want to glue the sides to your headstock; don't you think that it would be easier to just band saw the whole thing?
The carbon rods aren't all that necessary I suppose. You are going to make your neck wider, so unless you're aiming at a 'wizard' flat profile it will have a larger cross section than a 6 string. On top of that, the combination with Ebony fretboard might brighten up your tone more than you want (assuming the all black means it's gotta sound ballsy as well).

InFlamesWeTrust

Thanks for the advice, im going to take it and use a router or band saw instead and do away with the seperate headstock pieces. Im also interested in the fingerboard ive sent you a pm.

Gearhead

One more thing: from the looks of it your Mahogany is rough sawn and not yet thicknessed. It also does not look completely flat. For a clean square cut to be able to glue properly, you actually want at least one of the faces planed. Since hand planing literally takes forever, I'd advise you to find someone with an electrical thicknesser/planer. Don't go and plane the wood and then leave it unmachined for half a year because it will still pull. Ideally: plane, band saw larger parts, rout, glue, band saw details, plane top+back, rout cavities, glue fretboard and carve neck, round edges and finish in one month ? (most amateurs like you and me take longer...)
More realistically, prepare your next steps and when you're all set, start he planing. The longer you wait the less it will pull since it does cure. For ideal curing leave your blank out of the sun and rain but outside. I stock my wood indoors but keep the room well ventilated.

InFlamesWeTrust

Yeah I will be needing to have it planed/thicknessed as well, will hopefully get the entire piece planed today or monday and then hopefully get the bulk of the work done next week as im on holiday from my studies so I should have some extra time to put in. Thanks for the help im sure ill be picking your brain as I go along ? .