Donor Wood from Furniture

[voneville]

I dropped this over at DIY, but I thought I would try my luck here too, since it's definatley Electric Guitar Relevant.

 

I have a Mahogany head board for a twin bed that's from the 50's or 60's. It's a little thin though, so to use it for a guitar body I would have to sandwhich it and laminate it to 3 ply. Would this have an adverse effect on the tonal qualities? I know it's probably not optimum, but is it worthwhile or just a waste of time. I'm not on a tonequest, I can't afford the 1000+ dollar price range of vintage mahogany guitars.

[animl]

Originally posted by voneville I dropped this over at DIY, but I thought I would try my luck here too, since it's definatley Electric Guitar Relevant. I have a Mahogany head board for a twin bed that's from the 50's or 60's. It's a little thin though, so to use it for a guitar body I would have to sandwhich it and laminate it to 3 ply. Would this have an adverse effect on the tonal qualities? I know it's probably not optimum, but is it worthwhile or just a waste of time. I'm not on a tonequest, I can't afford the 1000+ dollar price range of vintage mahogany guitars.

Your choices are more diverse than vintage vs recycled furniture

[Darkstorm]

Depends on the peice of mahogany. If it was from a "fine furniture" brand mfg of the day it will be very high qaulity mahogany. But not neccessarilly of the type that would be picked for best acoustic char's. The latter is sometimes found among lots of very high grade stock and sometimes from stock thats not as pretty etc. Main thing is make sure its free from knots etc in the wood. As fine furniture doesnt rule out knots and such that have adverse affect on sound traits.

 

 

Your advantages with this big peice of wood: Lets you make one peice instead of two or more peice body.

 

Except isnt thick enough from what your saying. You mentioned needing 3 layers. Ok lets concider that. Some very spendy guitars and basses have 3 layers of wood sandwiched. Normally the middle layer would be a diff kind of wood. The middle layer is like a tone tweek thing. Aka for example mahogany, walnut or maple, mahogany, or vice versa. These work fine.

 

 

How thick is this headboard? Would two layers give you equivalent of the slim/thin body ibanez thing? Maybe round off edges. Might be nice.

 

 

Me I'd rather just get one single thick enough peice and use as wings on a neck thru neck. For example buy carvins neck thru neck and make wings for it. But as long as the headboard parts your going to use are free from cracks, knots, and such, it should work fine for body. Got a good peice of other kind of solid wood furniture you could use for middle layer peice? Mahogany, something else, mahogany, body? Except for those small custom luthiers, you stand as good a chance of getting sonically superior peice of mahogany from the headboard as you do from most mahogany guitars out there. Just avoid useing section that has knots etc in it. Knots are your enemy sound wise. Theyre not good sonically.

[voneville]

Originally posted by Darkstorm Depends on the peice of mahogany. If it was from a "fine furniture" brand mfg of the day it will be very high qaulity mahogany. But not neccessarilly of the type that would be picked for best acoustic char's. The latter is sometimes found among lots of very high grade stock and sometimes from stock thats not as pretty etc. Main thing is make sure its free from knots etc in the wood. As fine furniture doesnt rule out knots and such that have adverse affect on sound traits. Your advantages with this big peice of wood: Lets you make one peice instead of two or more peice body. Except isnt thick enough from what your saying. You mentioned needing 3 layers. Ok lets concider that. Some very spendy guitars and basses have 3 layers of wood sandwiched. Normally the middle layer would be a diff kind of wood. The middle layer is like a tone tweek thing. Aka for example mahogany, walnut or maple, mahogany, or vice versa. These work fine. How thick is this headboard? Would two layers give you equivalent of the slim/thin body ibanez thing? Maybe round off edges. Might be nice. Me I'd rather just get one single thick enough peice and use as wings on a neck thru neck. For example buy carvins neck thru neck and make wings for it. But as long as the headboard parts your going to use are free from cracks, knots, and such, it should work fine for body. Got a good peice of other kind of solid wood furniture you could use for middle layer peice? Mahogany, something else, mahogany, body? Except for those small custom luthiers, you stand as good a chance of getting sonically superior peice of mahogany from the headboard as you do from most mahogany guitars out there. Just avoid useing section that has knots etc in it. Knots are your enemy sound wise. Theyre not good sonically.

Thanks, that's some great information and options to consider, I appreciate you taking the time to type that all out.

I think it might be all the talk about the natuarally aged wood vintage buffs are always talking about. I need to quit Reading VG and just go out and play my tele It's beautiful wood and I'm in the process of getting ready to move to Virginia from California in a few months, so I'm trying to get rid of stuff I don't need. Thanks again!

[The Eristic]

Might want to make sure the furniture isn't worth something before hacking it up.

[jmartin]

or just save the effort,and spend the $40 for a blank of it at woodcrafters. ive found a piece there for $48=Honduran that will make 4-5 bodies for me.

[No Soul]

Originally posted by The Eristic Might want to make sure the furniture isn't worth something before hacking it up.

 

 

yup

 

 

 

 

Originally posted by jmartin or just save the effort,and spend the $40 for a blank of it at woodcrafters. ive found a piece there for $48=Honduran that will make 4-5 bodies for me.

 

 

that too

[Cackalacky]

Some of PRS's first guitars came from hacked up furniture.

[No Soul]

Originally posted by Cackalacky Some of PRS's first guitars came from hacked up furniture.

 

 

so what?

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

How thick is the wood. Your idea isn't entirely mad. If you let me know the wood thickness then we can come up with an answer. A suitable solution maybe to use two slices of mahogany and and sandwich it round something like a piece of maple, like George Harrisons Tele which was two rosewood slabs with maple meat in the rosewood sandwich, this is an especially good option when laminating, to have a different wood in the mix as this moves at different rates and hence more stable. Depending on the thickness you could consider summat like an SG...which is a pretty thin body, or using direct mount mini HBs or Filtertron type pups that could either be mounted straight on the top, or recessed in slightly...the limiting factor with thin body guitars is mounting depth for the pickups, as with the Ibanez S series.....anyway let us know how thick that headboard is:D