Pine for solid body electric guitar body and poplar for a neck. tone may suck but...

[DougH]

Aside from the tone freaks, I would like to ask if anyone did this before? It would be cheap, easy to cut and sand and isn't it not much softer than basswood which is used on some cheap and also some pretty expensive guitars? I have heard ceder is good even in solid bodies and it isn't as strong as mahogany etc.

 

So has anyone tried this? What about poplar for a neck?

 

Would laminating a piece of thin plywood on the back help support the neck pocket or maybe build it a little thicker?

 

What about poplar for a neck?

[asdfjkl semi]

plywood is a horrible idea anywhere on a guitar

[larryguitar]

The pine will work, and has been done. Some Tele purists adore it, although there's a reason Leo abandoned it-just too soft for screws and such.

 

The poplar might work-it's been done-but the piece would have to be quartersawn before I'd even attempt it.

 

If you're trying to do something on the cheap with lumberyard wood, I'd find some maple that was as close to Q/S as possible-even 'soft' maple would be preferable to poplar, IMHO.

 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Larry

[Quarter]

Finding quartersawn lumber at the local lumber yard may be a tough quest, but you can dig a bit to find some strait grained 4/4 pieces. Ripped down and turned on edge, you can glue up a multi piece laminated neck blank.

[daveski]

I'm always looking through the lumber yard 'ends' piles for potential guitar bodies. Some of the structural grade pine and spruce boards are harder than you would think. The biggest problem I've found is being wary of the grain direction and planning your routs/cutouts so you don't have potential weak spots. I wasted a real nice tele shape body once because the controls rout was on a weak spot of the board and it split off when I stressed that area of the body slightly during finishing. It wouldn't have happened with ash or alder or even a chunk of harder pine maybe. I've built a few bass and guitar bodies from pine and spruce and frankly I like the resulting sound. I tend to place more importance on the electronics rather than the wood type. IMO, as long as the wood is structurally sound and the neck is fitted well, I'm happy. I'm quite aware that different woods 'sound' differently and all that stuff, but when you consider that some people drool over some of those crappy old guitars made from pressboard just because somebody notable once owned one, a nice solid chunk of pine or spruce provides a whole lot better starting point. I can't provide any soundclips because all of the guitars have been sold. I will be sure to record some clips of the next builds.

I don't build necks, its a whole lot more efficient, both cost and time wise to just buy one.

[DivebombInc]

If you're looking at price you can always do a 2-piece Swamp Ash body for about $20 in materials. I regularly buy 8/4 (2" thick) SA in 7.5" widths, and 3' will do a typical Strat style body if you lay it out right. 4' is better to be safe. Have it milled on 3 sides giving you a good gluing edge, cut it, glue it and in 24 hours you can plane it to 1 3/4" and start wittlin'.

 

There's no reason why this should be any more costly where you are. I'd say for $30 you can be out of this materials-wise.

 

I agree with asdfjkl semi about the plywood... bad idea. You can have decent results visually, but why?

[DougH]

If you're looking at price you can always do a 2-piece Swamp Ash body for about $20 in materials. I regularly buy 8/4 (2" thick) SA in 7.5" widths, and 3' will do a typical Strat style body if you lay it out right. 4' is better to be safe. Have it milled on 3 sides giving you a good gluing edge, cut it, glue it and in 24 hours you can plane it to 1 3/4" and start wittlin'. There's no reason why this should be any more costly where you are. I'd say for $30 you can be out of this materials-wise. I agree with asdfjkl semi about the plywood... bad idea. You can have decent results visually, but why?

 

I have seen some good prices around for alder etc. on the net, it's just that I have a bunch of scrap wood that I use for either working on the house, making shelves etc. Budget=$0

 

So I thought, hey I got some brand new cedar boards, a bunch of 2x4 and some 2x6...why not just cut, joint and plane it, do some straight cuts (no band saw:() and make a pointy guitar body out of it. Fire up the belt sander with a 140 belt and have at it to contour it a little is an option but would still be very angular in design. It would be replacing the beginners guitar body made out of particle board type material? Couldn't sound worse could it?

 

I think this would also be good for learning. I have read about arch tops being made with lumber yard maple, pine and the hard wood plywood they have in 2ftx4ft sheets but it isn't strong.

 

Epoxy glue in the screw holes maybe? I have a small can of car paint to paint it with, so my budget is basically $0

[larryguitar]

I have seen some good prices around for alder etc. on the net, it's just that I have a bunch of scrap wood that I use for either working on the house, making shelves etc. Budget=$0 So I thought, hey I got some brand new cedar boards, a bunch of 2x4 and some 2x6...why not just cut, joint and plane it, do some straight cuts (no band saw:() and make a pointy guitar body out of it. Fire up the belt sander with a 140 belt and have at it to contour it a little is an option but would still be very angular in design. It would be replacing the beginners guitar body made out of particle board type material? Couldn't sound worse could it? I think this would also be good for learning. I have read about arch tops being made with lumber yard maple, pine and the hard wood plywood they have in 2ftx4ft sheets but it isn't strong. Epoxy glue in the screw holes maybe? I have a small can of car paint to paint it with, so my budget is basically $0

 

Go for it. If this is your first, it doesn't really pay to use big dollar materials, anyway. There's a pretty good learning curve.

 

Larry

[ririzarry]

 

Aside from the tone freaks, I would like to ask if anyone did this before? It would be cheap, easy to cut and sand and isn't it not much softer than basswood which is used on some cheap and also some pretty expensive guitars? I have heard ceder is good even in solid bodies and it isn't as strong as mahogany etc. So has anyone tried this? What about poplar for a neck? Would laminating a piece of thin plywood on the back help support the neck pocket or maybe build it a little thicker? What about poplar for a neck?

 

 

Pine for a body has been done and continues to be done particularly with Teles. As far as the neck, I would tend to go with quarter's suggested to do a multi lam neck if you're going to use poplar.

 

Honestly though, maple neck blanks aren't particularly expensive. I would just go for one of those. Body blanks don't have to be incredibly expensive either, btw.

 

Regards,

 

Robert

[ajcoholic]

 

I don't build necks, its a whole lot more efficient, both cost and time wise to just buy one.

 

 

 

Actually, once you get good at it you can build a neck that will rival any aftermarket one in less than a couple hours.

 

I would think a neck could be made from a denser specimen of poplar but I would make sure its not just air dried but properly kiln dried. I use a lot of poplar in my furniture shop (for stuructural uses, and for paint grade moldings, etc) and you can certainly get a few planks every now and then that are as dense as maple.

 

AJC