Guitar building wood

[Joelbmx]

What kind of woods are acceptable for building a strat style guitar? Would alder be more suited than sycamore, or would they work equally well?

[Gabriel E.]

Never heard of sycamore being used but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. Strats have traditionally been made of alder, poplar or ash.

 

The Warmouth website should have some info on how different woods sound.

[Bonedog]

I'd suggest sticking with the usual suspects (alder, ash, maple rarely). Every wood is gonna sound a little different but if you're looking for the strat sound, choose the typical strat woods. If you're looking to experiment....go crazy. I worked in a custom guitar shop for 5 years but have never tried using sycamore, can't comment on that personally.

 

Good luck with it, I hope you come up with something cool.

Scott

[Guitarzan]

well i know that alder is the traditional tone wood choice , but i have no info on sycamore, almost all ibanez guitars and some other brands of strat types use basswood, there is also ash. i tend to believe that wood will colour your tone but how solid you build it is as important. godin makes use of soft maple and these guitars are sweet!check out harmony central and go to the guitar builders newsgroups. lots of info there.hope this helps. there is a local builder in my neck of the woods that just built an accoustic for Keith Richards and i know he uses lots of different woods, check him out , i believe its riszanyi guitars.

chow

Boyd

[michael saulnier]

A few more tried and true body woods:

 

Mahogany, (LP's)

Korina

Koa

Maple

Spalted Maple

 

Guitars have been made from some pretty unusual materials including formica, clear plexiglass, metal, and other exotic things... I've also never heard of sycamore as a guitar body wood. I wonder if it's too "soft"?

 

good luck with WHATEVER you use.

 

guitplayer

[Wickerman]

Actually, the sweetest strat style homemade (well, actually it was by a carpenter for his kid with the help of my dad, an electrical eng) was a Double Fat Strat made from walnut using two Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbuckers. It sounds AWESOME! I was shocked when I played it. They ordered a neck-thru prefab neck and put walnut wings on it. It's a Carvin neck, which feels really nice. It's thin and fast. The guitar has a really warm, punchy tone. It's heavy but it sounds and feels great.

[baronedo]

I had the pleasure of speaking with Bill Lawrence (the pickup manufacturer). He has built solid body guitars in the past and really likes spruce. Bill indicated that longitudinally, spruce is one of the strongest woods and produces a sweet tone that sustains forever.

 

I personally have no experience nor do I know if you can find spruce bodies but Bill swears by this wood.

[TurboDog]

My father has a huge log of black walnut sitting on some property a few miles down the road. We're gonna openn it up and check the grain, and if it's nice, I'm gonna build a body from it. I've seen some very nice walnut guitars, though they are custom mades and very expensive.

 

This will be a no frills guitar. Probably only 1 pickup, strings thru the body, and a tune-o-matic style bridge with some locking tuners.

 

I will get a neck from Warmoth, as I'm not wild about making a fretboard from scratch. Check out their website for explanations of various woods. Ed Roman's site also has wood descriptions/examples if you can get thru the BS.

 

Project guitars are a blast, but don't expect them to come cheap.

[Wickerman]

I'm building a guitar (well, carving the body and slapping a bunch of stuff onto it) and I'm using ash. It's got good grain for a burst finish (my uncle, a car detailer is helping on this) and has a good, mellow but punchy tone. I prefer walnut for basses but I don't want a really heavy guitar.