Thread: electic guitar / painted body / which wood?!

Well you have answered your own question there is no point in using figured wood if you are going to paint it.
Just use any of the well known tonewoods available in Australia.
Cheers,Bob

In my rather limited experience, another few factors to look out for are going to be: Weight, as obviously some are going to be much heavier than others; price, speakers for itself; and ease of working. As an example, say, the Mountain Ash that I'm using now has a strong tendency to splinter and just break away in general if you're not careful. Blackwood, again in my experience, burns very easily and dulls blade edges quickly. If you're painting, maybe how tight the grain is, will extent the amount of grainfilling that needs to be done? Stuff like that - just food for thought

Use Crapiata and a grain filler, painting provides all sorts of opportunities,

And don't forget the pics, Andy loves pics.

regards

Wal

hehe i will definitely post pics, hundreds!

ok so i got some 38mm tas oak and 19mm mahogany

was thinking of capping the tas oak with mahogany? would that be ok?

40mm mahogany is expensive, very expensive

Originally Posted by Hearse

hehe i will definitely post pics, hundreds!

ok so i got some 38mm tas oak and 19mm mahogany

was thinking of capping the tas oak with mahogany? would that be ok?

40mm mahogany is expensive, very expensive

The thickness is entirely up to you Warren, guitar thicknesses can be what ever you make it.

You must consider the weight factor and allow enough depth for hardware, ( pick ups and such).

You can also chamber the body for less weight and different tones.

If you have enough mahogany for 2 body blanks just glue the 2 bits together for a 38 mm body.

Yes, tas oak is fine, that's what I used for my Less Paul. Less Paul's are around 50 mm at the body and 60 mm at the top of the carve, but they are heavy.

You could also saw the mahogany down the centre and veneer both top and bottom.

Now I'm getting writers cramp so I suggest you read through the forum and gather as much information as you can, there's plenty of stuff on the web. if you want a couple of guitar building E_Books I'll send you some.

Regards to all

Wal

Hey Wal,

i have had a right scour through the interwebz, but i got minimal information, and every guitar is different in size etc

so i am going to head out to the local guitar shop and have a look at a couple BC Rich guitars out there, to get an idea on the size, thickness etc, this will help

ah and if you dont mind sending those ebooks over that will be awesome! give me some reading that i can use, as opposed to having 20 tabs open in my browser trying to find something!!!

thanks heaps again Wal!

Call me Crazy (most people do!), but I once heard of a commercial guitar brand making Guitar Bodies from MDF, Ive never tried it and I can't imagine the sound characteristics. One day I will. Could be the cheap option for Painted Bodies?

Ox

Originally Posted by Oxbox

Call me Crazy (most people do!), but I once heard of a commercial guitar brand making Guitar Bodies from MDF, Ive never tried it and I can't imagine the sound characteristics. One day I will. Could be the cheap option for Painted Bodies?

Ox

i was walking past the MDF in bunnings and i chuckled to my self when i thought of a MDF guitbox or even pine... tehhehehehehe

Just make sure that the MDF is quarter sawn.

Well I was led to believe that the reason Gibson chose Alder was that it was cheap, available and easy to machine. A bit like MDF really....

where are you situated??
there are specialty wood yards everywhere - any that are supplying the furniture, craft or even the floor trade

look for mahogany, myrtle, vic ash, tassie oak, hoop pine whatever - pretty much any board that is lightish will do it - some as has been said before are trickier than others to work with

dont get too hung up on using high value so called tonewood for a solid colour electric guitar - 1 metre of 200x50 is all you need and will cost [rough sawn] $30-$45

give the board a tap on the end with a small hammer to make sure it rings ok
this helps to pick a nice solid board with no interior splits or sizable voids

mathews timber in melbourne usually have a fair range of decent wood - tell the guy in the yard [ian] what you want it for and he will show you what others are buying...

got a nice 4 metre length of red alder and some cracker mahogany last time i was there

you can even find good stuff in bunnies if your lucky - to most average joes a board is a board - its always worth a quick perve on the timber racks - some real high figure stuff has been found there

Basswood would be my choice, but don`t know if it`s available in Australia? Machines like butter, no grain filling and supposed to be a good tone wood, doesn`t look to bad stained.Mike

Originally Posted by old_picker

where are you situated??
there are specialty wood yards everywhere - any that are supplying the furniture, craft or even the floor trade

look for mahogany, myrtle, vic ash, tassie oak, hoop pine whatever - pretty much any board that is lightish will do it - some as has been said before are trickier than others to work with

dont get too hung up on using high value so called tonewood for a solid colour electric guitar - 1 metre of 200x50 is all you need and will cost [rough sawn] $30-$45

give the board a tap on the end with a small hammer to make sure it rings ok
this helps to pick a nice solid board with no interior splits or sizable voids

mathews timber in melbourne usually have a fair range of decent wood - tell the guy in the yard [ian] what you want it for and he will show you what others are buying...

got a nice 4 metre length of red alder and some cracker mahogany last time i was there

you can even find good stuff in bunnies if your lucky - to most average joes a board is a board - its always worth a quick perve on the timber racks - some real high figure stuff has been found there

Hey mate,

Im in Sydney, northern beaches area.

I found some tassie oak for $52 pm. bit dear S

im busy looking for a bandsaw now to cut the stuff! (

but i tried to find some basswood but its impossible to find (i found in sydney) but yea, need to find more wood because i want to make more guitboxes!! and try other woods other than tassie oak.