Elm and Oak

JDOD

JDOD

therecordingrebels.com
Thinking of going for a guitar with either an Elm or Oak top. It looks cool, lots of burling/strange patterns. However, I am concerned that it may end up being very, very heavy. Anyone got any experience with this?
 
Electric or acoustic? If electric, should be interesting. If acoustic, I think both are too hard for a top, but woudl be good for back & sides.
 
Electric. Its gonna be dyed black and then sanded back to burled black and grey
 
I've heard Oak is insanely heavy.

I never heard anything about elm.

But who knows until you try it. I heard walnut made a bad fretboard, and I recently bought one with a walnut fretboard and ash neck, and it's great.
 
I'd have to imagine that an oak top would weigh down a solidbody, wouldn't it? Seems like it'd be unnecessarily heavy for something to be slung over your shoulder. Doesn't oak also have a pretty deep grain to it? Seems like it'd be a pain to finish it to a nice smooth surface for a guitar top. Might end up looking like grandma's living room furniture :)

I can't say that I've heard about using elm either. I wonder if that's because it's ill-suited for one reason or another, or because guitarists are so insanely traditional-minded that it isn't in favor simply because it has never been in favor.
 
I've never worked with elm but everything that I've built with oak (red oak, furniture grade) has been heavy as a mutha. Stained and sealed, it looks nice but it weighs quite a bit more than "normal" tonewoods and, as others have said, might be back-breaking to stand with slung over your shoulder.

If it's just a topper then it may not be so bad; I'd be curious to hear about the results - if there is any noticeable difference in tone, etc, if you end up going through with it. Hell, I might build a body out of poplar with an oak top just to see. Once I get done (get started) with my other build, that is.
 
Gone for it - going for an Elm top with a spalted ash body. Might chamber the body if it is too heavy
 
I don't think oak would be much heavier that other dense woods like maple. the weight difference between an oak cap and a maple cap wouldn't be more than a lb I would think. The question is why would anyone want to use oak?
It doesn't have much of a grain and certainly isn't going to be figured. If the wood for the cap isn't highly figured and beautiful, what is the point in having a cap in the first place?
my 2 cents.
 
JDOD said:
Yes, I did actually. Its also Crimson who are building my new guitar!
Click to expand...

I was curious last night and youtube led me to that video when I typed in "oak guitar body." As soon as I saw it I thought you probably did since Crimson is building your custom git. So you've got ash body with an elm top for your build…I'm curious to hear what you think about it when you get your hands on it. :guitar:

I'm going to be unable to even get started on my first build for another two weeks or so (wife's got me remodeling the master bathroom, etc) but I may consider trying a cheap build with an oak body and a maple top that I may not even use on this first build. Just for curiosities' sake and $40 worth of 1x8 red oak from the hardware store… Going to have to get a joiner but that's not the end of the world.
 
Will be cool to do something original yourself. I am ok at building stuff, but could never do the artistic parts of it like the dying, sanding, oiling etc.

I'll probably do myself a mongrelcaster at some point in the future
 
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