Guitar body wood

  • Thread starter Thread starter pikingrin
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pikingrin

pikingrin

what is this?
Not sure if this has been covered but I know a few of you roll your own guitar/bass bodies around here. I want to try out my hand at doing it, too. I've got about everything to do the woodwork except a bandsaw (jigsaw might work) - I've got access to a bandsaw if it is the only way to do the job.

But, I digress...

Stewmac has a body blank made out of knotty pine for $99 that I was considering buying just to hack up into a rudimentary body. Just curious how that would affect the tone mainly... The description also claims that each piece is kiln dried so that the resins are crystalized but I'm wondering what the likelihood would be that the knots would continue to dry and eventually get loose and rattle or fall out.

Anyone here have any experience with this cheap piece of wood?
 
Another build newb question, this one about grounding

If you use a hardtail bridge, how are the strings grounded? Just curious because I plan on doing a hard tail that strings through the bridge and is mounted by 4 screws. Does it even need to be grounded? I'm assuming, seeing that I plan on using a H-S pickup combination (or H-P90), that the single coil will most likely make a crapload of noise if not grounded... :confused:
 
I'm surprised to see knotty pine on stew mac. I think of Stew Mac as being a reputable source for guitar building and so maybe there's nothing to worry about. I personally wouldn't consider making a guitar out it, but I'm no expert, and I have no experience with knotty pine outside of some book shelves.

My reasons are:
It's really soft wood. Screws will strip out easily and dents will happen at the thought of it.
I worry about the knots. You have to plan around them for routing, screws, etc. Then as you mentioned, will they fall out? And do you have to fill them?
I worry about aging. Is the drying process good enough? Is the sap really fully crystalized? Again, I'm no expert.

If you have the equipment already, you can make your own body blanks for a lot cheaper. You just need a planer, joiner and clamps.

As for the bandsaw/jigsaw debate, I am now firmly in the bandsaw camp. I'm guessing you are referring to my thread when mentioning the bandsaw. I tried the jigsaw on 1.5" Alder, which is fairly soft itself, and it just wasn't up for the job. Like I said in that thread, the bandsaw did the job in 5 minutes. If you have access to one, you should take advantage of that.

just my thoughts. But it is so cool that you are going to do your own. Looking forward to following your progress.
 
Pine makes great teles. Some of leo's earliest stuff was pine.
As of late with tonewoods escalating in price, people are discovering pine as a worthy wood.

Yes, you need to ground the bridge. You would drill a small diameter hole from under the bridge plate to the potentiometer cavity, and run a wire connecting the bridge to the back of the pot.

Btw, you could probably get some pine and glue it up for a lot less than a hundred bucks.

Have fun with it.

Edit: google Ron Kirn Barnbuster. Youll see lots of finished examples, as well as reviews of pine teles.
 
pikingrin said:
If you use a hardtail bridge, how are the strings grounded? Just curious because I plan on doing a hard tail that strings through the bridge and is mounted by 4 screws. Does it even need to be grounded? I'm assuming, seeing that I plan on using a H-S pickup combination (or H-P90), that the single coil will most likely make a crapload of noise if not grounded... :confused:
Click to expand...



I have done two projects and working on the third. The first was a cheapo Yamaha bass that I refinished. The second was a parts bass. I bought the neck and body from guitar fetish and a few other things, tuners, pickups, etc. The Yamaha originally had the bridge grounded, but after my refinish, I didn't reconnect the ground wire. And the same for the parts bass. I never added a ground to the bridge and it has an active preamp. I haven't had a problem with buzzing or hums on either bass.

On the bass I'm doing now, I don't plan to add a ground to the bridge. For that I need an extra long drill bit and an angle drill holder thing, neither of which I have. If after plugging it in I find I need to ground the bridge and strings, I will look at running a ground wire to it. Somehow.
 
Active pickups dont usually need string grounding.
Passive do.

@Chili. Most good hardware stores carry long drill bits (over 12 inches) in 1/16 or 1/8 inch diameter.

Dont need anything alse except a good aim.
:-)
 
Well I went ahead and placed my order with Stewmac. Opted out of the pine and went with another cheap cut called primavera, it's supposed to have the same characteristics of mahogany but it's yellow/white instead of reddish brown. Now to figure out what shape I want to make it... :thumbs up:

I only ordered the wood, I figure that I can get the bridge, electronics and all that ordered once I figure out the shape and start working on that.
 
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