Official Luthiers Forum!

If you could build any guitar (to use as an example as a show piece guitar) what woods would you use? And more importantly, why? Let's say other than BRW...

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

Being a relative noob (18 guitars so far) I like East Indian Rosewood with a lot of golden streaks, flame Koa bindings, ebony FB and peghead veneer. I built one with this combination with select green abalone top purfling and peghead inlay and it turned out beautiful. The gold streaks in the RW worked with the Koa bindings and I thought it just looked great.

Oh yeah, I forgot - Sitka top.

Chuck

_________________
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong"
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

I'm pondering that right now as I contemplate an 18" Super Jumbo ala Prairie State. I know I will use red spruce, but am unsure about the back and sides. Originals were BRW, but I don't want to use my stash. I've thought of dyed Coco, or dyed Hormigo, but another consideration is the 9+ inches I would prefer to a 4 piece back with lower bout wings. Probably will end up with Coco, but I hate using it...I'm beginning to itch already just thinking about it. Malaysian blackwood is another thought. I think I need something hard and crisp for a guitar that large.

Hi Haans,

My Franklin Prairie State (inspired) (1985) is a little over 17" and made with EI RW. I think it is a killer guitar.

Glenn

Photos Glenn!!!! Pleeeze?
I wanted to do 19", but can't find a case and red spruce that wide...I did get a 18" case. Think I'll need a wheel barrow to haul it around.
Back to the original question, I wouldn't hesitate to use QS white oak (you knew that) as a showpiece guitar. Nobody uses it, it is quite beautiful if dyed properly, and has a great tone. It would be a showstopper.

Hi Haans,

I am working in Paris till Next Thursday night, when I get home. I will post pictures then (none on my work Laptop).

I am a newbie, but am building 2 guitars right now, an L-00 and my take on the prairie state (I used my Franklin and did a tracing, and John Hall made me the mold and bending forms). I have some nice wide Mad RW, but am saving that for when I am more experienced - these 2 are African Hog, with Lutz top for PS, and red spruce for the L-00.

Glenn

I like things simple. BRW and Euro for me. (BRW bindings, fb, headplate, bridge, end graft, fwi pins saddle and nut)

If I absolutely can't have Brazilian I would use Amazon or Madrose.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

A very finely grained Swiss spruce top (of which I already have some ) with African Blackwood. THat spruce I have not only that it looks extraordinary, it also is very light, stiff and with low damping: lively zingy taptone. Of all wood I worked with so far, ABW has impressed me the most with its amazing fine texture and sombre color under FP. It is like BRW impregnated with ink. But if I'd build for tone, I'd probably reach for Madagascar, Indian or Amazon first.

_________________
Build log

Redwood cocobolo dread (or possibly medium sized jumbo shape), as I plan to build from these sets at a future date:

Although it would be even better with the sides from my set, and the back from fingerstyle1978's set (color match should be perfect, it's just different lighting):


And if we can get the Madagascar rainforest massacre under control before Madagascar rosewood is extinct (I'd feel icky buying it while the massacre is on-going), then a small jumbo with that and Carpathian spruce.

As for why, the first is for the looks, the second is for the sound
Although MadRW is one of the most beautiful in addition to great sounding woods, and I will be quite disappointed if the redwood-coco guitar doesn't sound excellent as well. Always a balance between a visual art project and a music making tool. Otherwise I'd probably just stick to plain looking EIR, Honduran mahogany, and black walnut as the main three flavors of back/side sound, and the usual range of tops (sitka, redwood, WRC, POC, European spruce, mahogany). It always looks a little off balance to me using very beautiful woods but with no personal artistic touches.

The flexibility in materials, measurements, and decorations is one of my favorite parts of hand building. It's so much more fun using a wide variety of woods decorated with unique inlays, rather than just making the same thing over and over.

Other favorite woods of mine... ziricote, mango, Australian blackwood, African blackwood.

I've become a big fan of walnut....just simple walnut I get locally. Looks great, sounds great, smells great and bends great. And, its pretty reasonable in price

Haans, that is so cool that your planning on building a big larson 18 or 19 incher. I know some of them were made of birdseye maple for the back and sides, though I actually don't know if they used sugar maple, or european maple, but they sound amazing. I actually think maple might be a good fit for a guitar that big.

Haans,
I have a few sets of Adi that are 18" wide.

You are welcome to one if you want.

Brad

Can't tell to much about most woods as I've only made 3 guitars: one with Cherry, one with walnut, and the last one with cypruss
Cherry's nice, I love walnut, but I had quite a bad time with the cypruss althought it smells lovely...
As a beginner, I prefere to keep the nice sets for later: I'll be using Walnut for these reasons:

-Not too expensive compared to other timbers
-Really nice to work with
-Can look AWESOME
-As far as I know it gives a nice sound
-As far as I know, it is not about to desapear unlike so many others like rosewood.

I'd use a mix cedar/walnut, heard it worked well from many poeple... but then again there's so many thing to take into account...

Well, I can see that most people around here like the typical rosewoods! Does anyone prefer koa, quilted sapele, ziricote, tiger myrtle, etc...?

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

As most all of my instruments are of the old time variety, I don't have much interest in the exotic woods for that "modern look". I like anything that looks like rosewood if I can dye it dark, but one of my favorites is very plain Honduras, dyed. I like sapele, have some very quilted stuff. I have a load of flamed maple in red (soft, medium and hard), and sugar that would make a lot of guitars if I ever got to re-sawing it, but I prefer dark backs at this time. I like walnut, dyed, and recently heard a Goodall that was very warm and sweet sounding. I'd like to try it with red spruce.
Thanks for the interest in the S (super) J, guys, and Brad, thanks so much for the offer, I do have some red that is both wide and the grain is wide too, so I am set to build an old style jumbo. I did piece together some Coco, and found a dye color to replicate that old "cordovan" color of the old BRW guitars. Here's the back...

Two of my favorite woods are Honduran Rosewood and Honduran Mahogany.
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Mr. Bentrup, are you going to use Larson style 8 inlays like this guitar? That would be awesome.

Would you mind telling me what make and color of dye you used as I love the color of the back of the guitar.
Thanks,
Chuck

Brian, that is the guitar photo I enlarged the box from. Mine is a little smaller at 18" because of the case problem. I will do something similar, but I am tempted to do a split herringbone with abalone in the middle like some Larsons were.
Chuck, that is the natural freshly sanded color of Coco. The dye I will apply later will be a combination of two Trans-Tint dyes to make it look very dark.

Pernambuco. Unexcelled for clarity, balance, and overall musicality. Very hard to find. I know only one other builder who has a stash of it.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Mr. Bentrup, I asked Tony Klassen what cases he uses for his 19" super jumbos and he told me that he has to order custom cedar creek cases for them. I wonder where he got the maple and spruce for this guitar.

Yeah, I was wondering why no one had said maple yet.
We get precious few calls for it, but it is one of my favorites.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

For my ears it's plain ol Sitka over Mahogany. Steve, I like Maple too, but don't get many requests for it.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Another vote for walnut here. I bought a few sets last year and didn't break the bank. Easy to work with, easy to bend and it looks great under a finish. For the top I'd have to say Lutz spruce.

_________________
53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

My Sitka/Lutz Mahogany OMs have been my favorites, my fastest sellers by far, and have received the most compliments so there you have it.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.