Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all,

I'm working on building my first guitar with a brother of mine and need some suggestions for some materials to use. He's doing most of the work (since he has the tools), I'm just helping out.

First off, my playing style is mainly strumming with a little bit of picking. I would prefer the sound to have some nice lows and clear highs, the best of both worlds if I can. I'm planning on making the guitar a Dreadnought with a Venetian Cutaway.

Currently I have Padauk wood for the back and sides and Bearclaw Sitka Spruce for the top. I am considering using mahogany for the neck and West African Ebony for the fingerboard, but I am undecided about the bridge and bridge plate. I plan on using a bone Nut and Saddle. I am undecided on the binding. I am thinking about using ebony. I was contemplating on using Indian Rosewood (or some sort of Rosewood) for both the Bridge and Bridge plate. Would this wood combination achieve my desired sound or should I use some other types of wood? Any suggestions for doing the X bracing or the thicknesses of the woods?

Any input would help! Thanks.

Sitka, mahogany, ebony... those are standart. You can't be wrong with that. For the bridge, I would go with ebony, but Rosewoods work well too. Ebony bindings on padouk would be very elegent.

Wood selection will affect the sound, for sure, but don't define it. You can do a Padouk/Sitka that is really boomy, and a Padouk/Sitka that is high and cristal clear. Depends on so many things.

I'd say, for the first one, just go by the book from plan, Martin standart, and if it's well executed and you selected your wood correctly, you will have a nice sounding guitar. And also a reference point to your next builds.

My 2 cents!
Francis

_________________
Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Hey, that's me in the picture!

Hi,

Just a little warning with Paddouk: don't forget to use acetone before making any glue joint on the paddouk, because it is a really oily wood.
A friend of mine had lots of gluing problems with it.

Maybe using epoxy would be even better?

My experience with padauk is that it glues fine as long as you have fresh glue surfaces. I some cases using solvents before gluing brings oils to the surface causing problems. Padauk should make a dreadnought guitar that is more like a rosewood guitar than a mahogany one, more ringing and less woody.

_________________
Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

If this is the first guitar your making, then focus more on building it and making it a guitar than how it will sound. On nr 2 then start try and get closer to the sound.
Like Ken said although for strumming I would use a mahogany guitar. as it tends to not ring as long as a rosewood guitar and when strumming you want the last tone to not interupt the next. Mahogany has a shorter "dryer" tone.

A good advice: don't stress it, let the glue dry, go slow. and ask a lot of questions on here when stuck !

Lars

Thanks for the input!

This is my first guitar, but my brother who is actually doing alot of the work, it will be his 3rd guitar build.

I decided on using a Maple bridge plate instead of Rosewood. I read elsewhere on here and the concensus that i got was that Maple would be the better choice for my particular guitar.

Currently my playing style is strumming, but i hope to improve my skills in the future to do more finger style playing. I know that using thinner picks and different gauge strings makes a difference when strumming instead of flat picking.

All in all, I'm excited about this build. I'm hoping to use a K&K Pure Mini pickup w/ preamp if the guitar opens up well enough.

I think you still need to do some more planning....

Sounds like you have thought a whole bunch about the wood... The big "But" is that you have thought about looks and maybe price - but not about ease of building....

Before you go any further......

You need to think about:
What weight strings do you want to play
What scale length do you want
What nut and saddle string spacing do you want - this effects both the style you will be playing, as well as the width of the neck....
How tall are YOU, what's your reach, and how big of hands do you have?
Do you plan to play amplified or not?

Sort out all that before you go any further.....

For instance... Nut and saddle string spacing... If you have huge gorilla hands - you will need wider spacing even if you want to strum.... If you have small hands - tighter spacing tends to work better.... Scale length - if you are 6'3" tall - then a 25.5" scale is great... If you are 5'4" tall - a 24.75" scale is a better choice....

If you intend to play Medium strings unamplified outdoors with parties and gatherings - it takes you in one direction design wise... If you intend to stick with Light strings unamplified in the living room - it takes you in a different direction.... Onboard Amplification brings along a whole new set of things to think about.....

You get the idea....

A couple suggestions about what you have already decided.......

Fretboard wise - I might take a look at one of the other woods that is popular for flooring that is less expensive and less dimensionally weird than Ebony... Jatoba/Brazilian Cherry, Brazilian Teak/Cumaru, Ipe, nearly every Rosewood, and quite a few others make fabulous fretboards... but they don't tend to shrink and twist quite as bad as Ebony over time....

Bridge wise - I would stick with some flavor of Rosewood.... It sounds better than Ebony to my ears....

Back and sides wise - I would heartily encourage you to consider Mahogany (African or Honduras) or East Indian Rosewood for the back/sides..... They are fairly inexpensive, well behaved, easy to build with, and make a great sounding instrument... Padauk has a reputation for being hard to bend.... The sanding dust dyes everything bright Orange.... Some people are allergic to it... etc... Maybe save that stuff for your 2nd guitar

Bindings... Consider plastic bindings.... They don't crack or chip when your buddy sets the guitar down a little hard on it's corner..... Wood bindings do dent, crack, and chip when you mistreat them... They look cool, though....

Thanks