Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm just about to start a batch of three made out of Siris Acacia. Seems to be from the same family as Koa and shares some characteristics. I got them for next to nothing from the Martin factory store.

We'll see in a few months (I'm a slow builder...)

Black walnut. It's a great wood and it grows all around me.

I've got gobs and gobs of Tassy Blackwood, and love the stuff. Same basic tone as Koa, perhaps a bit more bright.
Mahogany is always a great choice.

Edit: But by far, my favorite wood to look at is really light orange, highly figured Koa... sounds great too.
Oops... strike that. You said "affordable" tonewood. I realize that's all relative to the person buying it, but Koa is darn pricey these days.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I bought a big piece of Sapele for very little, over 20 years ago. I cut B&S's off it from time to time. The same is true for a nice, medium figured hunk of Claro walnut and some great flamed maple. Love them all.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Eastern Black Walnut --- to this day I am still able to get spectacular 1/4 sawn billets from my "non-Luthier supply" sources at a very reasonable price.

You can normally count of it producing an instrument with a tone that falls between Honduran Mahogany and EIR. And it is a dream to work, I have completely reversed an incorrectly bent OM side after it had set for a couple of days.

_________________
Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I like maple and birch. Many fruit trees are nice too. The most affordable tonewood up here by far is of course spruce, but I guess we're not talking about top woods

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I've built several flamenco guitars completely of spruce and Western Red Cedar as well. They both work fine but are a little susceptible to denting on the back (belt buckles, buttons, etc.).

Another very affordable "wood product" is HPL (formica). I have made a number of inexpensive instruments using it for back and side material. It is already at the proper thickness and bends easily with a little heat. It comes "prefinished" so only the soundboard and neck need to be done. Pieces large enough for most instruments can be found in a cabinet shops dumpster (often asking a cabinetmaker will get you more scraps than you can use.) I built a couple of ukuleles using it, and put them in the "Teen Room" of the local library, to hopefully inspire kids to learn to play.

From the perspective of a small tonewood seller, I note a great deal of satisfaction with Cherry.