Electric guitar body

[Pam Niedermayer]

I'm at the wood ordering stage for a very special (to me) electric guitar. I think I want to make the body of claro walnut; but the best I've found so far is two pieces, each 7/8" thick, glued to 1-3/4" thick and sanded. It seems that this glue may distort the sound waves, perhaps bouncing them back for a different sound than a solid 1-piece 1-3/4" would. Anybody have experience with this?

Thanks,
Pam

[Marv Werner]

Hi Pam,

Have you been over to Leif Hanson's website lately? He's in the process of making three solid body guitars and is documenting his progress as he goes along. He's getting toward the end of his project now. He might have some useful thoughts on your subject.

Marv

[Pam Niedermayer]

Thanks, Mary, I'll head on over to Leif's.

Pam

[george wilson]

The wood will have no humanly discernible effect upon tone in a solid body electric. The only thing that matters is density.

The "Black Beauty" Les Paul electrics made in 1954 had a mahogany top. The mahogany gave a SLIGHTLY darker tone than the later maple tops,many of which were curly. I have a Gibson Custom Shop high quality reissue Black Beauty. It sounds just great.

Do not worry about using any kind of hard wood you want.

[Jonathan McCullough]

I'm no luthier but if this is an electric guitar, the wood and glue type should be irrelevant, right? As long as the wood is solid enough to keep the pickups secure, there's no resonance to speak of, as there would be in an acoustic guitar.

[george wilson]

There are smallish differences,as I mentioned.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I'm no luthier but if this is an electric guitar, the wood and glue type should be irrelevant, right? As long as the wood is solid enough to keep the pickups secure, there's no resonance to speak of, as there would be in an acoustic guitar.

Yeah, this is my basic attitude; but I'd expect claro walnut to have some tonal effect. Otherwise, as George says, use any hardwood and save a pile of money.

Thanks,
Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

The wood will have no humanly discernible effect upon tone in a solid body electric. The only thing that matters is density.

The "Black Beauty" Les Paul electrics made in 1954 had a mahogany top. The mahogany gave a SLIGHTLY darker tone than the later maple tops,many of which were curly. I have a Gibson Custom Shop high quality reissue Black Beauty. It sounds just great.

Do not worry about using any kind of hard wood you want.


Thanks, George. The Black Beauty looks like a hollow body, thus the slight effect? If the hardwood doesn't matter, I can save a lot of bucks by choosing a much less expensive blank.

Pam

[george wilson]

Only Gretsch Duo Jet type solid bodys had a slight cavity under their glued on plywood tops,glued to a solid body. The Gibsons were solid
Les Paul was all about sustain. He wanted the guitar to be solid . If you recall,he made an earlier guitar with a solid 4x4 down the center which he called "The Log."

Actually,Les Paul claimed to design the Les Paul model. He didn't. Gibson did as a solid body model of the L5 F hole jazz guitar. Les decided it was very close to what he wanted,so he got into an endorsing deal with Gibson,as many other artists did later.

A hollow body is not as desirable in LOUD rock playing as a solid. The body vibrates,it vibrates the pickups,and causes loud feed back.

[Bob Frey]

I don't believe gluing multiple pieces of the same type of wood together will change the tonal characteristics of the wood used very much. Gibson now uses multiple pieces to build some bodies that were 1 piece construction years ago. Thick wide boards are just getting harder to get in some species. The type of wood does change the tonal quality of an electric guitar, as well as type of fretboard, neck, etc. It also impacts sustain. If there was no difference we would be playing pine instead of mahogany, ash etc. Many players argue the age of the wood even changes the tone.

[Russell Sansom]

An easy way to get into the variable of body density is to see it somewhere on the continuum between an electric steel guitar( like stringing up a length of railroad rail ) and a banjo. A plain attack with a lengthy, linear decay vs. a sharp attack that damps quickly. The mechanical properties of the wood have a significant effect on the overall system, but discernible differences between a laminated vs one-piece body of the same wood would be swamped by other variables.

[scott spencer]

I'm guessing they'll sound better glued together than if you just left them loose! :D

Honestly, I can't imagine it making enough of a difference to worry about...so many other variables with the pickups, schematic, strings, neck, amp, speakers, cables, intonation, etc....

[David Weaver]

I'm guessing they'll sound better glued together than if you just left them loose! :D

Honestly, I can't imagine it making enough of a difference to worry about...so many other variables with the pickups, schematic, strings, neck, amp, speakers, cables, intonation, etc....

Ditto - and ditto to what george said. On a solid-body electric, if the electronics are the same and the density is remotely similar (and scale length is the same), it will sound the same.

And ditto to what george said about hollowbodies live. they have a tone that doesn't cut through the mix, anyway, which is OK for some stuff, but I think most people use them to try to be different or be more like someone else. You can get a les paul to sound an awful lot like a thinline hollowbody but cutting back the tone just a little. You can get nice jazzy tones out of one as long as it doesn't have the gibson ceramic pickups, too, by knowing where the levels on the guitar should be.

I would still try to find a single piece if you aren't in a pinch time-wise.

[John Coloccia]

http://www.ca-walnutdesigns.com/

Check those guys out. Ideal would be a bookmatched set. Now THAT would look hot.


re: the glue up
No, you're not going to screw anything up by laminating the body. My bodies are typically 4 piece. I'm 14" wide, but locally I can really only get alder locally that's about 7" rough. By the time I'm done getting rid of the unusable parts and jointing, I need to add two little wings to get to 14". I never thought twice about it. You need to make pretty significant changes to really have a noticeable effect on electrics.

Manufacturers try to turn this into voodoo in an attempt to justify why a mass produced, CNC'd slab of wood is worth $2000+. They'll tell you all the mythology behind different woods, set necks vs bolt-on, their magic finish that lets the wood "breathe" (whatever that means), why a one piece this is better than a 2 piece that, or why a 5 piece this is more stable than a solid that, etc etc etc. And then what do they do? They take a slab of wood, they put it in a machine and they walk away, as if every piece of wood is identical.

There is so much variability between the pieces of wood of the same species that all the little tweaks and special sauce they market are meaningless because it doesn't take the wood itself into account! After all that mumbo jumbo, they don't even bother to tune the wood. Even acoustic makers do this. I have a very nice Taylor. I played many dozens of them over several years until I found one that really sounded great. They make a nice guitar, but when you glue it, screw it and ship it out the door, consistency goes out the door as well. All the marketing mumbo jumbo about their special drying process and everything else doesn't make up for it.

My opinion is you're just as likely to make an improvement as you are to make something worse, and either way I think the variability from one piece of walnut to the next is probably more than that. That said, you can probably find what you need through the link at the top and use a one piece body, just because it will look nicer.

[David Weaver]

Manufacturers try to turn this into voodoo in an attempt to justify why a mass produced, CNC'd slab of wood is worth $2000+.

You're right about that. You have to have crap-proof rubber hip boots if you want to wade through all of the marketing blather from different companies about why a guitar that costs them $700 to make should cost $3000 to you when someone else sells it for $1500.

Things like $300 options for an ebony veneer peghead overlay, $600 machine done small laser cut inlays and $650 upcharges for AA or AAA top wood abound.

I'm not saying these should be free items, but there is definitely an element of selling the base stripped down guitar cheap to get you interested in some cases and really overcharging for the options and overselling each option as if it's adding a strand of 9mm pearls to the guitar.

Or in other cases, even the stripped down guitar are expensive to pay for sponsors and public company dividends, and the options are even worse.

[george wilson]

I did say hardwoods,Bob. Soft pine would be getting into another realm. Her walnut would be about like good mahogany. As I mentioned,it would have a SLIGHTLY darker tone than hard maple.

My point to her was that the walnut would make a fine guitar without getting too complicated with her over it. It may be one of her first guitars

I have made a few classicals with walnut back and sides back in the late 1950's. They worked fine.

[David Weaver]

I maybe made the mistake of assuming that a maple carved top was going to be laminated onto a walnut back.

It'll make a little more difference if the entire guitar is claro.

Still, if it's a good guitar, it'll be a good guitar.

I have two all-walnut instruments. one is a squareneck resonator and the other is a banjo. The only walnut part of the banjo that really makes an appreciable difference in tone is probably the neck (the rest is just veneer over what is probably birch).

The squareneck resonator is very buttery, not as sharp of an attack is a maple resonator, but something made like that is made is a whole different story vs. a solidbody electric.

On an electric guitar, though, i would imagine anything can be eq'd out as long as it's not basswood or some low density wood, or on the other end of the spectrum, entirely made of hard maple or ebony.

[John Coloccia]

The "pine Tele" is pretty popular these days. It turns out that it's remarkably difficult to make an electric guitar sound bad. Heck, even Steinbergers sound great. :D

How'd you find bending the Walnut, George? I was thinking about that for a next build. i don't know why I think this, but it seems like it would be difficult to bend.

[george wilson]

Walnut bent as well as any wood,I suppose. As long as it can be bent into the sharpest curve,the waist,it makes it! Cutaways would require more bend,but I never made cutaway classicals,nor should I have.

I have a nice piece of walnut with very regularly spaced curls in it. Smallish curls,too. My favorite.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Thanks, all, for the great advice and links. For the solidbody I've decided to go with a hardwood, perhaps some leftover cherry, for the body, and get some book matched claro walnut for an acoustic sound board for a later project, throw all the wood budget into quality neck wood.

This is my first build.

Pam

[george wilson]

Use spruce for the soundboard,not walnut. Walnut for the back. You would likely get a fairly dark tone if you use walnut for the top in an acoustic.

[Wes Grass]

Cherry could work. Here's a couple 'Les Pauls' I built for my nephews last Christmas. They're slab bodies and bolt on 'flat' necks like a Fender. Much simpler and faster to build, as I only had 7 weeks to get them done.

They're 80% scale, which let me use a standard fret spacing for a tenor banjo ... which let me order the fretboards pre slotted and radiused (huge time saver). I had an 8/4 slab of cherry big enough for the pair, but I resawed it so I could flip the grain so it didn't run 'across' the corners. I figured that would make it more stable, and it would be less likely to chip if they got dropped. I took advantage of having them open to rout some pockets to reduce the weight a bit, and to create the wiring channel. By using a 1/2" ball endmill for that, the hole for a flush mount jack magically appeared when I cut the outer contour.

Necks are Sapele. The only 'handwork' on these was contouring the necks with rasp and file, and the sanding. Almost all the rest done on a CNC mill after designing the whole thing in Solidworks. Cheating, I know, but that's what I do and I was on a tight schedule.

Lot of things that could be changed, like the relationship of the neck and body to position the bridge differently. And the bodies are kind of thin and small, which led me to leave out the pickup selector switch.

And they sound great. I was stunned actually, as these were my first guitars. The reference instrument for size is a Martin OO.

163905

[Pam Niedermayer]

Use spruce for the soundboard,not walnut. Walnut for the back. You would likely get a fairly dark tone if you use walnut for the top in an acoustic.

I had a walnut Baby Taylor for a while and loved the sound, highly unlikely it was claro walnut, though. The spruce, assuming good spruce, could help provide that Martin ring that sure is pretty; but this is another project and a couple of years away.

Thanks,
Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

...And they sound great. I was stunned actually, as these were my first guitars. The reference instrument for size is a Martin OO.

Thanks, Wes, well done. It's these reports on making a first guitar that encourage me to make an electric first.

Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

Walnut bent as well as any wood,I suppose. As long as it can be bent into the sharpest curve,the waist,it makes it! Cutaways would require more bend,but I never made cutaway classicals,nor should I have.

I have a nice piece of walnut with very regularly spaced curls in it. Smallish curls,too. My favorite.


Is there a wood that excels at being bent?

If you ever want to thin your wood supply, please let me know. :)

Pam

[Bruce Haugen]

if you're looking for inspiration on building an acoustic, take a look at Kathy Matsushita's site (http://home.comcast.net/~kathymatsushita/)

I'm quite certain that your woodworking skills are head and shoulders above where she started. If she can do it...

[Pam Niedermayer]

if you're looking for inspiration on building an acoustic, take a look at Kathy Matsushita's site (http://home.comcast.net/~kathymatsushita/)

I'm quite certain that your woodworking skills are head and shoulders above where she started. If she can do it...

Very nice site, Bruce, thanks. I'm not worried about my woodworking skills at all; but I have several reasons for wanting to do electric first:

1. I already have a pretty good Goya classical
2. I've never even played an electric instrument
3. I don't want to have to accumulate all those bending tools, like heaters
4. A couple or three years ago I had what the medicos call a silent stroke. It didn't feel silent to me. As I proceeded to determine what I'd lost, the main thing was the ability to play a musical instrument. This project is to get me over the restarting hump with a minimum of woodworking fuss.

Pam

[David Weaver]

You would likely get a fairly dark tone if you use walnut for the top in an acoustic.

I'd bet it would make a nice parlor guitar, something you wouldn't expect the ring of a big 000 or flatpicker's guitar to make.

I've only seen one all walnut guitar that I can remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fETLRDGxqA

[george wilson]

Beech wood bends like a wet noodle when it's soaked in hot water. You must bend it around a hot iron,though,till it's dry. If you just put it into the mold wet,it will dry with waves in it from top to back horizontally around the body.

[John Coloccia]

Indian Rosewood is nice too. Maple's not bad. Curly maple can be absolutely MISERABLE to bend, especially if you're doing a cutaway.

Incidentally, I tried some walnut a couple of nights ago, George. Not a whole side. Just a practice piece. I was more difficult than Rosewood and Maple, but not as terrible as I thought it would be. I never thought of trying Beech sides and back. Interesting. I have to try that some day.

[george wilson]

Sometimes when I make a cutaway,I'll plane down the sides in the cutaway to 1/2 thickness. Then,I bend another 1/2 thickness piece and laminate it to the inside of the sides. Then,sand down where the 1/2 thickness area where the 2 thicknesses end,to feather out the termination. There are vertical pieces of cloth tape glued at about 4 or 5" intervals around the insides of the sides to stop cracks from spreading if you break your side somehow. I just hide the feathered out place under one of the tapes.

Since I use a book matched piece on the inside of the cut away,it is invisible.

[george wilson]

I don't recommend beech for sides. Just use it for the liner strips inside the body where the front or back meets the sides. Beech doesn't seem stiff enough to keep the body from taking a curve under string tension.

Sometimes certain factory guitars had beech liners,like vintage Gretsch guitars.

[Kevin Lucas]

Was this along the lines you were thinking of?

http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@181.G37waX04GjJ.1@.2cb6e0ae/0

[Pam Niedermayer]

I'd bet it would make a nice parlor guitar, something you wouldn't expect the ring of a big 000 or flatpicker's guitar to make.

I've only seen one all walnut guitar that I can remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fETLRDGxqA

Wow, one fine guitar and player; but Taylor said at the beginning that the sound board is spruce. The Baby Taylor is all walnut, top, back, and sides.

Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

Was this along the lines you were thinking of?

http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@181.G37waX04GjJ.1@.2cb6e0ae/0

Gorgeous, thanks, that maple top really sets it off.

Pam

[Johnny Kleso]

Their is a few stores at eBay that sell thick slabs Claro walnut but often it is pretty green and in gun stock sizes
Home > Buy > Crafts > Home Arts & Crafts > Woodworking > Lumber> Search results for walnut

[David Weaver]

Wow, one fine guitar and player; but Taylor said at the beginning that the sound board is spruce. The Baby Taylor is all walnut, top, back, and sides.

Pam

Oop! I guess I should've listened at the beginning. So I don't know of any all walnut guitars, just resonators (I have one - made by the same company as that guitar). A resonator probably lends itself a lot better to the walnut top than would a guitar - half the top is a cone, anyway.

Jens Kruger isn't really a guitar player, at least that's what he says. That's the first I've ever seen him playing guitar.

[Ron Petley]

Here is a piece worth looking at, it is about second forom the bottom of the page:
http://www.gilmerwood.com/instrument_wood-solid_bodies.htm

Great thread by the way.
Cheers Ron.

[Joe Cunningham]

4. A couple or three years ago I had what the medicos call a silent stroke. It didn't feel silent to me. As I proceeded to determine what I'd lost, the main thing was the ability to play a musical instrument. This project is to get me over the restarting hump with a minimum of woodworking fuss.

Pam

Best of luck. Woodworking will not be a problem, though the electronics might be new for you. A quality soldering iron though is necessary for electric guitars. I did a small amount of practice before tackling my first soldering job and it went well, so it is not too tough a skill to learn. I had the advantage of watching a pro do it in my guitar building class.

Have you decided on a body style yet? I looked back but didn't see it mentioned.

I'm building a Jazzmaster style right now, and have a few photos of the process on my smugmug (http://hockeygoon.smugmug.com/Hobbies/Jazz-Master/14103191_v92Ko#1039345986_Jky8r) account. Definitaly not doing it neander style, though all my planing is done with hand planes. But I use a router and template for the sides, neck shape, and pickup/bridge cavities. I got the .pdf template off TDPRI (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/index.php) which is a great resource for telecasters and lots of other styles of electrics.

I'm using poplar because it is cheap, fairly light, but still sounds good. I am planning to paint it one of the Fender colors, Ice Blue Metallic. The neck is mahogany with a mukushi fingerboard (got this blank off luthiers mercantile international (http://www.lmii.com/)). Never heard of mukushi before, but darn it is a very hard wood. I used a special miter box from stewmac for the fret slotting and compared to the bloodwood fingerboard on my other build, it had to be 5x times harder.

There are also a few excellent build threads here in the woodworking projects.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Oop! I guess I should've listened at the beginning. So I don't know of any all walnut guitars, just resonators (I have one - made by the same company as that guitar). A resonator probably lends itself a lot better to the walnut top than would a guitar - half the top is a cone, anyway.

Jens Kruger isn't really a guitar player, at least that's what he says. That's the first I've ever seen him playing guitar.

Oops, my bad, very bad, the Baby Taylor I had was mahogany, NOT walnut. It did sound very good though. Where has the memory gone?

Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

Here is a piece worth looking at, it is about second forom the bottom of the page:
http://www.gilmerwood.com/instrument_wood-solid_bodies.htm

Great thread by the way.
Cheers Ron.

Sure is pretty, too bad it's already sold. But while there I also saw some thick Sitka Spruce, which might make a great sounding guitar.

Thanks,
Pam

[george wilson]

Some cheaper line guitars like Favilla were made of all mahogany. Favillas were a little less good than Gibson,but way above Harmony or Kay.

Martin made an all koa guitar years ago. I think it had a darker tone than a spruce top.

Solid spruce for a solid body would not be the best idea. It would cost sustain to the tone. Also,very easy to damage. I don't even see why they would offer it as such.

[David Weaver]

Taylor (unrelated to tut taylor above, of course) still makes a koa guitar.

Their tops are thinner IIRC, but i don't have a taylor so I can't tell if that's true. They always sounded bright to me.

Darrell scott plays an all koa taylor, and it maybe is a little darker than the spruce top acoustics, but you can't tell because there's no way to hear it without a mic. To me, it doesn't have the bright edge, and is a little smoother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4wXzIyjdus

[Pam Niedermayer]

Best of luck. Woodworking will not be a problem, though the electronics might be new for you. A quality soldering iron though is necessary for electric guitars. I did a small amount of practice before tackling my first soldering job and it went well, so it is not too tough a skill to learn. I had the advantage of watching a pro do it in my guitar building class.

Have you decided on a body style yet? I looked back but didn't see it mentioned.

I'm building a Jazzmaster style right now, and have a few photos of the process on my smugmug (http://hockeygoon.smugmug.com/Hobbies/Jazz-Master/14103191_v92Ko#1039345986_Jky8r) account. Definitaly not doing it neander style, though all my planing is done with hand planes. But I use a router and template for the sides, neck shape, and pickup/bridge cavities. I got the .pdf template off TDPRI (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/index.php) which is a great resource for telecasters and lots of other styles of electrics.

I'm using poplar because it is cheap, fairly light, but still sounds good. I am planning to paint it one of the Fender colors, Ice Blue Metallic. The neck is mahogany with a mukushi fingerboard (got this blank off luthiers mercantile international (http://www.lmii.com/)). Never heard of mukushi before, but darn it is a very hard wood. I used a special miter box from stewmac for the fret slotting and compared to the bloodwood fingerboard on my other build, it had to be 5x times harder.

There are also a few excellent build threads here in the woodworking projects.


Yes, soldering. Once I realized I had to heat the piece instead of the solder, all was well.

Haven't decided on a body style yet. I think I want to build a through neck and I'm sure I want a slight depression for forearm comfort. Beyond that, nothing. With those two things in mind, I have to admit to a strong attraction to the cigar box style, but bigger. Nice guitar you're building.

Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

Some cheaper line guitars like Favilla were made of all mahogany. Favillas were a little less good than Gibson,but way above Harmony or Kay.

Martin made an all koa guitar years ago. I think it had a darker tone than a spruce top.

Solid spruce for a solid body would not be the best idea. It would cost sustain to the tone. Also,very easy to damage. I don't even see why they would offer it as such.


Probably they offer it because some idiot like me asked them for it. :)

Thanks,
Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

Taylor (unrelated to tut taylor above, of course) still makes a koa guitar.

Their tops are thinner IIRC, but i don't have a taylor so I can't tell if that's true. They always sounded bright to me.

Darrell scott plays an all koa taylor, and it maybe is a little darker than the spruce top acoustics, but you can't tell because there's no way to hear it without a mic. To me, it doesn't have the bright edge, and is a little smoother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4wXzIyjdus


Thanks for another great link. I've long admired koa from a distance, nice to get a feeling for how it sounds.

Pam

[David Weaver]

You and me, too (admiring the koa).

In my younger days, I would've just popped on the internet and ordered one of the guitars that darrel is using in the video to see if they all sound like that. Getting a guitar from a major manufacturer that *looks like* one that someone is playing is a major shot in the dark, though. You never know if someone else ghostbuilt the guitar you're jonesing for (or if the custom shop did it and some stuff isn't quite stock) to find out that the ones from the factory aren't quite the same. I've ordered in guitars in shops before because they didn't stock what I wanted, and been forced to take the guitars because I ordered them, and found them not to be that great. That includes a new D28 and a new heritage golden eagle, so not cheap stuff.

I don't play guitar as much as i used to by a long shot, but i think there's room in the acoustic spectrum for that all koa tone (especially for someone who plays a lot of electric guitar - I think the tone translates well to scales you'd use more commonly on an electric guitar). A rosewood sided well made acoustic has a nice ring and a lot of overtones, and a mahogany sided well made acoustic (at least mine) has a very fundamental punchy tone, not much ring/overtones compared to my rosewood sided acoustic. Neither has the type of tone that koa guitar has.

Married with kids now and can't get away with ordering $3300 guitars to just see if I like them, though.

(and not that this has anything to do with a walnut guitar electric tone).

[Pam Niedermayer]

I've found a couple of good Koa sources, prices seem more less the same as claro walnut, so why not. One source has 2" thick wet Koa, will have to air it out for a while, no problem at all.

Also, I really like that guitar that Keven pointed to, made by Alan Cringean, which should look fantastic in Koa.

Thanks,
Pam

[george wilson]

I have some koa. Maybe sometime I'll make a guitar with it for back and sides.

Maple makes a nice guitar,too. It has become a more popular wood lately. Some say that strings sound better longer on a maple guitar. I have made several maple guitars recently.

[Bruce Haugen]

George,
did you ever see a white oak acoustic guitar? I ran across one a few summers ago. I have no idea how it sounded, but it looked nice. Do you or anyone else have any thoughts on it?

[Pam Niedermayer]

I have some koa. Maybe sometime I'll make a guitar with it for back and sides.

Maple makes a nice guitar,too. It has become a more popular wood lately. Some say that strings sound better longer on a maple guitar. I have made several maple guitars recently.

George, I think maybe you have some of everything good and have done at least one of everything good. It's positively depressing. :)

When you make that Koa guitar, I sure hope you'll play a few notes for us. And if you hear of an available supply of it, please yell, this stuff is expensive.

Maple is certainly cheaper and more available here. Right now I'm thinking Koa body (black walnut is still an option, have this nice log already, not claro), deep mortised through neck (mahogany, maybe Honduran old growth), with a light maple top, modified SG style.

Pam

[David Weaver]

I don't know anything about maple guitars (well, at least not maple acoustics, I had a hard maple electric neck-through when I was younger, and it was a really nice clean transparent sounding guitar).

In resonators, maple really has an edge. If the acoustic guitars sound like that, I can understand why they'd sound like the strings would still be bright longer after a more traditional acoustic wouldn't be.

Maple (jerry douglas):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gukFvG8VbK4

Rosewood and Spruce (Rob Ickes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP_p5dd6Ifs

No koa squarenecks that I could find, but I think the tonal differences are easier to hear in a resonator than a guitar because of the sustain.

Both resonators above are from the same maker.

[george wilson]

I was selling maple jumbos through a dealer some time ago. The professionals really liked,and bought them.

I have a koa board in my pile about 1" X 9 or 10" x 8' long. Has some figure to it. I THINK I also have another piece of koa.

I don't know,I never could get with the koa option. Absolutely no reason why. Just one of my quirks. When I was young,I thought it was cheap looking mahogany!! What a curious thing the brain is! Now,it's,last time I looked,over $300.00 for a koa back,IIRC.

On the other hand,I even made a few flamenco guitars out of Spanish cedar. Talk about a cheap looking wood!
Was used on old cigar boxes years ago! Yet,it is the best wood for classical/flamenco guitar necks. I've even got some that is VERY curly.

[Pam Niedermayer]

...Rosewood and Spruce (Rob Ickes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP_p5dd6Ifs

No koa squarenecks that I could find, but I think the tonal differences are easier to hear in a resonator than a guitar because of the sustain...

Now that sounds hard to me, even for a resonator.

Pam

[David Weaver]

Hard as in hard tone or hard as in difficult?

There are so few people in the world who play a squareneck tastefully and well. I didn't really realize why until I bought one - they are incredibly difficult to play because of how precise your left hand has to be muting strings, not hitting others, not allowing the steel to ring strings. Mistakes sound much more offensive on a resonator than they do on a guitar, too - sort of like mistakes of a beginniner violinist. The only good thing about trying to learn a resonator is a lot of it translates to banjo (the picking rolls, the scales and tuning, etc are the same), and you can play a banjo tastefully a lot easier (like you would play a guitar).

I have had a very hard time unloading my squareneck resonator! (and I didn't have to play it very long to realize I was never going to get good at it). I'll bet if everyone tried one for two hours before buying, nobody would ever sell another one.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Hard as in tone, very grating. I've never tried to play one, so will take your word on how hard it is to do well. Maybe hard and hard?

Pam

[David Weaver]

Hard as in tone, very grating. I've never tried to play one, so will take your word on how hard it is to do well. Maybe hard and hard?

Pam

Yeah, hard and hard, I guess - it's funny how perspective works. If you hear a lot of squarenecks, that one of rob's sounds very even in depth and tone to me -less buzzy and harsh than maple.

Resonators are best left to other people, not, to me at least, nearly as rewarding as time spent on the guitar. You can get to the point where you're playing tasteful stuff that's not beginner chord strumming on a guitar in a few months if you are paying attention. I have no idea how long it takes to play something that isn't offensive on dobro, but it's a lot more than a few months. Unlikely to walk down the street and find a neighbor who'd like to do a pick-up porch jam with a dobro player, either, or break it out to play a lullaby to help a baby to sleep.

[Pam Niedermayer]

The resonators did achieve their purpose of getting the sound to the back of the room without electricity.

Pam

[David Weaver]

Yeah, I guess people like them about as much as they like banjos :D

I like both of the instruments, but not in hard driving bluegrass. They can both be played more melodically with a mellow tone.

I like pretty much anything with strings, though, even if you have to activate the strings with keys.

[Johnny Kleso]

I love the sound of a resonator aka Dobro/National Steel Guitar

Playing slide on it has no equal

https://www.themusiczoo.com/images/2-26-10/Dobro_California_Girl_D5010470_1.jpg

[Bill Nenna]

I'm at the wood ordering stage for a very special (to me) electric guitar. I think I want to make the body of claro walnut; but the best I've found so far is two pieces, each 7/8" thick, glued to 1-3/4" thick and sanded. It seems that this glue may distort the sound waves, perhaps bouncing them back for a different sound than a solid 1-piece 1-3/4" would. Anybody have experience with this?

Thanks,
Pam
I understand more about acoustic instruments but I have listened to many discussions on solid body instruments and drawn some conclusions tempered with things I already have some experience with.

To respond to your question, which as I read it, questions if a solid piece of a particular wood will sound different from a glued up solid slab of the same type of wood for a solid body electric. The short answer is no. If you want to dive into the "theoretical" then the discussion would need to turn to the fit and glue properties between wood pieces. However, I seriously doubt any detectable difference of any sort could possibly be made. If you still choose to go all out, use fresh instrument grade hide glue from a glue pot.

Some things can and do go over the top. That's why I don't polish the tread on tires. :D

[george wilson]

Actually, differences in solid bodys' tone does exist with different woods. The 1954 Les Paul "black beauty" has a mahogany body and top. It sounds a little darker than the maple top versions. I certainly wouldn't want to make a solid body out of a REAL soft wood. It would cut down on the sustain .

[Pam Niedermayer]

...To respond to your question, which as I read it, questions if a solid piece of a particular wood will sound different from a glued up solid slab of the same type of wood for a solid body electric. The short answer is no. If you want to dive into the "theoretical" then the discussion would need to turn to the fit and glue properties between wood pieces. However, I seriously doubt any detectable difference of any sort could possibly be made. If you still choose to go all out, use fresh instrument grade hide glue from a glue pot. ...

Yes, Bill, that was the question. Thank you. I didn't know there was such a thing as instrument grade hide glue.

Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

Actually, differences in solid bodys' tone does exist with different woods. The 1954 Les Paul "black beauty" has a mahogany body and top. It sounds a little darker than the maple top versions. I certainly wouldn't want to make a solid body out of a REAL soft wood. It would cut down on the sustain .

Thanks, George. I've pretty much decided on a mahogany through neck, ordered a big hunk of it tonight.

Pam

[Pam Niedermayer]

I love the sound of a resonator aka Dobro/National Steel Guitar

Playing slide on it has no equal

Sure is pretty. Did you name it Black Beauty?

Pam

[Abi Parris]

Pam,

In the event you haven't already seen them, Creeker Mark Crenshaw has posted a few of his electric guitar builds in the Projects section. His posts of the builds are detailed and include lots of pics.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Pam,

In the event you haven't already seen them, Creeker Mark Crenshaw has posted a few of his electric guitar builds in the Projects section. His posts of the builds are detailed and include lots of pics.

I didn't know there was a projects section. Thanks, I'll head over there right now.

Pam