That's a beautiful piece of work CR Guitarman.Do you build guitars too?If not you should consider it.I think that with the depletion of exotic wood stocks in the rainforests you're going to see a bigger increase in the use of alternate and farmed woods.Most of these forests have been decimated and conitinue to be to feed people's obsession of having something rare and valuable just for the purpose of having bragging rights of having something that the Jones don't have.Granted I'd love to have a '42 Martin D-28 with a Brazilian mahogany neck but I certainly would'nt buy a guitar that was made from it recently as I would be knowingly contributing to the problem.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Interesting that the Chinese are buying up all the Western timber they can get their little hands on. Maybe that accounts for the huge wave of Far Eastern guitars coming our way. I guess I could name 10 such companies without even thinking about it..

Oh the irony of a traditional Western guitar manufacturers struggling on raw materials, whilst copies of their instruments bombard us in their tens of thousands, made of the same wood they can't afford to use. The ruthlessness and brutal efficiency of economics never fails to horrify and fascinate.

Here's hoping for increased Far Eastern labour costs, so we can all play on a level playing field..

A few classified adverts from 2028:

"Real alder wood Stratocaster. Features solid maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Built in 2011 by the much missed Fender Company at their Mexican facility. Stored in conditions of optimal humidity. A rare opportunity to acquire the sort of toneful instrument just not seen these days. Serious offers around £340,000 invited.."

"Wanted: Yamaha Pacifica, any colour, will swap for a house.."

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Speaking of 2028, what will those Chinese copies be worth. Two fakes were advertized for sale last week and they were going for twice what they sold for a year ago. Here is an ad in today's locals...a sign of things to come?

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell ... Z302885212

v

Hey, I could dig having a bass made entirely from carbon fiber and titanium-Particularly in the shape of a weapon so when the zombies come in 2028 or whatever I'll be ready in the middle of the gig ^^

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

[Nutter has joined the party]

Hi folks! Long time no see!

Our dear friend Ceri pointed out this thread to me... and after a quick photo hunt I came across these on my hard drive. Don't touch, just look!



This is where woodworms like us get their kicks: A shed full of delight! Take a look around...




Perhaps Ceri can illuminate us on some of the wood shown in these pics. First off, I am usually terrible at remembering names, and secondly I was too overwhelmed by all this, I could barely keep my head together. A truly amazing trip.



A maze you'd love to get lost in...



Let's have a look at a slab of Maple, shall we? This will one day turn into drop tops for Les Pauls. One can only dream of having a Paula in that dress.... and we were so hot for this piece we nearly considered buying it but then.....



...what to do with 3 by .7 metres of gorgeousness, in the thickness of nearly 10 cm? so, sadly, we left it there. It was above our needs and certainly in that respect above my price tag.
So I bought something a little smaller instead:



Two little bits of ebony. Go for it, Nutter! hahaha...

We also went to see another timber merchant, but by then my brain was so fried, and I didn't want to waste the poor man's time or humour (we were running late... spent too much time at the other place) that I didn't bother to take pics. This will be corrected with the next visit at some point.

All in all an exciting day. And as CRGuitarman demonstrates so excellently: Timber is very versatile, and as a sustainable building material will never be out of fashion. One day even the presently ruthless buyers will realise that. It's ok. They'll get there. There have always been swings in supply and demand of wood, it goes with fashions, nature cycles, and inventions of new materials. Before we invented plastic and metal furniture, all homes were outfitted with wooden furniture, that too took a toll on stock. But thankfully, we learnt from it, and wood is back - in supply and demand.


Maybe some on this board haven't yet seen my adventures with an old Framus Sorella yet; but just to point out the cycles that supposedly "new" inventions have already taken, here's a pic of its neck:



Framus too saved a lot of money and hassle finding good straight timber by switching to laminated necks for some models. And these are acoustic guitars we're talking about here; if wood type and -quality mattered anywhere, it would certainly be in this field of luthiery, don't you think?
But not to worry: Of course it matters. All I'm saying is that you can get great sounding instruments out of unlikely materials. In the case of the Framus, I love the particular sound it has (more due to laminated body than the neck, but that's my personal view), and I wouldn't have it any other way. I like variety.

Cheers folks. For lunch today: Rain!

Nutter

Great post Nutter.. It's been a while since I've seen stacks like that myself. I haven't done woodworking in a while now. The company I worked for went under. Vegas has been a huge casualty in the construction field. Still laying off, more companies folding. As much as I love playing music for a living now, I sure do miss the trade I've done for 20-years. It's certainly a field of dreams of sorts to walk into a room like that full of lumber for woodworkers. The imagination can run as wild as creating songs.

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Hi Nutter: thank you for those pix, and yes, perhaps I can.



That’s just a little corner of the whole warehouse - Timberline in Kent, England. On the far wall stacked upright we are seeing Zebrano, Wenge (I think) and top quality Birdseye Maple (I had me a four-guitar-neck plank of that). Upright far left is Mahogany (Honduran, I think?), stacked flat in the middle is another sort of Mahogany and in the foreground another. Upright far right is Cherry, if memory serves.

The little ladder is leaning against a stack of machined Lignum Vitae, the most dense timber in the world – sadly, those billets are too small for guitar necks (some of this stock goes for wood turning). The piles of flitches to the right of that look like Rosewood but I think they might actually have been Black Palmira or something similar.



This next photo is amazing. Those tall black planks are Ebony of very high quality. Wow. Never mind complete guitar necks; you could make whole electric guitar bodies from those trunks, they are so big. Have a look at the price of Ebony fingerboards at Stew-Mac and then take a guess at what these planks must be worth. To the left of the Ebony is Flamed Sycamore from Scotland and the North of England. Very pretty. In the foreground far right is the corner of a big stack of Spalted Beech. Not really my thing, but spalted timber is very fashionable in guitar making right now.



This photo is interesting for this plank of raw flamey Maple. It is hard to see the flame in this rough sawn state, but what you can see is how the figure in the wood comes out in a rippled pattern on the edge of the trunk beneath the bark. I bought a plank of this too.

Bear in mind that all of this is raw timber, as it arrives off ships from the countries of origin. And what you see in the photos is just a corner of the whole stock. You have to know what you're dealing with here: it is not all nicely cut and vacuum packed as it comes from the likes of Stew-Mac. This is the real deal.

Amongst other things we saw were: Boxwood; Bubinga; African Blackwood (wow!); Cedar; Nicaraguan and Mexican Cocobolo; Camphor Laurel; Asian Striped, African, Indian and Macassar Ebony; Brazilian Kingwood; many Maples; various types of Mahogany; Olivewood; Ovangkol; Bog Oak (!!!); Padauk; Partridgewood; Purpleheart; many sorts of Rosewood; Satine Bloodwood (shazam!); Sri Lanka and Madagascar Satinwood; and Brazilian Tulipwood. To name just a few!

Phew.

I’m away from home and my photos at present. But I notice I have already uploaded a few things to Photobucket, so here is a sneak preview of some of the things I bought (for those as have been asking for another build thread…).

Here is a plank of flamed maple, a spare guitar neck at the far end, for scale:





As you see, big enough to make a guitar body or two, if I wish. However, I will instead use it for necks and book-matched guitar fronts. So I sawed it up like this:



And then like this (I still don’t have a table saw):



Then we feed it through my nice Axminster thicknesser:





And we get neck blanks like this:





You still can’t really see what the flame is like yet. It will really pop when the neck is carved and we get some lacquer on there. Later…

I also bought this amazing Birdseye Maple – though when you see it in its rough state you appreciate how you have to have your wits about you to spot good quality material:



Sawn up, that gives just enough for four necks:



And I believe you will never see a better photo than this for explaining why birdseye timber has to be flatsawn to produce the desired figure on the front and back of guitar necks:



Quite pleased with myself for that picture. Before and after putting through the thicknessing machine it looks like this:



And this shot explains the point of the exercise:



Yummy! That’s a whole different thing than the raw plank we found sitting in the warehouse, huh? Some tasty necks going to come out of that.

As Mr Nutter mentioned, we also visited another “tonewood” supplier, Dave Dykes, very famous amongst instrument builders this side of the pond. There we bought some book-matched Maple sets for carved guitar fronts:



(Seen against my nice new Italian Limestone kitchen floor.)

And I bought some premium timbers for one-piece violin backs. This is a quirky piece from the Carpathian Mountains (and yes that is the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, of Count Dracula fame). Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like this for the very prominent “medullary rays”:



Medullary rays produce the little flecky bits that run sideways to the grain. Apologies for the poor photo quality here:



And I also bought this amazing piece of dark coloured Oregon Maple. Splashing gin on it gives just a hint of the quilt-flame that is going to burst out when this is carved and varnished:



I also bought some Birdseye Maple acoustic backs and sides, and… other stuff. Might have some interesting threads to come, later in the year.

It was a fun day out.

Cheers - C

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Wow Ceri! That's the most fun reading a post I've had in quite some time. Looking forward to the continuation of this!!

Thank you too Mr. Nutter!!

Thanks, F.

I think we might have some fun stuff lined up for the autumn...

Cheers - C

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Beer Check, Comfy chair Check, Reading glasses Check, Nibbles Check, Autumn Che...Autumn. Uuuugghh..Autumn fur crips sake
Looking forward to another epic Ceri I'll just check the USGS website for upcoming side orders.......nope they're waiting on you

Holy Highjack, Batman - What were we talking about? I am truly looking forward to your upcoming build threads, and will be especially interested in seeing the carving of the arch top and back for the violin. Any thoughts on carving an archtop guitar?

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

History tells us it will be a great thread!! Get your popcorn and drinks ready!!

Can't tell you how impressed I am by your knowledge of the raw materials of our guitar based obsessions. Your enthusiasm for wood and the way in which it can be manipulated is quite humbling. We should count ourselves lucky that there are people here that can add serious technical insight into threads such as this one.

That's a fair few neck blanks you have stashed away there - 10 project years worth? I shudder to think what it cost..

Especially looking forward to the violin!

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Hi adey: I'm happy to talk about costs, because it is quite instructive.



That piece of good grade birdseye cost (from memory) about £65 / $105 and gave me four neck billets. So £16.25 / $26.25 per neck. By comparison, Stew-Mac charge £28.78 / $46.87 plus shipping for flamed maple neck blanks - they don't offer birdseye.

But this is even better:



From that plank of flamed maple I will get six neck blanks plus either three or four Les Paul style book-matched guitar tops. Stew-Mac charge £61.35 / $99.90 for book-matched fronts of the equivalent level of flame.

So the total for that timber from them would be £299.17 / $551.22 (or more if I can squeeze a fourth front out of it). I paid £98 / $159 for it from Timberline's warehouse pictured in Nutter's post. Therefore: excellent savings are to be had if we take the trouble to source and cut our own timber.

This piece is special:



To my taste that may be the single most beautiful lump of wood I have ever seen. That was expensive: £100 / $165. Yet that is still reasonable by world standards: Stew-Mac ask £40 / $65 for completely ordinary center-joined violin back blanks. Dave Dykes (luthierssupplies.co.uk) sells the equivalent grade significantly cheaper.

Still, with value like that a fella can get carried away. I spent about £950 / $1550 on tonewood that day. Oops!



Cheers - C

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What he said^^^

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.