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I have some Sapele that looks alot like mahohany, is this a good kerfed lining wood?


what other than mahogany and bass are good replacements for kerfed lining.? How about cedar 2x4s from Home depo?

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Man, I wish I was near home depot to get cedar 2x4s!!

great for bracing, and I dare say would be fine for linings too, though I haven't tried.

I Have use walnut and I know someone else who uses willow

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I make my linings from Sapele as well as neck and tail blocks. Works fine. I happen to have a lot of Sapele board stock in my shop so that's what I use. Good quarter sawn Sapele is easy to come by, a lot cheaper than Magogany these days. I wouldn't mess with the WRC from home depot. The stuff I've seen is too green.

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I'm going to ask the question backward: is there any wood that doesn't work for linings? Of course we want to keep the instruments as light as possible, so I would avoid ebony linings , but otherwise, anything can work, doesn't it?

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
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Tight closed pore hardwoods do not make for good linings. Weight is another issue

Other than the weight issue, why is that? I made a few with maple linings and all went well.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

More open pore wood are less prone to glue joing failure, ie the gule has a better tooth to attach to

Makes sense. Although I feel it's more like some woods are better than others, but none can really be 'bad'. I have never seen or heard of a guitar structure that failed due to bad lining wood choice.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

That's a persistent misconception of how glue works. It's a chemical connection, not a mechanical one, and it works best when two smooth surfaces are in close contact. Maple works fine for liners.

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Howard Klepper
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When all else fails, clean the shop.

How about spruce? Too light? I've got a bunch of nice straight grained spruce, that is just a bit too far off quarter sawn (not too far, but closer to rift sawn) to use as bracing. Could this be used safely a linings, either kerfed or solid?

Colin

Most of the guitars I've made have spruce for linings. It's light and sands easy.

Go for it!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I've used yellow poplar because I had it lying around the shop. It worked fine and didn't crack as easily as either mahagony, spruce or cedar.

Spanish cedar is all I want to use from now on.

It's light, works great and smells awesome. I've had people play my latest guitar and after a few minutes ask what that wonderfull smell is. They stick their nose to the soundhole and take a big wiff of the spanish cedar. That's the stuff for me baby.

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I use almost anything that's reasonably tough, not too dense, and glues well. As Howard says, glue bond strength probably has a lot more to do with chemistry than anything else, and a clean, freshly worked surface, proper clamping pressure, and fresh glue are the most important things.

I would tend to avoid things like WRC and redwood because they split easily. Redwood can also present some gluing issues; it's almost as if it's 'waxy', although it hasn't any wax in it that I know of. OTOH, I've used butternut as liner material, and that can be splitty.

Willow makes good liner stock. It's a little hard to come by in lumber yards, but if you live in a wet part of the country I bet your local tree guy has some he'd love to get rid of. It's terrible fire wood, but it's tough, light (once it's dry), tight grained, easy to work and it glues well. Strad used it for blocks and liners, so I guess it's good enough for me. It also bends easily for those of you who like solid liners.

In what way is glue adhesion chemical? It may be bonding to the material in question, but the two materials remain chemically unaltered (i.e., the resulting object is a heterogeneous mix of glue and the stuff being glued....?

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(other than the reaction that takes place within the glue itself...as with epoxies, etc)

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