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Help identifying wood, please.
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=18472		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Mike Baker [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 3:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Help identifying wood, please.
Hey guys. I'm refinishing a guitar (a cheap one) for a friend of mine. It's a bolt on Les Paul style. The top of the guitar is plywood. I know this because I sanded through the first layer in spots sanding out gouges. Someone had removed the original finish and did an incredibly poor job of spraying it. Anyway, I thought the whole body was plywood, but when I sanded the back down I found it is made of solid material, although multi-piece. Can anyone tell me what this is? The color is almost an exact match for an alder body that I have, but to me it looks a lot like the wood my kitchen butcher block is made of.

Image

Any help would be appreciated.
Author:  Michael Dale Payne [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Hard to tell from your photo for sure but I would bet a dollar to a donut that it is basswood of maybe ash. That said it appears to be made up of 3 quarter sawn planks which is unusual. Most the time it is rif cut or flat sawn. Second thing that is unusual it appears to have mice silking in the middle plank
Author:  Mike Baker [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Thanks, Michael. Sorry about the photos. My camera is quite cheap. I've never seen basswood. Is it heavy? This guitar is as heavy as any LP I've ever picked up. The guitar is also fairly old. Yes, it's quartersawn, and has silking in the middle piece. I'm still kinda confused as to why someone would go to the trouble to use relatively decent wood for the back, and put plywood on the top. The weight makes me tend toward ash, but could it be mahogany of some type?
Author:  Michael Dale Payne [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
oldgeez wrote:
Thanks, Michael. Sorry about the photos. My camera is quite cheap. I've never seen basswood. Is it heavy? This guitar is as heavy as any LP I've ever picked up. The guitar is also fairly old. Yes, it's quartersawn, and has silking in the middle piece. I'm still kinda confused as to why someone would go to the trouble to use relatively decent wood for the back, and put plywood on the top. The weight makes me tend toward ash, but could it be mahogany of some type?


How white is it really? It might be sycamore.
Author:  Mike Baker [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Michael, it's not white at all. In color it's very similar to alder, but slightly lighter. Here's another pic.
Image

Contrast that with the top
Image

and the sand-through
Image
Author:  SteveCourtright [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
The plywood top includes Maple, but if the back wood looks a bit green in spots, it is probably poplar.
Author:  Mike Baker [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Thanks guys. I know it's difficult to i.d. woods over the net, especially with the poor quality pics I've posted. Steve, I'm very familiar with poplar, and I don't think that's what it is. This body's very heavy, and I believe I've seen that grain in baseball bats. I'd bet the back is ash.

Speaking of poplar, I've found a local source for poplar in the thicknesses needed for electric guitar bodies. Hopefully I'll be visiting them this weekend. If all goes well and I can find some that's suitably quartered, I may be starting on a scratch-built electric soon. bliss
Author:  Don Williams [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Knowing the brand name may clue some folks into what woods were used...
Author:  Dean [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
I think it is poplar. An inexpensive easy to use wood, quite dense with cream to green hues and almost no character.
Author:  Dave Fifield [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Mike, what do you want it to be?

Dave F.
Author:  Mike Baker [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Don Williams wrote:
Knowing the brand name may clue some folks into what woods were used...


There is no brand name. The guitar was hand built. There is a brass plaque on the headstock that reads "This guitar custom made for Robbie Carroll". There are absolutely no other identifying markings, serial numbers, or anything else on the guitar whatsoever, inside or out. The guitar, despite the plywood top, is well constructed. The only "flaw" in construction that I can find is that the binding ledges were not cut evenly, and the binding is thinner in some places than others. But since I have never built a guitar from scratch, nor bound one, I can't really criticize. I should be so lucky as to build that well on my first go around. It plays like a dream and sounds good as well(I played it before disassembling it). It just needs a decent finish. I intend to give it one.
Author:  Mike Baker [ Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Dave Fifield wrote:
Mike, what do you want it to be?

Dave F.


I don't care. It is whatever it is. My friend has had it for quite a while, but doesn't know what it's made of. The finish was trashed when he got it. I'd just like to be able to tell him a little bit more about it, if I can. So far I can give him a list of things it "might" be. Whatever it is, I told him if he likes the guitar it's worth it to spend a reasonable amount to get it looking good again.
Author:  Dave Fifield [ Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Fine business. I think it's alder (from your description and color comparison).

Dave F.
Author:  Mike Baker [ Thu Aug 21, 2008 1:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Help identifying wood, please.
Thanks, Dave, and everyone else. It's appreciated.
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