Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everybody. I'm a newbie trying to learn all I can about guitar building and was wondering if anyone can give their 2 cents worth about what their choice of woods are? Ex: does any certain combination of woods sound better than others, like rosewood back and sides and spruce top verses maple back and sides and spruce top,etc? I was trying to decide what would be a good choice of woods to use for a first project that would sound good without having to worry about the hip pocket so much if I destroy evrything in the process? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the OLF support and help. Have a good one.

edlee   

Missouri 

Hi Ed and welcome,

You've come to the right place.

If you're new to wood working I would suggest a kit. There are a lot of good ones available, Stewart MacDonald, Timeless Instruments etc. If however, you have work working skills and the tools than take a look at the list of woods supplied with these kits and shop around. I remember starting my first guitar and having someone say, “just do it. If you wait until you can afford it you won’t ever start".

Have fun and enjoy.

_________________
Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

Welcome, Ed-
I agree that a kit is the best approach for a first guitar- LMI and StewMac are good sources; there are many others . The 'unserviced' kits are basically a box of woods which should 'work' together and will be of similar quality. It will also be cheaper than buying bits from different suppliers.
Cheers
John

Hi Edlee,
Kits are great to start with, as for wood choices, I would suggest heading off to your local guitar store and try a few combos.

Personally I like Cedar or Redwood over most any rosewood, Indian, Cocobolo etc.

Most bang for the buck, probably Indian rosewood or Sapele. Honduran Mahogany use to be very affordable, but has jumped right up there with Indian now.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Edlee,

I have put together a 'box of parts' for a few people now. I have some wonderful Rosewood sets that have some pink coloured spots in them that include in these first kits. It keeps the costs reasonable. If you are interested then PM or e-mail me and I can set you up with a parts list and price, I have everything here for an entire guitar, excluding the stirngs!.

Good Luck on your adventure....it is fun!

Shane

_________________
Canada

Hi Edleee, welcome to the OLF!

I started from scratch so i'm proof that it's feasible, depending on your collection of tools and your wood working skills, my first does not even compare to my second in terms of craftmanship and aesthetics but i'm still proud of what i've accomplished on my own back then so i understand your reasoning. No 2 was made with EIR back and sides with Lutz spruce which was a very rich combo that i would strongly recommend. Lutz spruce is very stiff and nice and EIR is really easy to bend and smells nice too!

Whatever you choose, it is gonna be a wonderful learning experience, just choose and go with it!

Serge

[QUOTE=edlee] It seems like to me that if you buy a kit, someone else has done all the work for you and all one has to do is assemble the peices together. [/QUOTE]

Check out the Luthiers Mercantile kit descriptions. Your image of 'kit' is what they call a 'serviced' kit. Sides are bent, etc.
I would suggest an 'Unserviced' kit for your neds- this is really just a box of raw wood, a rosette, tuners, etc. Plenty of opportunity for making shavings for you.
Or you could just take the list of 'kit' contents and buy your own parts.
I'd second the recommendation for EI Rosewood or Sapele back/sides. Whatever top you buy, you should be aware that (IMO) there's not much -if any- acoustic difference between AA and master grade tops. You are generally paying for appearance- it's important to a lot of folks to have a very uniform colour and grain across the top.
Cheers
John

It's really hard to think of a better B&S wood for a beginner than Indian rosewood. It's easy to get in good quality, and just about the most stable wood around. It bends easier than almost any other wood. It's not too hard to work, if your tools are sharp (so there's a good incentive to learn an essential skill). It is more open grained than some other woods, which presents some problems when finishing, but, again, you need to learn to deal with those anyway. Finally, it can make about as good sounding a guitar as any wood: a good set of Indian will usually sound better than a bad set of Brazilian.

I'd go with one or another of the spruces for the top. Cedar dents too easily, and redwood tends to be splitty. For your first one I would not worry too much about which spruce: they are far more similar than they are different, especially when you compare pieces of the same density. Red (Adirondack)spruce and Sitka tend to be more on the dense side, with European (from any country) averaging a bit less, and Lutz and Engelmann tending to be lighter. Denser and harder wood may give more 'headroom' and sustain, while the lighter cuts tend toward a more 'sensitive' sound, and might end up being louder. So much depends on the way you use the wood, though, that it's hard to generalize, and all such statements must be taken with liberal doses of salt.

Don't waste too much time worrying about which variety of wood to use for bracing; go with spruce on the top and either spruce or mahogany or cedro on the back. Ditto for blocks and linings: don't waste a lot of time wondering which one is 'the best': they're all good if you use them right, and lousy if you don't.

I tend to prefer cedro ('Spanish cedar') for classical necks, and mahogany for steel strings, but have used either on both sorts of guitars with no problems.

Keep it simple. Nothing takes longer than art, except, maybe, science. Focus on doing as good a job as you can on a simple guitar made of decent wood. Later, when you're more comfortablle with what goes into a basic box, you can worry about how to trowel on seven ounces of pearl.