Official Luthiers Forum!

My two oldest sons (12 and 11) have been doing great at their guitar lessons, and it's time to build them some really cool electrics. The designs are works in process, but they will both have carved maple top plates. So I took them down to the wood store today to shop for some maple. We came home with this board:



This board is 1-3/4" thick, 8-1/2" wide, and 60" long. The only defect is the small half-a-knot that I positioned just below the center of the photo, which doesn't go deep enough into the wood to survive thicknessing and carving. It is plenty of material to make two 5/8" thick (with some to spare) bookmatched tops and have a bunch left over for headplates, scraps to test finish on, etc.

Now, this local hardwood store I went to is far from cheap. $23/bf for their quilted maple. Ouch! With tax, this board cost me $160. Pricey for domestic hardwood.

But be that as it may, here's my resawing thoughts. There was a thread a while back on the pros and cons of resawing your own lumber. Not to restart that debate, but check out what some of the luthier supply houses are getting for quilted tops for electrics. (Look at the 5/8" ones that are thick enough to carve, not the 1/4" caps.) Don't forget to add on tax & shipping. I'm not sure where this wood would grade on their grading scales, but even grading it pretty modestly, $160 bucks after tax for two quilted tops is quite a savings.

Admittedly, I confess that I have some other costs associated with buying and resawing the lumber. The hardwood store was about four or five miles from my home, and I get really bad gas mileage. So it probably cost me 3/4 of a gallon of gas and 6 miles wear-and-tear on my family car. That's gotta be worth $3, anyway. And it took about an hour-and-a-half to take the family down and dig through the bins. What's that worth? I guess it depends on your perspective --- I'd probably pay at least $20 to spend an hour-and-a-half of quality time with the wife and kids, but if your wife is a nag and your kids have ADD, then maybe you have a different calculus. Then there's the wear and tear on my bandsaw blade; I can probably only resaw a hundred guitars worth of figured maple on a $30 blade, so that's at least 65 cents worth of blade wear. Another dollar or so for power, because electricity is so expensive here in California. So add all that up, and it probably cost me $164.65 for two tops, minus the $20 for getting some good family time in there.

I stand by my view that if you're going to be making a few, you can save quite a bit of money and get great wood by investing in a decent bandsaw and finding a good lumber store. Electric bridges and tuning machines are a different story.

Pseudo Edit Button on: There's actually enough wood here to make three bookmatched tops, as the standard size tops are 20" long. I suppose if I wanted to amortize the cost over three tops it'd be even cheaper. But I'm only making two guitars right now, so I'll leave the calculation the way it is.

/\ Good point.

I'm spending a lot more money in diesel hunting around all the hardwood yards in my locality- make you wonder whether it's actually cheaper to order from a vendor...

The only snag about buying wood from a vendor is that it's sight unseen. I was invited the others to David Dykes Luthier's supplies to rifle through their stock, but the four hour journey is going to cost as much as the shipping!

That's actually about right for that kind of figure, I think, domestic has little to do with it. Figured maple's all popular.

Sam: David Dyke is one of the few European suppliers I trust completely to send me exactly what I want/need. Talk to him on the phone, tell him what you want, and trust you'll get some pretty lovely stuff.

Sam, as Mattia said, I have total faith in David Dyke. I buy a lot from them and they always go the extra mile to ensure that the customer is happy. I'm lucky though in that they are only about 45 minutes away from me so I can sometimes pop over and have a rummage. However, most of the time a quick phone call is all that is needed, and sometimes they even phone me if they find something I'd be interested in. Even if they don't have it on their website it's always worth giving them a call as they stock a lot more than they show.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I just buy from our sponsors and have never been disappointed yet. Every set I've ordered from Bob C., Colonial, New England, and hibdon have exceeded my expactations. I have two sets on teh way from Tim at Aurstalian Tonewoods, and I know they'll be super. The added bonus is that they have al;ready assumed all teh risk in drying and cutting and always stand behind there products so you don't assume any risk--thats what you pay for, and they always seem to toss in some extras for a nice surprise. Nope, not worth my time and money to get into the wood business.
Sorry, just had to throw that out there!

[QUOTE=Colin S] Sam, as Mattia said, I have total faith in David Dyke.[/quote]

My Celtic Cittern is built from all the woods supplied by David Dykes. What I got was exceptional for the price. Brilliant, friendly staff.

I wanted to have a look around my own county to see what wood vendors were around.

[quote] I'm lucky though in that they are only about 45 minutes away from me so I can sometimes pop over and have a rummage.[/quote]   

Colin, you are VERY lucky!!!

Do you honsetly think it's worth the trip, for me to take up their invitation and pop over to have a rekkie at their stock? I drive a Peugeot Estate...might be worth saving up some cash and buying in some bulk...