Official Luthiers Forum!

There is a really nice hardwood place in Tulsa, and from what I have understood from others, less expensive than other places. I can't vouch for that, as I don't know what price per board ft is at other places and to be honest, how to calculate board ft.( I know pretty sad for someone who works with wood) Obviously 1st question is how do you calculate that. Second, they had what was called "ribbon mahogany" in a 10" wide. 2.5" thick 10 ft legnth he would sell me for $110(that was about a year ago) 2nd question, how do you tell at a lumber place if the wood is 1/4 sawn or not(again sad to admit dont'know how to tell) I know 1/4 sawn is best as far as I have read threads and wood stuff. Is it absolutly a "it has to be" 1/4 sawn to work on guitars. I guess one reason haven't worried about looking for or knowing how to tell 1/4 sawn lumber is I always have bought wood from tonewood dealers so wasn't a concern. If I can get some woods, I thougt I would and do some resawing of it(after new Delta bandsaw and practice on pecan)I just don't want to buy it if it is an absolute must that it be 1/4 sawn. 3d. Would pecan make a decent tonewood? TIA

A lot of mahogany has 'ribbon' figure; well quartered African stuff can't really be found without it, to be honest, and I suspect it's very common in well-quartered honduran as well.

Quartered wood has the grain lines running perpendicularly (at 90 degrees to) the faces of the board you plan to use. Look carefully at the endgrain to see the cut, although it's not always easy with mahogany in particular. Don't confuse sawmarks with it. Look at a spruce top end-on, engrain side. That's one of the easiest woods I know of to see end-grain in, and should show you what quartered wood looks like.

Some of the honduran I've got has faint 'white' lines along some of the grain. If you want the wood for backs and sides, get quartered wood. Ditto for necks, although with 2.5" stock you could simply get perfectly flatsawn wood (grain running parallel to the top and back surfaces), flip it 90 degrees and laminate it into neck blanks, which would make it quartered again (grain going from surface to back).

The reason we like quartered wood is that it's more dimensionally stable and stronger than any other cut, less likely to warp. Backs and sides don't have to be quartered, although they should be if possible, but necks really should be in my opinion. Then again, almost every single maple Fender neck ever made was slab (flat) sawn, so..

As for Pecan making good tonewood...tap and find out, maybe try it. Various fruit woods have been used successfully in various instruments over the centuries

Don't tap tone stuff. You can tell why I am not a player. When I tap wood, no matter how good, and I have done so with very expensive brazilian at school, it to me just sounds like tapping or thumping on wood. I can tap a wall and it sounds the same to me as tapping on any tonewood I have, just hitting on wood. I can't hear metalic, ring like a bell trebles, deep rich basses. Can't tell a G note from an A note thumping on wood. I can tell if it as some resonance from how it vibrates, but telling tones, notes and all that, can't do it. Used to be kind of a joke at Galloup. We would tap on wood and say that A (or whatevernote) is a little flat or sharp. I make in my opinion and from others who have played them pretty nice sounding guitars although they are not considered overly bright sounding (whatever that is)but well defined in each register and playing the tones and chords all seem to blend well. I do only (dont even have a dred mold or form) 000/OM size guitars for fingerstyle. I start guitar lessons next month so maybe I will know what all the terms are and how to play a song by next year.

Stan, this is basic information. A drawing might help. Quartersawn wood is more stable and less prone to warping. However, many fine guitars in the acoustic realm now sport flatsawn backs. Of course if you are a wood cutter you must cut out of the wood you have, not necessarily out of the wood you want to have.... grin. I've build two cocobolo guitars with wood from LMI, before Bob Cefalu started selling it.... And even though the pieces started out quartered, by the time it was into the flanks, both sets were becoming flatsawn. Simply a transition from vertical to horizontal grain. Many woods including ebony have become small in harvest and require flatsawn cuts to be useable in size. Good thread.