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I am not an environmental purist, but I am in love with building guitars out of local and domestic woods.
For years I've tried to find something local to Southeast Texas, there isn't much, but I am having great success with Long-leaf Yellow Pine, a tree that used to be common, but is now rare.
Trees still can be found individually however.
I made friends with a guy who runs a Woodmizer, he cut a log and set aside the quartered boards, 3 of them, for me.
I feel very fortunate to have enough wood for 6 to 8 guitars, top, back & sides.
It is a tough wood, hard for a conifer, bends easily, and the guitars have a bright, raw tone, much like Red Spruce. They smooth out after a while I am told, I've never had one here very long.

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Beautiful

Walnut/WRC Classical, Curly Maple Bindings, Walnut neck and Bridge. Tru-Oil on this one.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I built an oak guitar as part of one of the challenges here a few years back from materials found in my back yard. It's actually caught a buzz thanks to a few Youtube videos and this forum and I am now building them for customers. I love it too and the best part about it is that they sound fantastic too!

I have no idea what the top wood is that I found in this barn. Two species both at least 90 years old as this barn was built in 1920. I'm almost certain one is Southern Yellow Pine but the other is a bit of a mystery. But it's incredible stiff and reminds me a lot of Adi. It was used as a shelf in the barn, perfectly quarter sawn with nail holes and worm holes to boot.

Here is one I am just getting started on.

I'm working on an archtop with myrtlewood back and sides.

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- Keith

The best part of 20 years ago we built an entirely wooden house, not such a common thing here in the UK. Whilst sourcing some of timber the builder and I had the chance to buy a couple of logs of wild cherry from Hemstead Forest in Kent. We had it planked on site with a woodmizer - referred to above, a totally fabulous portable sawmill. Dermott the builder took most of it, I kept a few choice planks for about ten years before starting to use it.



Over the past dozen years I've had about as many instruments from it but it's pretty well all gone now. I was musing on the passing of time - I saw those logs with the bark still on them about 20 years ago, now at the age of three score and ten I'm unlikely to see that process through again! I've posted pictures of the 12 string here before, here it is with a few other instruments. Of all the things that affect the sound of a guitar I personally don't feel that, once you're in the zone of a decent instrument, back and sides material are at the top of the list (I believe I'm with Torres on that) but nevertheless I've done very well out of this stuff. In particular the 12 string, an enormous long scale instrument, has a sound to match.

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"There is hope in honest error .... ". Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
http://www.ianchisholm.co.uk

Wow really cool stuff here!

Nice wood Ian.
What a great find
Mike

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Mike Collins

I guess you could call this local or domestic, maybe re-cycled. It was an oak table I found locally on the side of the road and domesticated it into being a guitar. I "ebonized" (back, sides & neck) with a solution of vinegar and steel wool. The top is spruce, but the bindings and stringers on the back are local red cedar.

This is all domestic, except the ebony fretboard and rosette.
Sitka top from Brent at ASW.

Mesquite for the back, sides, and neck.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Here is a guitar that I built recently out of domestics. All woods were from North Carolina except the ebony fretboard, bridge, and mahogany neck.
Quartersawn white oak back and sides (distressed to look vintage)
Red Spruce from North Carolina mountains
Curly red maple bindings, trim, and rosette.

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

one more

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

There are some great pics in this thread, keep 'em commin'!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Home-harvested Chinaberry, Ash, Pecan, Sycamore, Mesquite.
Of course, just about anything works for a solid body.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

This one, my Rapidan model (about size O), has walnut back, sides, neck, and peghead veneer from King George County, VA. The Persimmon binding, fingerboard, bridge, and pins came from Maryland. The Sitka top grew in Oregon. The rosette is made up of walnut and walnut and maple veneers. The peghead lettering is maple. I assume the maple was grown in the US but I don't know. And, it sounds pretty nice.

I've done guitars with local Osage Orange and with Sycamore. Both work very well for back and sides.

The walnut in this small jumbo came from an orchard tree near the coast at Ft. Bragg, CA.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Green Ash for a double cutaway classical, a Panormo, and a Torres FE17. The FE17 is also sporting a White Pine top.

BTW, air dried Ash has got to be the easiest wood to bend. I bent all of these, including the cutaways, simply by wetting the wood, wrapping it in foil, letting it rest for a couple of hours, the unwrapping it and bending it. It felt like wet leather. Leaving it to dry for awhile set the bend.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Some nice guitars there, Douglas.

This small body steel string is 100% Aussie timbers. Wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo, Western Australia) B&S, King Billy Pine (Athrotaxis selaginoides,Tasmania) for the top, KPB/CF falcate top bracing, Southern silver ash (Flindersia schottiana, Victoria) back bracing, "mad" gidgee (Acacia cambagei, Victoria) for binding, spalted blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon, Victoria) rosette (gidgee rings), figured Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana, Queensland) neck, brush box (Tristania conferta, New South Wales) fretboard, QLD walnut (Endiandra palmerstonii, Queensland) stained bridge, brush box bridge plate, QLD maple end blocks, silver ash linings, stained brushbox magnetic arm rest. FP finish for top, B&S; nitro on the neck and arm rest.

It's based on my small classical body shape (340mm lower bout), but I tucked the upper bout in a bit; 24.9" scale, has a tilt neck and otherwise the stuff I normally do.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Douglass, I really like the way you payed out that 4 piece back!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Cool thread! I've been on a domestic wood kick for a while now.

Sweetgum:


White oak:


Cherry:


Maple (in progress):

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George :-)

Lots of cool stuff here. Thanks for starting this one.

A friend of mind had been packing around some Yellow Cedar planks for 60 years. He's about 80 and they were originally skid logs his temporary located house was built on just up the coast from me. His dad had salvaged the logs off the beach. He was about 10 at the time. After they bought property near by they permanently located the house and milled up the logs. My old friend contacted me and wanted a guitar for his grandson out of the wood. He also sent me some Red Cedar that had a back story for the top but it turned out to be unsuitable. One of my friends gave me a top years ago that came from a Sitka block he had salvaged off the beach in the neighbourhood where my friend grew up so it seemed to fit the theme. The Quilt Maple centre wedge came from a logger buddy and the the Spalted rosette came from Brian McDonald who hangs here. Thanks bud!

He wanted the neck of Yellow Cedar also and I wasn't sure how it would work out but with CF and a truss rod it seem to be just fine. We don't have much in the way of good bridge or FB material in this part of the world but I found some Gumwood which is used for hull reenforcement on old wooden boats. My friend and I both have a history of running such boats so it seemed suitable for the theme. It all worked out very well and the tone is more than I could ask for. This whole story all takes place in the area of Desolation Sound on the coast of BC. It's been my office for the last 20 years of prawn fishing.





There's also a whole other story about how Canada Post misplaced this guitar in shipping but it is in the hands of the new happy picker.

Wow! You guys have really got the swing of this thread, beautiful stuff.
A lot of times I build a guitar out of local "ugly" wood, something just too oddball to put much into in terms of trim and time, really.
I wouldn't show them because maybe I would get the reputation of being a weird builder, not to be trusted with proper wood.
But I am getting too old for that sort of fear, so here is the Yellow Pine guitar that started things off.
Texas Ebony fret board & bridge, Yellow pine neck too.
Sold it.


This was a Size-1 with Sweet Gum B&S and a Southern Magnolia neck.

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For a generally bland looking wood, maple can have some quite stunning figure.

The top looks to be one of our quilt sitka spruce sets, and could be from one tree we call Tranquil Point Curly/Bearclaw, named for the Maritime Navigational location the tree grew and the two figure patterns within the wood. Both the quilt and curly pattern top sets are from the same tree/logs and blocks. Just that those boards that are cut Perfect VG and have strong medularies will display the light curl pattern and those boards that are still stiff as glass but slightly off VG are cut across, elongating the lumpiness causing the visual effect, and capturing more of it, to create a more quilted pattern look like this set.

Yes, that is one of the Tranquil Point tops. I got that one 8 or 10 years ago, and I've gotten several more since then.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon