Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey, a few white oaks in the mix! Here's 3 more...
Parlor:



16" Prairie State:



Grand Concert:

Im always impressed by the ingenuity of the luthiers here on procuring local woods to make instruments. Makes one wonder about the hype when folks are selling instruments with exotic woods. from far away.

Archtop with back and sides of locally scrounged walnut. I have posted it before.

Mandolin of locally scrounged walnut.

Black walnut and walnut burl twins:





These twins also have local walnut burl headstock overlays, purfling, and rosettes. The necks are local black walnut and white oak.

Sycamore:

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
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Love the yellow cedar guitar - have wanted to do one like that with a yellow cedar top, too. Many cool instruments and I will have to try a walnut one.

I have built guitars in oak and osage orange. Here is one I finished about 3 weeks ago, an osage orange soprano ukulele that is a copy of a 1916 Ditson Dreadnought Style 3. I like the nut enough that I will use it again. The body is from the mid-west, and the neck is a tree that a friend took down locally. It will be interesting to see if the 2 sources change color the same way - it is already toned down from electric yellow since I finished it.

Ed

Here is an all local wood tenor uke I made. Osage orange back, sidesfingerboard and bridge, red spruce top, sugar maple neck and binding, walnut and maple rosette.

This one I made for the OLF Build-off #2 in 2012. I used a cedar top, ash b/s, hickory fretboard and bridge, maple beck, and birchbark rosette. viewtopic.php?f=10133&t=37277&hilit=Jason+Moe%27s

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Amazingly awesome guitars and uke's here!

I'm just about to finish up on another one of my oak barn parlor guitars. I believe the top on this one is Eastern White Pine but I have not had it tested. The rest of it is oak except for a Myrtle head plate.

I like how the myrtle extends all the way down the ramps in the headstock slots. That must be a thick headplate.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I love threads like this!
Here's one I did using quarter-sawn white oak.
This set came from Haans...thanks again sir!




Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

About 1/8in if I remember correctly.

I just finished the guitar a few days ago and now it's out for sale. My wife sells pottery and I sometimes send a guitar along with her

In this finished pic you can see the fretboard and bridge are blackened with the old vinegar, steel wool trick. I love how that works.





What a beauty! That purfling is beautiful. THe oak is just incredible too.

Here's a Weissenborn style guitar I made using local Indiana Cherry.

Love cherry wood! Did you use it for the top as well?

Spruce top, so I guess it's not all local. I also have some very very curly quarter sawed White Oak waiting in the wings.

Hey Steve, I believe I have the two twins to that set over at Charlie Hoffman's being finished. One is a GC-6 and 'tother's a BBQ Bob 12.
Very fine looking work...

There is some mighty inspiring work here.

Thanks mucho for the kind word!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

And thank you too, Hans, for the kind word. I appreciate your efforts in bringing oak back up to a "respectable" status. It really is a wonderful material.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Well, regardless of the top, the cherry is exquisite, I'd like to hear a sound sample of it if you have one?

Yeah, what Dan said. Beautiful sample of cherry. I didn't know it could look like that!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

double post, sorry...

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Thank you Steve,
Never in my lifetime would I have expected to hear that...
Guess my wife can scatter part of my ashes on the white oak we planted in the backyard a few months ago. The rest can go on the Rush River in El Paso, Wisconsin.

I second the respectable status of white oak. I think the more established luthiers use it the more it will become respectable and for all the right reasons, it's simply fantastic stuff. The oak I am currently using was once an old barn in Virginia going on 100 years old now. I'd say it has aged quite well. It's incredibly hard too. You can hardly hammer a nail through it.

Okay, I'm loving the pottery! My wife would flip out over the cat mugs! Does she do custom orders???

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."