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Last year we had a huge wind blast in the middle of the night that blew down many trees in our neighborhood. One of those trees was a catalpa. I cut it into 30” lengths and split it into billets. I am now using it to build my second archtop guitar. When I did a search for “catalpa as a tone wood” , I found a forum post that Bruce Sexauer posted, about building an all catalpa guitar. He seemed to be very impressed with the result . So I am thinking of doing the same but as an archtop.
Here’ what I have done so far.

COOL. I built a solidbody from catalpa back in the 80's for a client. Seems like a perfectly usable domestic tonewood to me. I liked how it worked, sanded, and took finish. Reminded me of ash a bit. Good luck with the build!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Great fun to build out of wood you cut yourself. Post more shots please

Ed

it is a great wood to work with

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

That's great I love stuff like this. I have built one Catalpa guitar but it had a spruce top. We had a 350+ year old Maple Tree come down a couple years ago that I should get to using next year.

jf

Yow - 350 years is VERY old for a maple. Must have been gigundous

Ed

Here’s the finished kerfing

Hello, nice, but do I get you right? The tree feel down last year and 12 month later you are building a guitar out of that wood? Brave man....!

Or kiln dried?

Yes, you’re right, it is a little too soon but it’s dry enough.
I got a chance to rough out the top and the back today. It carves as easily as basswood.

My fingers were getting soar from using my little violin-maker’s plane, so I decided to spend a little time finishing off a little compound radius plane I had started, when I was working on my last archtop.
The wood is black locust and the steel is from a broken truck leaf spring that I found on the side of the road, one time when I was walking my dog. I tried it out and I’m glad I spent the time making it. I cuts really well, no judder, and most importantly it’s comfortable to use.

Cool little plane. How do you get it to stick to the ceiling like that

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

I have no idea how this technology stuff works. I tried to change the orientation of these images three times and still they’re upside down.
I’m convinced that if you added up all the time we waist trying to get technology to work properly it would show that it saves us no time at all from the days before computers.

Funny how these things come up — I just picked up a catalpa back and side set on a whim, intrigued by its look and the description of it as a historically popular wood for boatbuilding due to its light weight. It is indeed light — seems like it could work equally well as a top or back. I thought it’d be neat to build one for myself — as light a guitar as possible. Maybe a cedar top with Spanish cedar neck and a thin rosewood fretboard?


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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Bob Benedetto built an all red cedar guitar that he showed at the Montreal Guitar festival in 2009. I emailed him about it and he said this.
“The all cedar guitar that I made was a fun project and the results were outstanding. The lightweight and superior tone qualities of cedar really did impress me. It’s a great acoustic, solo instrument. Any lightweight and stiff conifer would have worked as well.“
My hope is that an all catalpa guitar may also have some fine acoustic qualities. I sure do have plenty of it.

My last guitar was an all-Alaskan Yellow Cedar copy of a late 20's Gibson L-0. Very crisp, good balance, and nice bass. I saw a couple of Flamenco guitars in all - AYC and thought they looked good. By the way, it is a cypress, not a cedar, like Douglas Fir is not a fir at all

Ed

I’m getting ready to bring the plates to final thickness, so I made these calipers

Just finished this crude pin router/ overhead router for cutting the f-holes. I had a lot of left-over CDX from a roofing project and decided to put it to good use.

Looks like you are making good progress on the guitar.
The tools you made look good too.
A few years back I was going to make a pin router. I got as far as buying an air slide cylinder and a foot switch but never made the woodwork to go with it. I used one in a shop I worked in and they can be pretty handy, but I haven't really had a great need for one. Some day I might finish the project, but no hurry.

I’m getting close to finishing the top and back and I’m about to put the binding around the “f” holes. There is still some final thinning that I have yet to do, but right now the top and the back have some nice sustain and a whole variety of ringing tones. I’m quite pleased with the way this wood behaves. Right now both the top and the back weigh 352 grams, but obviously because of the holes in the top, they ring differently. The plates noticeably flex when I push down. I’m thinking parallel bracing would be the safest configuration, as the modulus of rupture and elastic modulus are slightly less than Engelmann Spruce.

That looks really nice!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

Looking good there Oates.

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It had to have been at least 4ft DBH. There is another one on the property of the same age and looks like it's not long for this world. The bole was hollowed out quite a way up before you got to the good stuff but even the branches were big enough for guitars.

Down here in East Texas a Catalpa tree is rare but when you find one it's much valuable for the fish baits it has on it this time of year. I'd never sacrifice on for building anything but if it was a blow down I guess that's Ok.

I’ve been doing some research into Catalpa, comparing it’s properties with other tone woods. The closest I can find is Spanish cedar. Density is exactly the same, In terms of hardness, tensile strength, and elastic modilus, Spanish Cedar has slightly higher numbers, but Catalpa’s radial shrinkage is only 2.4% where as Spanish cedar is 4.1% . The disappointing number is Catalpa’s compressive strength; it’s only 2,740 psi and Spanish cedar has a comprehensive strength of 4560 psi.
Given these stats I am definitely inclined to use parallel bracing.

I love the fact that it's a domestic wood. There is plenty of it on the high plains, and most simply burn it. When I built that solid body I got the lumber from a cabinet builder pal who cuts and mills his own stuff. He uses it a lot, and really likes it. Built a cabinet for a client's Boogie head out of it, and it looked very nice.

Per the mention of Spanish Cedar.... I've always gotten a giggle out of the fact that it's not Spanish, and not cedar. I would love to build with it, heard it makes great necks.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Took me a bit to figure this out, guess I am slow this morning. First image in my head was a steal my face skull on top of a nice catalupa file cabinet...

Sorry for the hijack, now back to social distancing.