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Here is an old ( 1870's?) Parlor guitar that was built out of softwoods (spruce?) and then veneered over with rosewood for the back and sides.

Thank you Clay, for thinking about those you know who may be affected by a natural disaster.
Where I live, Beaumont, Texas had very little effects from Laura, because the storm wandered slightly East in the last hours of its approach to land. But I was not without deep concern, as my older son was "trapped" at his workplace, a huge chemical complex, with the eye of Laura passing directly over his explosion-proof control room. Thank God heard our prayers and this storm, while doing big wind damage to Lake Charles and the surrounding areas, weakened and the eye diminished some at landfall, and had less than half of the storm-surge that was predicted.



Back to the subject of this thread, which is really about using "untraditional" wood for guitars. Any sort of wood with the name "Pine" should be suitable for a guitar top, if not other parts, but any attempt to use them on a money making basis is bound for failure, as the market for anything untraditional is so thin, and the labor to build being the same as any traditional wood, the project should be seen as "a fun build with no financial profit in view".

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Hi David,
Good to hear y'all made out O.K. The gulf coast has really been taking a lickin' these past few years.

David Newton wrote:
"Back to the subject of this thread, which is really about using "untraditional" wood for guitars. Any sort of wood with the name "Pine" should be suitable for a guitar top, if not other parts, but any attempt to use them on a money making basis is bound for failure, as the market for anything untraditional is so thin, and the labor to build being the same as any traditional wood, the project should be seen as "a fun build with no financial profit in view"."

For those in it for the money that is certainly some good advice to heed. I think this is now more true than ever. It seems like guitars are being sold by their "specifications" rather than by the way they sound ,more than ever.
Still, it doesn't mean you shouldn't build with them - just don't quit your day job. I am building another "Formica" back and sided guitar. It is for my own use so it's pecuniary value is not important.

Good advice, although I do recall Tony Yamamoto making some guitars with Paulownia and being somewhat successful at selling them before he moved back to Japan.

With this stuff I'll probably just make some "normal" guitars. I've wanted to do a recreation of a that 4 piece top 44' J45 that I had in the shop years ago. Wouldn't hurt to try to make something similar with this stuff, plus it'd be a cool conversation piece at luthier meetups if it turns out to sound decent.

What a coincidence. My first guitar commission (1979) was a J-45 where I used a four- piece Ponderosa pine top cut from shelving board. A couple of years ago, that same guitar surfaced in a music store in a nearby town, and I traded for it. It has held up just fine.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

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John

That's really cool! If you have pictures of that guitar I'd love to see it.

John's comment is encouraging. I'm closing the boxes on a parlor and a prairie state, all the wood is off my property here. Ponderosa Pine tops, a little spault stain with a wormhole or two, but I'm hoping for the best.

Those sound really cool. Got pictures of them you can post?

I don't know about that. After all the pretty pictures of guitars posted here lately, I'm reluctant to show my feeble attempts. I'll see what pics I can take today.

Here's what I've got so far.
Sides and back QS White Oak. Rosettes, Manzanita burl. The parlor's has a natural outside edge and will be glued to the top with a full depth Manzanita soundhole binding. The backs have a Manzanita backstrip. The Prairie State's was widened for the 17" lower bout width.
Here's the parlor.

And the Prairie State.

Now there's a shape you don't see very often!

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Good looking start there Carl, can't wait to see them come together and be finished. I'd like to hear that prairie state too

As far as the discussion of non traditional tone woods, I did send a piece of my old Douglas fir to Dan and he says it is different from his wood. My doug fir classical is a month old now and has been played by several people who have all been complimentary about it, there is a clip on the thread where I showed it off. I took it down to the local music store and played it side by side with the various nylon string guitars hanging on their wall (typically moderate priced offerings from Yamaha, Cordoba and the like) and the feeling in the store was that it sounded as good as any of them.