Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok, ok I'm not implying not building the guitar from trees ... but I've started noticing luthiers on IG using alternative materials for things like the heel cap, end graft, head stock overlay, and ever the rosette... Some interesting ones are patinaed copper, and pinecones cast in acrylic (used for pen turning blanks)..

So, what are some alternative building materials you've seen or have used and you thought to yourself, "self, thats pretty cool"?

B

These are all from the 80's.... Used on electrics - some solid, some semi-hollow.
Used a credit card once as the control plate.... 3 knobs, 1 switch.
Made control knobs out of beer and soda pop caps (the screw-off type)
Did an aluminum treadplate "drop top" on a Strat for a client (who has since passed away).
It now resides in a local history museum.

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

Actually awesome ha


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Sticks and stones Lots of great stuff lying around on the ground everywhere. For stones that are too hard for a jeweler's saw, use CA glue to stick to a piece of wood and dremel diamond bits with water to grind them to shape. Then saw/sand the wood off.

If you haven't seen it already, you might want to check out Bent Twig Guitars' IG page. I saw some of their guitars at the LaConner show about four years ago and they used materials like patinaed copper for rosettes and pinecone cross sections in end grafts. My favorite was a rosette made using the tips of pheasant feathers. They also use bighorn sheep horn for rosettes.




Some tree barks can be used to make interesting rosettes. I've used Douglas fir bark for a rosette and an end graft. I got the idea from a builder who used Sitka spruce bark for a rosette.





I've used ammonite fossils as fretboard inlays.

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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

That is showing some real skills and original thinking.

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

What is IG?

I posted a couple weeks ago about the 'Coffee bag micarta' I used for my latest oak and pine barn wood guitar. It was not my idea but rather the vision of my clients. I had never heard of the stuff but I really love it.

IG = Instagram

Bent Twig Guitars also has a standard website which has a photo gallery that shows guitars with the materials I described above.

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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

Over the years I have used a few different materials for building musical instruments. I was using Formica (HPL) for the back and sides of instruments before Martin started using it for guitars. Another somewhat similar material I've used was Alpi Ligna - a prefinished wood veneer bonded to a phenolic substrate.
As an alternative soundboard material I have used (American) Sassafras. It works quite well and, to me, gives a sound somewhere between that of spruce and mahogany.
For lining material I have used bending ply and found that I could bend it in both directions to get it to better conform to the curves of the guitar.
I have been using mammoth ivory for nuts and saddles, and even made a pick guard of the inner dentine of the tusk.

I hope to get around to making an acoustic of Masonite. From what I can tell it's actually a 'better' material than burl mesquite. I think of it as 'microburl'.

Do it! A modern take on the famous Torres cardboard guitar I have bent masonite on the hot pipe before and it works more or less like wood. Smells surprisingly nice, sort of like vanilla.

Many years ago, I was at a music educators' conference In New Orleans with my dad (who was an officer in the organization). The highlight of the conference for me was spending an afternoon talking to Mel Bay--he was there and manning the Mel Bay music booth and was a very nice and interesting man.

But next to his booth was the booth of Rhythm Band Inc. or one of those other companies that made stuff for the school music trade. I was particularly impressed by their "violins" These were basically neck sticks with strings pegs and a bridge, but with a couple of angled grooves in the underside that accomodated a flexed violin shaped piece of formica that acted as a resonator. It actually worked, the fiddles played fine and did what they were supposed to for music class.

Also, there was a famous banjo maker in the Galax Virginia area (Kyle Creed) who built some of his banjos with fretless formica fingerboards. They played great, and were favorites in the Round Peak area. They bring a fortune today. My favorite ones had this astronaut/spaceship theme on the formica...

Formica, or HPL if you prefer, as an instrument material has been around for a while.

Dave

Play-Doh Inlays -- try it, you'll love it. Lots of great colors.
Gingerbread Soundboards -- Oh so festive and they smell amazing. Sweet, sugary tone.

I have other wonderful suggestions but you'll have to buy my book on "Alternative Building Materials". Only $19.99 with free delivery before Christmas.

LOL! I'd buy that book!

How do you bend Formica or Masonite?

jfmckenna asked:
"How do you bend Formica or Masonite?"

You bend Masonite with heat. It's the same as wood because it is wood; they just heat and press sawdust to make it, as I understand it. I find I have to take it to about 2mm thick or less to bend sides, but it works fine. No water is necessary, and it probably would make a mess in any case.

Masonite is considered 'archival', as I understand it. There's nothing in it that's not 'wood' and it shrinks uniformly with lower humidity, so it won't crack. One of my profs at school had a small Picasso pen-and-ink drawing that had been glued to a piece of wood. The wood was cracking in from one edge, and would have split the drawing. He showed it to a friend who was a conservator at the local museum. He was able use a razor to split the thickness of the paper, glued the drawing to some acid-free stock, and glued that to a piece of Masonite.

Do they not make electric guitars out of acrylic?

What about acoustic guitars out of acrylic?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I seem to remember seeing somebody playing a transparent plexi guitar on TV with water and a goldfish in it... 'We don't need any steenkin' acoustics!"

I am reminded of an AR2622 that Ibanez built out of brass for NAMM in 1979. The body and neck were brass and even though the body was hollow, it weighed 76 pounds. It was fully functional though and even included the onboard active EQ that the AR2622s came with.

There was a fad at the time of people replacing parts of their guitars with brass parts to enhance the tone (on both electric and acoustic guitars). The guy at Ibanez who was responsible for this brass AR2622 had it built to poke fun at that fad. If a little brass is good, then a lot of brass must be better.

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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 actually played that guitar. Talk about a chunk!

The rule was that if you could pick it up one handed - you could have it. No one was able to. However, the Tama booth (partnered with Ibanez) had a 100 pound solid brass snare drum that sounded like a cannon. The same rule applied - drummer Billy Cobham carried it home....

By the way - this brass guitar has been for sale on Reverb for years....
https://reverb.com/item/11464-1979-iban ... functional

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

That was Mason Williams of Classical Gas fame. My understanding is that the guitar didn't sound that great even without the water and goldfish so he did a guitar version of "lip sync" with it.



Bending Formica and other HPL's is relatively easy - much easier than bending wood. I use the same block form and bending blanket as I use for bending solid wood sides. For some shapes with gentle curves you can clamp them to the form and use heat to set the bend. For tighter curves heating and bending the same as for a wood side works better. Heating from the non finished side reduces the chance of bubbling the finish (but using a blanket you shouldn't need to heat it that hot). For countertops I've used a heat gun to heat and bend radiused corners (again heating from the back side). You can thin HPL down some to make tighter bends, but there are limits to how thin and tight you can go.
I use Formica strips instead of metal bending slats. They will take a set from the heat but can be flattened enough to be used several times.
Making Formica bodied instruments is relatively quick and easy, and with a low cost solid spruce top they can sound decent. Cabinet shops often throw away scraps that are large enough to make a back and side set from, and using other low cost materials and simple brush on finishes can make for a fun and economical project.

Well, I’ve made a few of these. I know you said you still wanted wood, but I hope this counts:






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