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Hi All,

I enjoy reading here. I have about 200 board feet of this 3/4 x 12 redwood. It alternates between rift and flatsawn. It's a few decades old. It's been stored with a bunch of other lumber.

Is this useful for anything?

Thanks,

Chuck

In regards to guitar tops - If it's rift sawn then yeah kind of maybe. But the flat sawn stuff is not guitar makers wood. IMHO of course.

Yeah. I thought maybe I could take the best stuff and make some four piece tops.

I don't see anyone using redwood for back and sides. But it seems attractive enough. I would think it could be laminated with something more rigid for a back and side set? Is the issue that it is so soft that it would be damaged easily?

If you are not attached to things always being successful, lots of wood that does not pass modern luthierie standards is fun to try. Here is a recycled redwood tenor uke with redwood top, back, and sides. Made it few years ago and the owner has not yelled at me yet! Enjoy your projects.-Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Sweet. And you make a good point.

Thanks,

Chuck

I bet the flat sawn stuff Glued up would make fine solid body guitars! Pine Barncasters were all the rage for awhile - I assume redwood would make an interesting guitar.

Glenn

I do make guitars like Gleason has posted too and so probably should have mentioned that. But I was thinking more on the professional level. But yeah for what I call folk art guitars I too use wood with nail holes in it too. The theme being that they are guitars made from the wood taken from an old barn on a farm in Virginia. They still play and frankly sound great but they are not for everyone. But for those who love the theme they are wonderful.

I would probably use the flat sawn for bracing.
In 1981, a friend of mine built an all redwood classical guitar (top, back, sides, and neck) and it still plays and sounds great.

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John

Many of the old folk craft instruments were made with the tools and woods the makers had on hand. The expectation was only that the finished instrument could be used to make music.
I made some dulcimers with sassafras tops which sounded quite nice. Because of that I decided to make a guitar with a sassafras soundboard. Sassafras has a density between that of spruce and Mahogany, and I think the sound is somewhere between that of a spruce topped and a mahogany topped guitar. I will use it again.
Some woods and grain patterns do things better than others, but sometimes that unusual piece of wood is good enough.