Hi all. Types of timber for solid body guitars

[Treble Left]

Complete Newbie to this site. It seems a little hard to find good peices of timber to make a solid body guitar. I prefer heavier sounds, and i have been told QLD maple is the best timber to use for this. Does anyone know of suppliers of QLD maple with timber thats about 120mm thick 300mm wide and 1m long.

Also what other timbers could I use that are local to the darling downs/Bunya mountains area

[Steve.Toscano]

Welcome to the site.

120mm thick 300mm wide and 1m long.

Wowzers. Thats a decent size slab you are after. WHat are you trying to build?
Have a look here :
http://luthierssupplies.com.au/index.ph ... 33_136_232
and here:
http://australiantonewoods.com/index.ph ... c8df1dd29b

However i get my qld maple from a local furniture builder.

[Nick]

Firstly welcome to the forum treble left (do you have a first name?, usernames are good but we're a friendly bunch around here so a Christian name always goes down well ).
I live in Un Zud so am unable to help with suppliers of Aussie timbers but if you like "heavy" sounds (I take it you mean full sounding, as in similar to an overdriven Les Paul?) then you might try looking around Timber yards for Sapele? (we can get it in 50mm + thicknesses here in NZ), that's if you plan on using a solid colour as it's not particulary interesting grain wise, although not altogether ugly with clear on it. Great for that full mellow sound. Even a basswood (Think a slightly heavy Balsa) bodied Ibanez can sound heavy though through footpedals/effects so I wouldn't hung up about trying to find a timber alone, to give you that 'heavy' sound when you are going to chuck it through electronics anyway.
Steve AKA "DemonX" viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4950 maybe able to point you in the right direction if you are specifically wanting to use all Aussie timber.

[steve_d]

Hi Treble,

After years of lurking here I might finally have something to contribute!

A mate & I have built a few solid body guitars and basses in the last couple of years and we mostly use Qld maple for the bodies and frequently on the necks as well.

We buy nearly all our Qld. Maple from a bloke at Cedarton (near Woodford) called Chris Buhle.

He's a great bloke and really knows his stuff.

He has a portable mill and can cut timber to just about any size, so if you're after something specific (dimensionally speaking), I'll sure he'll look after you.

We've also bough other species other than Qld. Maple from him too. Qld. Walnut, Tassie Blackwood, river gum, and a few others that I can't recall right now.

His prices are always reasonable and never over the top.

I assume from your post that you're in SEQ(?). If so, I recommend giving Chris a call and maybe organize a visit. It's quite a nice drive out that way if nothing else.

Also, Chris always exhibits at the Maleny Wood Expo each year so you could catch up with him there if you like.

I don't know what the etiquette is regarding giving people's contact details here, but if you send me an email I'll reply to you with Chris' phone number. (steve at 2kguitars dot com)

FYI: I have no affiliation or association with Chris other than being a very happy customer.

Hope this helps,
Steve

[Treble Left]

Thanks Steve.

That is perfect ill email you straight away. Im from Toowoomba so that should be a nice easy drive.