Tone Wood in Cairns

[liam]

Hi all,
I am completely new to instrument building but have decided to attempt to build a guitar. I was wondering if there were any opinions on woods available in the Cairns area for a solid body electric guitar neck, fingerboard and body.

Thanks in advance to everyone as I am sure I will be back to bug you with questions in the future.

Kind Regards
Liam

[Allen]

First off, welcome to the forum Liam.

I don't build electrics, but there are heaps of woods available locally that I'm certain will build an admirable guitar.

Easy to source Qld. Maple for necks, and even bodies if you like. Qld. Walnut for the same, though its a right paint to work, and brutal on tools. Raintree is readily available and is becoming a most sought after wood for acoustics, so I'd assume the same properties that make it good for acoustics would work for electrics.

Cooktown iron wood makes great fret boards. There are just so many different local woods that you could use, that it's difficult to list them all.

Your probably best off to get an idea of the look, style and size of instrument that you want to build, then try and find wood to suite.

[liam]

Thanks for that Allen. The plan was neck-through so I will call around a few places in cairns and the tablelands to see if they have any of the woods you mentioned in suitable lengths.

Thanks
Liam

[Allen]

Don't just limit yourself to those ones. There are too many to choose from, and if you wait just a bit, there are sure to be some others with a lot more experience building electrics as to what is suitable.

Taffy Evans in Charters Towers build electrics and has heaps more experience than me. He'll be able to give much more appropriate advice to your query. If he doesn't comment, then just PM him.

[liam]

Thanks I'll wait for a while to see if he notices the thread and if not I will pm him.

Ive got to say I have been looking into building a guitar for a while and all I ever found were american websites and forums which are helpful to an extent but its great to find people with local knowledge.

Thanks
Liam[/img]

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Liam
Sorry I missed your query, I might not have responded earlier as I am not up with whats what in Aussie timbers. I have not had the time to experiment. When getting an order for a guitar I use what I read about as I know the qualities and expected tone of traditional timbers. I have, most times, paid big dollars for mahogany, maple, Alder etc. For fingerboards I use ebony or rosewood. In the last couple of years I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried Jarrah as a fingerboard and find it works well.
I've thought about N Queensland timbers for years since moving here, but have not come up with anything.
Sorrry not much help. I'll do a sepparate post showing what other Timbers I have obtained locally, some I do not even know the names of, and have no idea of their suitability as tone woods

[liam]

Thanks so much for the reply. Im sure Ill find something and I suppose it doest really mater if the wood is spectacular I was going to put in an aluminum fingerboard with no freta anyway so Im not sure what that will do for tone.

Liam

[Kim]

Folks,

In order to keep the Australian Tonewoods forum as a quick reference point for those seeking specific information about various Australian tonewoods and to allow easy navigation for those currently involved in this discussion, I have moved this topic to the main builders forum where general topics like this can be more easily located by all on list.

Cheers

Kim

[Kim]

Hi Liam
My thoughts on the aluminium is it would be too soft and would absorb string vibration, result less sustain and would wear quickly, espessially with out frets. Frets contribute to tone and sustain. Many of my customers have commented that after a complete refret, their guitar sounded and played so much better. I feel this is to do with the hardness of the fretwire used, a good fit in the fretslot and a good hard fretboard. I'd be interested in the result if you go that track.
_________________
Taff

(Edit Kim) Folks, I deleted this post in error when I moved this topic from the Australian Tonewoods forum. It seems if you delete anything from the shadow of a thread it will affect the main post as well Sorry Taffy, good thing I copied to clip board before deleting Cheers)

[Paul B]

Not sure Aluminium is a good idea on a guitar, especially anywhere near the neck.

You tune your guitar before a gig, then leave in on stage under lights til show time. The lights heat up the Aluminium, it expands, and you wonder why the neck suddenly has so much back bow. It'd be like a great big heat sensitive truss rod.

[ap404]

Hi Liam,

I strongly recommend New Guinea Rosewood or Queensland Maple for neck timbers, both easy to carve and can look great. Not too expensive in QLD either.

I have played alloy necked guitars for years. You tend to gain a lot of top end tone and sustain ( and weight ). You lose a lot of left hand feel because the neck has no 'give' under pressure.

The one I have now has a rosewood fretboard epoxied to the neck and a solid koa body. The neck is lathed from 6061. I don't know much about alloys but I've made bridges and other parts out of 6061 scrap, there should be plenty of scrap in Cairns if there's a boat building district.

I haven't played a guitar with an alloy fretboard tho ... usually if a guitar ( or banjo or ukulele ) has an alloy fretboard it's on an alloy neck ... I never had a heat vs. tuning issue touring with alloy neck instruments, but you would be reversing the balance on the two materials and might have to choose a harder wood.

Ed Kuepper says that he once had the frets removed from his Veleno, I can imagine the growl of the string on the metal board would be pretty nasty ( maybe in a good way ? ) Any fretless guitars that I've heard tend to sound a bit dull because there's no metal on metal connection at the fretting end.

Also, if you're making a fretless neck, you need to build in some 'scoop' like double bass builders do to allow for string vibration ... now if only there was a double bass builder in our forum ...

Pheww ... that's enough about aluminium ... I spent the afternoon polishing the stuff ...

Cheers, AP

[Dennis Leahy]

How about some gorgeous figured, burly wood, sliced to a few mm thick and laminated to the face of some stable "core" wood? Using highly figured wood that would not be stable unless laminated seems to be a recurring theme in electric solid body guitars. I'm thinking of something like Malee burl:


Giant (Red?) Malee Burl

(doesn't that baby just scream "Australia!")

I'm guessing that you won't have to buy your Aussie burls from a company in the USA, but here's a fun place to view some: AustralianBurls.com

Dennis

[Allen]

Who let that go overseas!

Seriously beautiful wood, and it's good to see that someone has done it justice.

[sebastiaan56]

Mallee burl is tough stuff, but has cracks all the way through it and is usually not that stable. It is common and not expensive. Ive only used it as a veneer on instruments, try this guy, http://www.australianburls.com/Australi ... 20Burl.htm

[liam]

Thanks for all the help guys I guess I have a bit more research to do before shopping. I might draw a cad version of it up sometime and post it so that you can all see what the idea was because I think its a bit convoluted when I try an put it in words.

Liam

[Dennis Leahy]

Mallee burl is tough stuff, but has cracks all the way through it and is usually not that stable.

Yeah, I think pretty much all burls, with that every-which-way twisting, turning, erupting grain, are relatively unstable. However, we have all seen furniture and solid body guitars with a solid core of something stable, layered with a thin slice or veneer of burl.

With a nod to Kim, taking all the health precautions necessary, that Red Malee burl with cracks filled with black epoxy would make a stunning guitar.

Dennis