The Luthier Community

Hey all,

I want some ideas on this...

I have two 16 piece tops left over from "Jointing practice" back when I was figuring out how all this stuff worked.
These were made of resawn Spruce 2x4.. Quartersawn by me during resawing.

I am trying to come up with an idea for a suitable back, sides, and neck combination for this .... Since I am currently out of BRW, I was thinking possibly pallet wood, or something I can scrounge out of a dumpster or that comes from a local lumberyard... Fallen logs would be even better... I just don't have any large enough coming out of my Apartment complex.

A fun project would be an 1863 Torres tribute... a great little guitar with a Giant knot on the top next to the soundhole... Unfortunately, I don't have any pieces with sufficiently large knots.

Thanks

John

You could probably come up with some Yellow Poplar. It would probably work pretty well. Might be slightly soft, but my first practice side was Poplar, and it did very well. It's been sitting in my shop, bent, now for two years, and it hasn't changed a bit, even with some pretty big swings in humidity, when I go out of town, and turn everything off.

Hey John - How about checking out some resale stores and garage sales and finding a funky piece of furniture?

Eben

I been Eyeballin' the dumpster out in back of the Salvation Army store....
I may have to "re-purpose" a couch or bed frame....

I am going to make a Recon run tomorrow

You know you got it bad when you got all sorts of good stuff in the storage unit....
but you are dumpster diving for Salvation Army cast-offs!

Thanks

John

One more place to find realy good wood on occasion is your local dump transfer station. Ours has to be sorted into metal wood and asphalt shingles ect... our wood pile can at times yield some very...very...nice pieces of tone wood and guitar wood.
Old solid cedar doors make very nice tops, and maple cuboards make very nice necks, and old duglas fir beams from old houses makes nice tops. Old Pianoes yield surprises too get the point. Ikea type furniture that is disposed of yields nice popular from the dresser/microwave drawers that can be used for jiging.
Happy hunting my friend there just might be a jem in the rough!


Thxs
Hugh