Body wood

[paradox.]

Anybody know where to buy those kind of sexy wood that PRS uses. dont flame me to tell me to get a PRS. I'm just an avid guitar player that just wants to make his own guitar for a project while waiting for my o levels result next year while waiting to get into a poly, which will be around april. So any of you guys know where to get wood for guitar bodies? if online, please do tell me the website. much appreciated guys.

 

[lemonade93]

Wood, as in Mahogany? Or the highly figured maple top?

 

[relinquish69]

tough to get wood but if given the opportunity, get your wood from the USA. that is where are the good wood are. The reason why I say this is because I believe that they are the best at treating wood.

compare any USA Fender custom shop vs a high end Fender Japan Stratocaster. The choice would be quite obvious and it has nothing to do with electronics or workmanship.

all this is IMO but feel free to convince me otherwise.

 

[lemonade93]

You can check out Warmoth if you got tha cash

 

[senn_liu]

first of all, what "sexy wood" are you referrring to? it could be mahogany, flamed maple, quilted maple, curly maple, rosewood etc. all of which can be found on PRS guitars.

secondly, if you were to source out some wood, you do realise you'll need a whole set of tools to do your routing etc right?

if you really do go through with it, then just make sure you get wood that's meant for instruments, and not just generic industrial timber. these are dried/prepared for this purpose and (maybe) selected due to superior resonance.

instrument-grade timber is actually surprisingly cheap. a large part of the cost in building the guitar goes towards covering labour/overheads.

you can try ebay, but you won't be able to see/touch the wood.

if you mean you want to build a parts guitar, then warmoth, usacg, allparts are good quality. mighty mite is cheaper and ok, and eden is the cheapest that i know of, but not sure about the quality.

all things considered, i think you would be better off getting a prs se series, or looking on ebay for a warmoth prs copy. check out this auction which just ended, almost a real prs just with a bolt-on neck:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m5C3vZg%3D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[Godspeed64]

I believe a second hand PRS SE is gonna be cheaper than getting a similar wood configuration of a standard PRS.

 

[asdf]

tough to get wood but if given the opportunity, get your wood from the USA. that is where are the good wood are. The reason why I say this is because I believe that they are the best at treating wood.

compare any USA Fender custom shop vs a high end Fender Japan Stratocaster. The choice would be quite obvious and it has nothing to do with electronics or workmanship.

all this is IMO but feel free to convince me otherwise.

not true. we have lots of good wood in south east asia as well [just that many guitar builders are stuck to the 'classic' wood]. look at jeffrey yong's guitars. totally marvelous and toneful.

 

[relinquish69]

not true. we have lots of good wood in south east asia as well [just that many guitar builders are stuck to the 'classic' wood]. look at jeffrey yong's guitars. totally marvelous and toneful.

Yeah I agree that Jeff Yong makes wonderful guitars. I've played one myself and yes, it's a work of art too. However, we are comparing between acoustic guitars and electric guitars. one is a hollow body while the other is a solid body. Both have different applications and of course, wood tones boil down to individual preferences.

It would be more fair to compare the same wood from different countries of origin on the same guitar. A good example? an epiphone les paul standard vs a gibson les paul standard.

 

[dodgethis]

It would be more fair to compare the same wood from different countries of origin on the same guitar. A good example? an epiphone les paul standard vs a gibson les paul standard.

Fail experiment is fail. Your 'experiment' has too many variables that change and render any results inconclusive.

 

[fretless6]

tough to get wood but if given the opportunity, get your wood from the USA. that is where are the good wood are.

You realise that US builders also get their wood from all over the world right? Timber grow in different climates and zones, just like your vegetable produce. You can't be seriously that good wood are from the US. That's like colonial mentality.

Also, comparing wood from different countries is, well, sigh. Wood of the same species, from the same country also vary in terms of quality from tree to tree. Not all fuji apples from Japan are perfect, there are also plenty of rotten ones every harvest.

 

[relinquish69]

Fail experiment is fail. Your 'experiment' has too many variables that change and render any results inconclusive.

Your statement is a little too vague for me to fully comprehend your intentions. Care to be more specific?

In a case where you didn't get what I was trying to say, I'm comparing 2 Les Paul shaped guitars made to the same specs but using wood from different country of origin. I hope I wasn't straying too far off topic. If it's a case of misinterpretation, please forgive me for not being more specific on my part.

Anyway, that is how I get my conclusion that different country of origin does play a part in the wood game. As mentioned, this is all my opinion and you can choose to disagree provided if your point is valid. I'm not hungry to win every arguement, I'm a pretty reasonable person.

You realise that US builders also get their wood from all over the world right? Timber grow in different climates and zones, just like your vegetable produce. You can't be seriously that good wood are from the US. That's like colonial mentality.

Also, comparing wood from different countries is, well, sigh. Wood of the same species, from the same country also vary in terms of quality from tree to tree. Not all fuji apples from Japan are perfect, there are also plenty of rotten ones every harvest.

Yes that is true. However in this case, we have to put "probability" into the equation. meaning to say, what are the chances that you will encounter a lousy piece of wood from USA as compared to say... the rest of the world? of course, we can only conclude this based on experience with different guitars. We have to be our own judge.

Anyway, just a question to you guys for curiosity sake. Let's say if you were to source for the ideal piece of wood, where would it be from? I'm sure this would help the TS as well.

my choice would be from " http://www.fine-woods.com/ ". Why? I'm buying based on recommendation. If you guys are familiar with sevenstring.org, some of the members would recommend this guy in terms of quality wood. however, I've been trying to order wood from him but with no luck cos he is quite an arse to deal with. This guy is from Canada btw.

Of course, I could encounter bad wood but I can only conclude that after fitting in on whatever guitar. However, lets say if you were in my shoes, how would you know what is good wood? the only way to get such information is by reviews.

let's discuss .

 

[paradox.]

wow guys, thanks alot. the reason why i dont want to get a PRS is because I wanna experiment with different body wood. maple, mahagony, rosewood blahblah. since i've got the cash to spare coz im working i thought why not? i've got the tool's from my father workshop so it's good. thanks guys for the replies really put alot in my mind.

 

[dodgethis]

Your statement is a little too vague for me to fully comprehend your intentions. Care to be more specific?

In a case where you didn't get what I was trying to say, I'm comparing 2 Les Paul shaped guitars made to the same specs but using wood from different country of origin. I hope I wasn't straying too far off topic. If it's a case of misinterpretation, please forgive me for not being more specific on my part.

Anyway, that is how I get my conclusion that different country of origin does play a part in the wood game. As mentioned, this is all my opinion and you can choose to disagree provided if your point is valid. I'm not hungry to win every arguement, I'm a pretty reasonable person.

Yes, because Gibson Les Paul Standards and Epiphone Les Paul Standards have the exact same parts in each other, other than were the woods come from. They use the same exact pickups, same exact electronics, exact same maple 'top', exact same bridge, exact same tuners.

If you want to make a comparison, a proper experiment, you change only ONE variable. You don't change variables that can have a effect on the final result.

It's like someone testing out two different humbuckers (eg Dimarzio Tone Zone and SD JB) in two completely different guitars (eg Ibanez RG whatever and ESP Eclipse) and saying that one sounds better than the other.

 

[fretless6]

Just something to note from my experience with building 2 custom instruments with Jeff Yong. He provides some really expensive "exotic" timber to some really high end acoustic guitar builders in the US. These "exotic" wood include Monkeypod and Amboyna. You know what's the local name for these woods? Monkeypod = Rain Tree & Amboyna = Angsana.

And his source of these woods? Not from some special rainforest, but downed trees from the road side which he bought from the guys maintaining them. Same trees that line our roads in Singapore. These angsana and rain tree wood sell for more than your big leaf maple, etc in most instances too.

Also, highly prized macassar ebony? That's from Indonesia mostly, and Malaysia too.

 

[dodgethis]

wow guys, thanks alot. the reason why i dont want to get a PRS is because I wanna experiment with different body wood. maple, mahagony, rosewood blahblah. since i've got the cash to spare coz im working i thought why not? i've got the tool's from my father workshop so it's good. thanks guys for the replies really put alot in my mind.

You make it sound so simple. Do you know how much effort it takes to make a consistent guitar part out of wood blanks by hand?

 

[Hercules]

You make it sound so simple. Do you know how much effort it takes to make a consistent guitar part out of wood blanks by hand?

You sound really negative. If everybody has your mentality, nobody will progress and improve and you won't have the privilege of sitting on your fat ass typing on the computer.

 

[Hercules]

Just something to note from my experience with building 2 custom instruments with Jeff Yong. He provides some really expensive "exotic" timber to some really high end acoustic guitar builders in the US. These "exotic" wood include Monkeypod and Amboyna. You know what's the local name for these woods? Monkeypod = Rain Tree & Amboyna = Angsana.

And his source of these woods? Not from some special rainforest, but downed trees from the road side which he bought from the guys maintaining them. Same trees that line our roads in Singapore. These angsana and rain tree wood sell for more than your big leaf maple, etc in most instances too.

Also, highly prized macassar ebony? That's from Indonesia mostly, and Malaysia too.

How about Jelutong?

 

[dodgethis]

You sound really negative. If everybody has your mentality, nobody will progress and improve and you won't have the privilege of sitting on your fat ass typing on the computer.

You call that negativity, I call it reality. People always think 'How hard can it be?' and it more than often turns out to be 'ambitious but rubbish'. People like to set false expectations when it comes to getting to their outcome and how easy it would be. And of course, reality gives them a swift kick in the nuts and they give up at the first sign of difficulty.

 

[Hercules]

You call that negativity, I call it reality. People always think 'How hard can it be?' and it more than often turns out to be 'ambitious but rubbish'. People like to set false expectations when it comes to getting to their outcome and how easy it would be. And of course, reality gives them a swift kick in the nuts and they give up at the first sign of difficulty.

If you call that "reality" then computers won't be invented and you won't be here spreading your negativity. Some of them fail, some of them succeed. But at least they try. Naysayers on the other hand, are destined to lose.

 

[relinquish69]

Yes, because Gibson Les Paul Standards and Epiphone Les Paul Standards have the exact same parts in each other, other than were the woods come from. They use the same exact pickups, same exact electronics, exact same maple 'top', exact same bridge, exact same tuners.

If you want to make a comparison, a proper experiment, you change only ONE variable. You don't change variables that can have a effect on the final result.

It's like someone testing out two different humbuckers (eg Dimarzio Tone Zone and SD JB) in two completely different guitars (eg Ibanez RG whatever and ESP Eclipse) and saying that one sounds better than the other.

Alright, point noted. Well that is true but IMO, I don't see how hardware can alter the tone that much. To be fair in this "experiment", we have to find someone who owns an Epiphone with quite a bit of cash to upgrade all his hardware to match a Gibson. Of course when I'm referring to a fair experiment, the same pickups have to be used.

I have tried Epiphone Les Pauls with Gibson Burstbuckers and seriously, though it is a significant tone improvement (at least to me), it just doesn't have that so called Gibson-ish tone that I can get from a Gibson Les Paul. If I were to describe it, I would say it just lack balls.

Well, I guess this can be concluded by having a fair experiment. Then again, what if the the Gibson were a lemon or vice versa? Again, this is where probability plays a part. Of course you could get someone with good ears to handpick the 2 guitars from the start but.... that's just too much work! of course if it's for experimental sake, why not right? All in the quest for knowledge.