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#1
03-24-2013, 08:49 PM
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Cedar Top (Maple) Parlor
Should be getting some wood for a Cedar top for a 12" - 13" lower bout guitar. I am wondering if maple for the neck, sides, and back would be a good combination and if there are guitars out there that I could pattern it after.
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#2
05-11-2013, 07:33 AM
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Came up with my own. Going with oak back and sides rather than maple and mahogany neck.
  Hopefully the collective minds here can answer me a question given the vast experience with all makes of guitars. Cedar is said to have less headroom than spruce, would a thicker top give the guitar more headroom and allow the guitar to be as suited to chords and pick as fingerpicking? Any experience with smaller cedar topped guitars that can do both well?
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#3
05-11-2013, 10:50 AM
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Maybe not the answer you're looking for, but as a guitarist I've always been more drawn to an instrument that can do a few things very well, rather than a greater range of things but not as well.
To be more specific, I have a cedar-topped parlor guitar with a rather thin top. While it doesn't have as much "headroom" and isn't as well-suited for heavy strumming, it sounds amazing for fingerstyle. It's extremely lively and responsive, even with my very light attack. I don't wish that it was a more balanced or versatile instrument because it does what it does perfectly. Just my opinion, and my observation that when I play guitars that seek to be several things at once, it usually fails at being any one of those things.
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#4
05-11-2013, 12:01 PM
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Actually your response is perfect, I am new to this and want to know the advantages or drawbacks to the different choices available to me. Hopefully others will chime in. Your post with the mention of heavy strumming did get me to thinking what I really want this guitar to be. Maybe asking for headroom was not really what I am after. I do want it to handle chords well and am not really looking for it to compete with larger instruments. I have read about cedar more for fingerpicking and not strumming but maybe that was just a volume thing. Maybe chords are fine at lower levels. I am more looking to build a couch guitar to keep me entertained.
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#5
05-11-2013, 03:05 PM
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Cedar
I would go with something warmer for the b/s like walnut. Cedar/Maple just doesn't seem like a good match to me.
Just my less than humble opinion.
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#6
05-11-2013, 06:13 PM
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Quote:
Oh, I've moved, cool.
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#7
05-11-2013, 06:43 PM
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The Cedar Oak should sound good. I have a Cedar/Rosie parlor with hog neck and ebony bridge and board and it's very well balanced with good clarity. It's a nice strummer but shines fingerstyle. The cedar gives it warmth.
Blues
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#8
05-11-2013, 09:05 PM
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Those body woods should do you well, but you might want to rethink your fretboard choice. Unless you are going for a regional-themed guitar (North American timbers for instance) I think you'd be better served with ebony for your fretboard. It will last your lifetime plus, and look "right".
There's two cents for you. Steve
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#9
05-11-2013, 10:14 PM
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Quote:
   I did change from southern pine to mahogany for the neck when I found the leg so the red oak is not carved in stone yet. I was thinking of doing some ammonia fuming to it to darken it up.
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#10
05-12-2013, 07:03 AM
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I love it...a reclamation guitar! That is very cool. I will be interested in following this thread and see how your endeavor turns out.
I fear this could be something of the future of guitar building as the world's wood supplies dwindle over the next generation or two. 
__________________
Martin 00-18G; Waterloo WL-S; Furch: V1 OOM-SR, Green G-SR, Blue OM-CM; Tahoe Guitar Co.: OM (Adi/Hog), 000-12 (Carp/FG Mahog), 00-12 (Carp/Sinker Mahog), 00-14 (Adi/Ovangkol); In the night you hide from the madman You're longing to be But it all comes out on the inside Eventually
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#11
05-12-2013, 08:05 AM
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Quote:
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#12
05-12-2013, 08:23 AM
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I'm also an instant fan of reclaimed/repurposed wood guitars. Whenever I see it being done, I drool a little. Please keep us posted on your project.
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#13
05-12-2013, 11:12 AM
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Well I am flattered that there is so much interest in my little project, especially in Custom Shop which I thought of as more a forum for professional builders or those whose work are up at that level. I started a thread in the Build and Repair section and other than the initial advice (thanks guys, slowly putting your suggestions in practice) I was not sure if many people wanted to see what I was up to. I feel kind of funny having two threads going at the same time, this one was started in the General forum to get me started and I thought it would fade into obscurity. Maybe I will post a link to this thread, I hate to abandon that one without a finished guitar.
I have been showing my low buck methods and don't plan to do this more than a hobby so not shelling a lot for machinery. Adapted a metal cutting band saw to resaw wood (needs work, will spend more time on it after this build), home built drum sander, working on a dust collector (should have done the dust collector first). I made one acoustic guitar of sorts (more a hollow semi-hollow) so far and this is my first traditionally built guitar. I have a habit of showing mistakes and all when I post things, I learn by my mistakes and I figure maybe others will to. I am not much of a fine woodworking kind of guy but I figure if someone else can do it I could at least fake it. Anyway, I will try my best to make something that passes for a guitar, it will be fairly simple in appointments as it is summer and I have too many other things (what do you mean I have to fix the house?) competing for my time. So far I split the table leg. Relieved some of the internal stresses and the one outside section bowed a little.  Also cleaned up the piece of pallet redwood intended for the fretboard and it looks more usable now.  Will be working on my dust collector and wood bender next.
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#14
05-12-2013, 03:04 PM
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Quote:
The fuming idea is perfect, and for the oak fretboard, make your own stain from old nails...steel wool...and vinegar. A nice black will be obtainable, or at least a credible brown-ish tone. Good luck, and pics please. Steve
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#15
05-21-2013, 07:09 PM
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Fascinating idea, the reclaimed wood guitar. You posted something in that thread I started about thicknessing tops about using home depot cedar fence boards for a top. That got me thinking and I did a bit of searching and found this guy's blog...
http://ericsguitarhacking.blogspot.com/ He's made a number of guitars out of dang near everything and anything. I'd say my only thing with his guitars is that he expends very little effort to make them look good. They LOOK like they are made cheaply. Perhaps that is a limitation with the materials he is working with, but I think it has more to do with the fact that he was simply experimenting and didn't care much about what the guitar looked like. If I were the one doing it, I think I'd want to make something absolutely gorgeous, and have everyone's jaws drop when I tell them is was made from 20 dollars worth of wood that I found in an alley or bought off the cheep pile at the local hardware store. Next question I think... can such a guitar be made to sound good as well? Perhaps if you simply take care to not overbuild it... All things considered though, I think this is definitely how I am going to get started. Why buy a bunch of expensive wood for a first effort, when you can learn so much more freely, without fear of screwing the whole thing up, with cheep wood. Anyway. I'm in man. Get your butt moving, I want to see progress picks! 
Last edited by Viking; 05-21-2013 at 07:17 PM.
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