eco friendly materials

[Soar]

What are some eco friendly materials or timbers that can be used to make acoustic guitars?
Most are made from old forest timbers and a lot of them are not fully certified by FSC.
Martin have a certified range and a sustainable range and the x series but some of these still contain non'FSC timbers and they are very expensive.
I'm looking into building one from Bamboo benchtop material.
And the fingerboard could either be made from bamboo (very hard) or Richlite as used in the martin certified series.

[Otterhound]

There are plenty of domestic woods that can be used to build an all American acoustic .
Tradition and closed minds are the opponents .
Walnut , cherry , maple , adirondack red spruce , sitka spruce , black locust , osage orange , persimmon , mesquite and many others .
With my current stash of domestic woods , it just may be a long time before I use anything else unless I simply want to .

[dekutree64]

The most eco friendly are salvaged woods Find trees that died naturally, or someone else cut down and wants to get rid of the carcass. But since it takes a few years before anything will be ready for use, plus you end up with probably more than you want of one species, you can buy from other people who do the same. I've heard good things about David Maize, much of whose wood is salvaged http://www.maizeguitars.com/woods/index.htm#Back1

Of course all sinker woods are long since dead. Alaska Specialty Woods has lots of good top wood, most of which is cut from dying/dead trees, water logs, or old bridges http://www.alaskawoods.com

Oregon Wild Wood also does some salvaging, and I have bought several fine pieces from them http://oregonwildwood.com

[Soar]

Thanks everyone for those helpful and quick replies. I'll look into that information. I'm actually in Australia. Does anybody have contacts for australian salvagers etc.?

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by Soar

Thanks everyone for those helpful and quick replies. I'll look into that information. I'm actually in Australia. Does anybody have contacts for australian salvagers etc.?

No luck on Australian suppliers. Here is a local Canadian supplier of FSC wood:

http://www.windhorsefarm.org/pages/w...e-tonewood.php

Problem is, if you get it sent to Australia, the carbon footprint increases, perhaps antithetical to your purpose...?

[Soar]

True
Thanks for the link anyway

[Kitchen Guitars]

I had a Bamboo Yamaha Dred. It was pretty, I nicknamed it Bowling Alley. It irked me that it had a Rosewood headplate! I think half of its weight was glue and it was heavy. It was good for playing the Star Trek Theme, kinda shrill.
I could dig up the photos if you like

As far as recycled materials. I just got my expansion block for my Band Saw. I have a trees worth of quarter sawn Walnut to cut up + a couple thousand pounds of a section of a 300-400 year old Kentucky Coffee tree I rescued from the chipper. I haven't found anyone who has worked with Kentucky Coffee but I figure with all of the folks playing in Coffee Shops some one is bound to want one

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by Kitchen Guitars

I had a Bamboo Yamaha Dred. It was pretty, I nicknamed it Bowling Alley. It irked me that it had a Rosewood headplate! I think half of its weight was glue and it was heavy. It was good for playing the Star Trek Theme, kinda shrill.

What was bamboo - sides & back?? Wondering how the wood was joined, because bamboo isn't big enough to make full sides/back. It is a great "wood" (actually a woody grass, as you know) - flexible, dense, & hard. But it's small size is problematic.

[arie]

Originally Posted by Soar

Thanks everyone for those helpful and quick replies. I'll look into that information. I'm actually in Australia. Does anybody have contacts for australian salvagers etc.?

i did some quick googling:

http://www.ironwood.com.au/

http://www.salvage.com.au/

http://www.urbansalvage.com.au/

seems to be mostly flooring and art stuff. but you never know...

[gitnoob]

Originally Posted by HCG Canada

What was bamboo - sides & back??

Here's a pic from the web:

[Neil K Walk]

^ yup, that there's the AMF signature series right there. All that was missing was little bowling ball tuning keys and arrows for fretboard inlay.

I played it a couple of times. It was purely a gimmick guitar. Not only is bamboo not wide enough but IIRC it wasn't thick enough either so that it was lamianted and I'd guess that it was epoxied together too. It was a very heavy guitar with very little bass response.

As for bamboo being eco-friendly, maybe for pan flutes but not guitars.

BTW, if you're looking for a tree to rescue do what Kitchen did. Search for a farmer who's looking to clear land and offer to take any felled trees off their hands. You'll have to pay to have the logs quartersawn at the mill though.