Is this a potential body blank?

[MrBump]

I was cleaning out my garage this morning and I saw this:







Dimensions are 42x500x520 mm.

It's a cut off from an oak kitchen work surface I had fitted a few years ago, I'd forgotten all about it.  But now I'm thinking - LP Junior shape?  Cheap neck off Ebay?  A couple of MQs?

What do you guys think?  I KNOW it will be incredibly heavy, but that aside, will it work?

Mark.

[Philly Q]

I don't see why not - it could be a fun experiment if nothing else.

But.... I just wonder if you'll end up with a boat anchor which may not sound too great thanks to all those different pieces of wood.... in which case is it worth all the effort?   

[MrBump]

PQ - I really don't know...  How much do you think laminated wood would affect the tone?

Like you say, an interesting experiment.  I was going to make a chopping board out of it, but it's bloody heavy, and it seems a waste...

We'll see.  Gonna see what kind of cheap necks I can get.

[WezV]

whats the tap tone like :lol:

[MrBump]

 :)

Seriously.  The more i think about it the more I want to do it.

I'm thinking a hard tail strat.  Loads of cheap necks on Ebay.

How hard can it be?

[Philly Q]

I was going to make a chopping board out of it, but it's bloody heavy, and it seems a waste...

That's exactly what my brother did with a near-identical chunk of kitchen-worktop.  But he doesn't play guitar.  :)

[badgermark]

Don't worry about the amount of pieces of wood, I know a guy over at the telecaster forum that made a 35 piece tele body. Just lots of thin strips of pine or something. Sounded fine. The whole 1 or 2 piece body debate is cork sniffing cow poop. DO IT!

I even have a spare neck if you want it ;)

[Philly Q]

The whole 1 or 2 piece body debate is cork sniffing cow poop.

I've got an old superstrat with a neck made of 50-odd maple laminates, all less than 1mm thick.  It sounds good, no dead spots.

But it can't be total cow poop.  Two or three different pieces of wood glued together must resonate differently from a single piece, whether that's good or bad.

And once you get to 35 pieces or whatever, a significant part of the body is glue, which must affect the tone.  That neck of mine must be at least one-third glue!  I'm not saying glue doesn't have great tonal properties  :lol: , but the number of pieces has to have some effect.

[WezV]

welll we can start talking about the tonal properties of different glues if you want, it all comes down to the brittleness of the glue when dry, some glues never get fully hard so will have a dampening effect, traditional glues like hide glue are much better because they are so brittle and hard when dry.

now i have nothing against lots of pieces of wood being stuck together to make a body even if its not something i am interested in using myself... but the problem i see here is that some are joined end to end and really you want a continuous piece for the length guitar because end grain jons are weak - but draw some shapes on and see where that end grain ends up.. if you can get them all behind the bridge it might not be a problem

[MrBump]

Sod it, I'm gonna do it.

Just been consting it up, and (bar the pickups) I think I can do it all for a shade over £100.  Even Mrs Bump can't argue with that.

(Actually, she can.  And probably will.  Based on the fact that we have a spare room, our bedroom, the downstairs toilet, and living and dining rooms awaiting my magic DIY touch, and a guitar project WON'T go down well...)

To quote Guitar Sam - "It's Hell living with a responsible adult".

Mark, I remember the thread about your neck, and even thought about you, but I get kinda hyper with these things, and couldn't resist ordering a maple neck from Ebay...

Does anyone know anything about oak in terms of how it resonates?  Didn't the rule used to be the heavier the wood the better tone (although my mother always says that when you move house you should spread butter on your cats paws to stop it from runing away, so I'm fully conversant with old wives tales...)

Mark.

[WezV]

that rule was wrong/misleading , but certainly the way a lot of people used to think

brian mays red special was an oak mantlepiece

i asked about tap tone earlier and i was only half joking... if its has pleasing sound when you knock on it thats likely to translate into a good sound when its a guitar.. if it sounds like a dull thud then dont bother (except with swamp ash)

if toast always lands butter side down, and cats always land on their feet.... what happens when you butter a cats back!!

[MrBump]

If you butter a cats back you may as well just grill it lightly and have it for supper.

(I hope Jonathan doesn't read that - I suspect he's a cat lover, and he currently has my guitar...)

Just gave my "blank" a good tapping...  Interesting sound.  Very bright, almost a "ping", onamatapaeically speaking.  I definitely wouldn't say dull.  Also, the sound is consistent across the whole board, which I thought was a good thing.

Good point about the end joints, Wez...  I think that I can get some continuity. 

[WezV]

possibly gonna be a bit bright then - but not necissarily in a bad way... just make sure you have a tone control

I'm a cat lover too, but not beyond buttering a cats back in the name of science.  My hypothesis is that the cat will spin in mid air as reality collapses in on itself...

[MrBump]

I shall test the laminated oak brightness/cat spinning reality collapse over the coming weeks!

[MrBump]

So.

This is what I've been doing with myself...



The starting point.



Shape was donated by my Charvel... pretty much Strat-ish.



Neck was no-name from Ebay, Canadian rock maple neck and fretboard.



Sanded and danish-oiled



Jigsaw struggled cutting the body shape...



... badly!



Routed neck pocked - I hated doing this, and there are many gaps.



Checking that the neck fitted in and everything was straight - it was, against all the odds..!



Mock up with bridge and knobs.



Fitting the neck, tuners on (but wonkey as f*ck)



Dodgy string ferrules



Strings fitted, tuned and tested!



More of the same...



...and again...



... and the youngest kicking some arse.

Well, that's it so far.  I strung it with some Ernie Ball 9s that I had lying around, and it actually sounds pretty good - intonation is spot on, the action isn't half bad, plays really well!

It's rough as hell though - chips and gaps all over it.  It's sloppy and a bit of a slob.  Like me.

I love it!

Next step is to strip it down again and go through the fine sanding, then Danish oil and wax the body.  The I guess some electrics.

I just wanted to share with you guys the story for now.

Ta ta.

Mark.