killemall8 Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 (edited) i have never seen a guitar made entirely out of one kind of wood. most would probably say it wouldnt sound very good. but for one of my builds i was planning on doing a kl explorer with all bubinga. i mean bubinga neck fretboard and body. the stuff i have dealed with isnt very heavy, so i dont think that would be a problem. what do you think? EDIT: i guess my dealing with bubinga was off. according to one site, bubinga is also about twice as heavy as alder. o well Edited October 5, 2007 by killemall8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 I think Wes actually built an all bubinga KL explorer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted October 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 (edited) no, his had his own headstock, and the neck was a maple walnut laminate or something. i was wondering neck fretboard and body all of the same wood. see it here wes' exploder Edited October 5, 2007 by killemall8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 Definitely possible. Just expect a fairly heavy body unless you attempt to make it smaller or more thin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 Yeah Bubinga is pretty heavy, I found some nice stock once that looked perfect for bodies, but once I felt the weight I decided to pass on it, much heavier than I had expected. Beautiful wood though, great for many different uses, but a solid bubinga guitar might be too heavy. I just thought of a cool guitar. All the same general species but different sub species or however you say that, class phylum kingdom stuff. Been a while since I've been in a science class. How about an all maple guitar, but use as many different varieties as you can find. For example, maybe use some flamed hard maple neck with birdseye fretboard, with a ambrosia body maybe chambered and a spalted top. It would all be maple, just different types. Not really suggesting this for your idea, but it came to mind as something that would be kinda cool to do for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 Never ceases to amaze me. Guitar players will pick up a light guitar and think "hey, nice". Bass players will pick up a light bass and think "cheap crap". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 Never ceases to amaze me. Guitar players will pick up a light guitar and think "hey, nice". Bass players will pick up a light bass and think "cheap crap". I never thought of it this way, it's quite true. Not that it matters to me, my main bass is all maple and weighs 12 pounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metallion Posted October 5, 2007 Report Share Posted October 5, 2007 (edited) What about a one-piece solid body and a one-piece bolt-on neck (Fretboard & neck - Fender style)? Any good properly dried Wood would do, I expect. Edited October 5, 2007 by Metallion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The royal consort Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Back tracking a bit. You said you'd never heard of a guitar made of one type of wood and have hadpeople say its a bad idea. Gibson SG And I always quite liked them.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted October 6, 2007 Report Share Posted October 6, 2007 Ah, but the SG has a ebony or rosewood fingerboard. Gibson did make a bunch of all maple guitars and basses, though, like the RD series and ripper basses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digideus Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 You CAN get Ebony necks. I dunno about ebony body slabs! Would look pretty amazing tho, with an Ebony bridge block, ebony knobs, Ebony Fretboard, Ebony Bobbins on the pickups, Ebony tuning keys, an Ebony Nut... Id imagine it *IS* possible to do it all in one species, but expensive and a hell of a lot of work! I guess you would have to choose the species of wood specifically. Ash springs to mind and a possible wood for Neck and Body. Maple is another.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyManAndy Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 (edited) I believe Fender made an all rosewood Telecaster. Or was the body veneered? CMA Edited October 7, 2007 by CrazyManAndy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metallion Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 The WALNUT STRAT: http://www.stratcollector.com/scn/models/walnutstrat.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tubab0y Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 I have a guitar made by Peavey made entirely out of maple except for the fretboard. All maple would be easy enough to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 This would be cool: rosewood neck and fingerboard. Hollowed-out rosewood body with seperate rosewood top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
low end fuzz Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 This would be cool: rosewood neck and fingerboard. Hollowed-out rosewood body with seperate rosewood top. $$$$$$$$$ that would be cool though; rosewood knobs and pu covers with rw tuning pegs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 This would be cool: rosewood neck and fingerboard. Hollowed-out rosewood body with seperate rosewood top. This is pretty much what the production rosewood Tele was. I used to own one. The neck was constructed like a maple Fender neck, but in rosewood. One piece, truss rod mounted from the back and a walnut skunk stripe. The body was made of two hollowed halves of rosewood with a thin maple leaf in between, like the Norlin style pankake Les Paul bodies. I think that the original one played by George Harrison at the roof concert wasn't even hollowed.... Mine looked terrific, but weighted a ton and was pretty much dead sounding. But this only proves that it might not be a good platform for a Tele, other designs might work better... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 I built a beast-esque guitar once of entirely mahogany except for the fretboard,which was ebony....it sounds great.I used alot of different mahogany types throughout though. I think basses need to be heavier than guitars to balance out the longer neck. and bubinga is HEAVY....I thinned the body to 1 3/8" ,made the body smaller in every direction,and routed all of the cavities deeper than needed in an attempt to lighten it up...it still weighs about 8 pounds.sounds great though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 I say, go for a Purpleheart body, neck, and fretboard. It would dull every tool in the shop in the process of making it, and, it would be PURPLE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyonsdream Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 There are a lot of guitars made from just one species of wood (minus the fretboard) most fret boards are made from dense harder woods than the body. You’ll likely find most completely one species guitar are maple. I’m actually in the process of doing one now http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j287/ZDG...le/100_3027.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyonsdream Posted October 8, 2007 Report Share Posted October 8, 2007 I built a beast-esque guitar once of entirely mahogany except for the fretboard,which was ebony....it sounds great.I used alot of different mahogany types throughout though. I think basses need to be heavier than guitars to balance out the longer neck. and bubinga is HEAVY....I thinned the body to 1 3/8" ,made the body smaller in every direction,and routed all of the cavities deeper than needed in an attempt to lighten it up...it still weighs about 8 pounds.sounds great though. http://zdguitars.com/Custom_build/DarkStar...urpleheart.html I built this guitar from purple heart (almost completely) PH body and fret board. The neck is lacewood with a black walnut center strip and headstock cap. The body is a smaller than normal body and it’s still a bugger in the weight department. Here’s the only issue. PH has to be treated with a UV protecting product to keep it from going brown over time. So, I had to use a UV treatment in the hard coat which I did on the body and the fretboard. I personally hate hard coated fretboards but what was I to do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted October 9, 2007 Report Share Posted October 9, 2007 How well has the color maintained on that purpleheart? I had started on a purpleheart semi hollow a while back before running into some issues with it, I'll finish it at some point, anyhow I did a lot of reading and researching and it seems as you said UV finish is the best bet, I would imagine this may help some other certain woods that have similar issues, though many aren't light sensitive I would still be curious on a comparison. If you wanted to go with a more oiled type feel to the neck on the purpleheart, I would say go with something like a SPF 50 sunblock, lol just kidding. Anyhow, nice job on that purpleheart guitar. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyonsdream Posted October 10, 2007 Report Share Posted October 10, 2007 How well has the color maintained on that purpleheart? I had started on a purpleheart semi hollow a while back before running into some issues with it, I'll finish it at some point, anyhow I did a lot of reading and researching and it seems as you said UV finish is the best bet, I would imagine this may help some other certain woods that have similar issues, though many aren't light sensitive I would still be curious on a comparison. If you wanted to go with a more oiled type feel to the neck on the purpleheart, I would say go with something like a SPF 50 sunblock, lol just kidding. Anyhow, nice job on that purpleheart guitar. J Well Purple Heart gets brown as the light gets to it. I build in a very low lit environment so light wasn’t an issue. If you get a piece of Purple Heart and it’s brown when you sand it and route it the color will get purple again. It’s pretty much the same color as it was when it was first hard coated. The finish is flat so it was never really vibrant in the first place but UV protected hard coating will keep that purple looking sharp for a long time. You can get UV additives at Sherman Williams because it’s necessary for a lot of wood floors. I can understand your “issues” with your semi-hollow. Purple Heart is a killer to say the least. It’s the hardest wood I’ve ever worked with and the end grain is just menacing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted October 11, 2007 Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 The piece I had gotten was heavy as hell. It was probably 14"-16" wide and at least 8/4. The problem started when I routed out the chambers which went all the way through because I had a thin bookmatched quilted purpleheart back I was putting on and a maple top. After routing through for the chambers, the next time I looked at it, it had warped and twisted fairly bad. I asked a bunch of people, got good advice on trying to fix it and I ended up getting it close to flat again, but I would have needed to take some thickness off to get it perfect which meant it was no longer useable for the project idea I had. BTW-trying to flatten that thick of purpleheart isn't fun. It was kiln dried wood too and I had it for a while before using it. I didn't have any instruments to measure moisture content at the time, but I am almost certain the outside was dry. The only thing that I could think of was a problem I heard of when wood is kiln dried too fast and creates basically a shell and moisture content remains high inside and dry on the outside. But honestly I have no idea, I don't even know if that problem can happen in purpleheart. I'll use it though, I still have the bookmatched quilted purpleheart back, but I'll need a thicker top for the project though. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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