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Greetings y'all,

New to the forum as well as new to the craft so apologies in advance if my questions are a bit pedestrian.

I would like to discuss wood choices with an eye towards (hopefully not to cliche) doing a build using all native Texas wood.

As a side note, I live in Austin, Texas and would very much like to meet local latherers who might be willing to provide guidance in my journey as well as, perhaps, rental of equipment for manicuring raw material into a form that I can work with in my own budding shop.

On to the topic at hand. I was forced to remove a beautiful purple hearted cedar tree in my yard a year or so ago. Understand that a few years back before I completely removed the entire tree I had removed its lower branches and, out of respect for the tree, built a beautiful wood strip canoe from the branches. Now that I have had to remove the entire tree I have the full trunk available for use I can think of nothing better to honor the wood than a series of guitar bodies. Please understand that I am an engineering type, so although I have this whole honoring the tree thing going on, I do understand the physics of music acoustics so don't hold back on the technical details. That being said, I need to learn a bit about wood selection in acoustic guitar bodies. I am hoping those in this forum can clue me in. So, I'll just iterate a number of questions and we can go from there:

1) It is my understanding that part of the reason for multiple wood varieties in an acoustic instrument body is that each wood has a characteristic resonance profile and the selection of disparate woods works to augment the "dead spots" in each individual wood type to give a fuller overall responsiveness. Is this correct, and if so, are there guidelines, old wive's tails or esoteric magical formula for the most compatible selections?

2) As mentioned above, the base tree I am starting with is purple heart cedar. From a visual aesthetic I am thinking that it would look most impressive as the back and sides. However, when I see cedar mentioned in guitar construction I most often see it as a top rather than a body. Is there any reason why cedar would not make a good back or side?

3) Let's talk necks. I would like to stick to all native woods (just because...). I have a ranch in North Texas and have access to Pecan, Oak, Ash, Elm, Mesquite, and even native fruit trees such as Chickasaw plum. I am assuming one wants a fairly hard wood for the neck. I am really leaning towards pecan or mesquite but have no basis for that decision other than it sounds right. Suggestions?

4) What about fretboards?. I have read that Mesquite or Texas Ebony might be good choices. Would prefer to use something that I have local access to (in raw form). Suggestions?

5) Bracing? See item #1 regarding symbiotic characteristics of wood types. How does the selection of wood for the top, back and sides effect the selection of wood for the bracing?

6) Any local Luthiers in Austin or surrounding area be willing to take me under their wing and have the equipment to manicure raw material into usable sections for a build? I can offer half of the wood, promise to not be a nuisance, and would really appreciate some guidance.

-- Travis Wheatley

Hi Travis,
I'm an electric builder, and have used various Texas woods.
Mesquite and Pecan make great fretboards, hard and dense. Purple heart cedar is hard and may work as well. The cedar used on guitar tops is a softwood such as western red cedar which is very light weight.
I don't think p h cedar would be suitable for a top.
I've made mesquite necks, but they are quite heavy.
Chinaberry wood is lovely and is in the same family as mahoganies.
Look up Bills Woodshop on the innerweb. He has a sawmill in Georgetown and offers all kinds of local lumber.
Regards,
Dan

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Thanks Dan,

Never considered using the purple heart cedar as a fretboard, I just assumed it would be too soft, although it does have a nice tight grain.

What about for the neck itself? Had to remove an older Arizona Ash recently due to interior rot in the main crotch of the tree making it structurally unstable. However, I still have some nice wood from one of the main branches. Would ash make a suitable wood for a neck? Also, what about other good wood choices for the neck itself? Is oak, pecan, or mesquite too heavy?

As for wood for the top, when you say western red cedar are you talking about Juniper? We have an abundance of juniper trees here in central Texas.

-- Travis

Travis, I'm wrong about the purple heart cedar, I was looking at purple heart from south america.
I can't find a description of purple heart cedar.
The stuff we have down here that people call cedar is juniper as you said. Never used it because of the sticky sap. Western red cedar is the stuff we use for fence panels.
As far as materials for an acoustic, I'm not going to be much help.
Maybe someone else will chime in.
Dan

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Travis good luck with your build. Many instruments are made completely of hard wood. The old idea is hardwood for the back and sides and soft for the top. But like I said many are made of one wood only. Ukuleles and smaller guitars,to name a few. Use whatever you want if it's your guitar .


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Someone did this here a while back from Texas too. I think? Search it maybe. Osage Orange is certainly a fine wood to use from that region.

So far when I have built all local Virginia guitars I have stuck to using Sitka for bracing, except the back where I used pine.. But if you have some well quartered pine it ought to be okay. IDK what purple heart cedar is but to build a guitar you are going to need some good stuff for the top. Nothing wrong with making 3 or 4 piece tops imo as long as they are perfect quarter sawn, preferably from split billets.

IF you have white oak you can stain it black with iron oxide solution and make an excellent fretboard.

I've seen cedar with the "purple" heart like you are talking about. There are a couple of dozen types of Junipers, the ones around Austin are probably Ashe Juniper which are about the same as the Eastern Red Cedar we have here. I use it for kerfed linings and bindings. It makes the inside of the guitar smell nice too. Its the same type of cedar used in cedar chests. I don't think I would use it for the body as it seems too brittle when thinned too that extent. Oak make a nice sounding body if you have that. I usually just buy a top out of spruce "mail order" but I have made one out of pine that seems to work just fine.

Thanks Y'all,

What I have is a species of ash juniper. It is known as purple heart because the interior is an absolutely beautiful purple color.

So, what I am hearing here is that perhaps the purple heart would be more suited to the top and I should choose something a bit harder for the body due to structural considerations. Sounds sensible.

Does anyone know of someone in the Austin/Central Texas area that might be interested in helping me turn my raw logs into the thin stock needed for an acoustic guitar body? Perhaps I am incorrect, but I'm thinking that a traditional sawmill would not be appropriate because the kerf is so wide and the ability to mill off thin pieces from the heart of the wood is limited. I assume that to get 5mm thick stock that a band saw and a thickness plainer are probably involved. Anyway, could use some assistance in turning my logs into usable material.

The normal process for milling logs into guitar sets is to use a sawmill to break down the logs into boards that are manageable and as quarter sawn as you can get. I usually saw 9/4 boards. Sometimes 13/4. From there, I think most air and or kiln dry the boards somewhat. Wet wood can be difficult to saw and to keep flat after sawing. I resaw both wet and dry wood , so anything is possible with enough care. When it is time to resaw the boards, square them up (must have 1 face flat and square to the bottom edge to register against a fence) and try to find a shop with a big power fed bandsaw and one that uses carbide tipped blades. Expect to pay quite a bit for the sawing. Beware of people who are too casual about their ability to do the work. Resawing correctly is not easy.

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Give Bills Woodshop a call.
He showed me some stuff he re-sawed for guitars.
He has kilns for drying.
I'd never run that stuff through any of my saws because of the sticky resin.

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Is this going to be your first guitar?
I'm in Beaumont, Tx and I've built several guitars from Texas wood.
If the main idea is to build a guitar using Texas woods, with the sound and play-ability of second importance, then you should move forward that way, pretty any wood you use is going to have some sort of sound, but probably not great. A hard but bendable wood for the back/sides, some sort of soft wood, conifer, cedar, etc. for the top, something stiff and stable for the neck.
I have built several guitars of Texas Long-leaf Yellow Pine, top, back, sides & neck, and a darker, harder wood for the fret board. And they sound great, but no one but a Texan would want to buy one.

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