Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey guys I'm getting a bunch of Ash to make bodies out of. The guy I'm getting it from has milled it yet so right now they are just logs. He said I can cut it in any way but I'm not sure which was should be best. Right now the wood is still rather green. I obviously want it quarter sawn but my step dad thinks that I should get it as wide as I can get it so the body I make will only be out of two pieces. I've heard though that I should use 3 pieces at least to avoid warping. Tell me what you think.

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Well, depends on what you want to do....

Warping, for all intents and purposes does not occur in quartersawn grain. Additionally, stable wood in 1 1/2" thicknesses also generally does note tend to warp across an 8 inch span - so either way, you are probably OK - as long as the ash is dry and worked with in similarly dry environments.

For neck blanks, shoot for quartsawn grain though - it is much better in terms of stability with the added stressor of the string moment.

You should be OK either way with the bodies...

Stephen

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Quartersawn is not a must,flatsawn will give better yield and grain pattern.
Go with hard maple or mahogany for necks with whatever decent fretboard that seems like fun to you.
I hope you have swamp ash rather than northern/ heavy ash. If your wood is heavy ,count on making some hollow guitars,maybe with fancy tops.
One pc bodies will cup a bit, but if you put the interior rings of the tree toward the face of your guitar it should not look too bad if it cups a little.As you know the rings tend to flatten out if it wants to cup.
As for thickness with green wood expect some shrinkage so cut at least 2.25" if you want 1.750" dry and flat.
Just a hint,many old Fender bodies used an off center joint with one wide board and one narrow. Better yield that way.

Have fun and good luck with your projects.

If your going to paint it a 3 piece body is ok. But for a clear finish 2 looks much better especially if its book matched.

You can get it rift sawn, cut between 30-60 degrees of rings.
Rift characteristics as defined by NOFMA are: "In cross section the angle of the annual ring tangent to the face of the piece to be between 30° to 60°. Grain lines to be mostly parallel to the length of strips and medullary ray flecks less than 1/16" wide."

You probably already know this, but if you are air drying this, expect 1 year per inch of drying time.

And if its not dried and stored properly you risk ruining all of the wood due to checking a splitting.

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