First Scratch build.

This is coming up fantastic.

I have now glued a bunch of rare DAR indoor xmas trees (pine) together now.. and am toying with design of a body.. then to make a template.
being one to give most things a try, what would be the downside to making a neck out of pine? also what are the mechanical differences between pine and maple (rock maple)?

Way to go AJ. I toyed with the idea to try a pine neck. Depending on the pine you are using it is quite prone to splitting. This is why I decided against it. People do make necks from pine, but you would want some good quality, well seasoned timber to avoid any issues.

No harm in trying a pine neck though. At worst it's a learning exercise.

Best of luck with your build.

Got busy Dan , finished the template and routed a body now. Just need to make templates for the neck pocket and pups.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...h-DSCF1433.JPG
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...t-DSCF1437.JPG

Must say, yours is looking a million dollars matey, well done!
I wont post any more here in your thread as I don't want interfere with your inspirational build

Just speculating, as I am sure there are others who know better, but I would think if you did make a neck from Pine, you would want to make a 5 or 7 piece neck combined with strips of some other wood between each pine strip.

My understanding is, that this type of construction reduces the potential for twisting (which is what Pine loves to do to me when building furniture).

Cheers

Darren

That's a great idea Darren. A 5-7 piece laminate neck. If you wanted to keep it to readily available and cheap timbers you could try a mix with Tassi oak or maranti.

Although I think if your going to build your own neck it would be well worth sourcing quality timbers.

And AJ that's coming along nicely. Very cool and original body shape you have come up with.
No worries either about posting your build here, it's good too see some one else jumping in the deep end with me. :)

Anyways, I received a parcel from DB the other day. A one piece Fijian mahogany body blank.

This is why I wanted some practice on some pine body's first. It's build will be a lot better planned out than this one was. What a great looking slab of timber, hopefully I can do it justice.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...wxva-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...v747-image.jpg

Impressive build Dan. Can't wait to see what's in store for that beautiful slab of wood.

well done Dan you knocked this up very quickly, love the shape and the colour. Look forward to seeing what you shape with the slab !

To answer the question re using Pine for necks, the short answer is yes.

However, you will need to source a hard variety such as Celery Top which has a nice straight grain.
It will also need to be extremely well seasoned.. as in at least 5 years worth.

Doable but my advice would be to stick with using Canadian Rock Maple for your first builds and dont forget to instal a two way truss rod.