Douglas fir is about the same weight on average as a one made of poplar. I don't have a poplar Tele, but I do have a hard-tail poplar Strat that weights 3.35 kg (7.4 lbs). You usually don't lose more than about a pound by chambering...so you might get it down to the another half kilo or so. But you would lose some strength, and I would worry a bit about splitting, particularly if it gets dropped.
I see.
In which case it's probably best I not get too fancy with it then.
Not for the first build at least.
This one's also an "experiment" - I've often thought of making a guitar from Southern Silky Oak which is a little heavier.... and I'd like to go overboard with the Shielding.
I have never seen Southern Silky Oak. Not something we get here. (By contrast, I am from the US's Pacific Northwest where Douglas Fir is the most common wood you can find.) From what I read, SSO sounds like a great wood for guitar building. Hard, good looking, and not too heavy. Should actually be pretty comparable to DF in weight. The wood database says it's native to Australia and expensive in the US. How's its availability and price in Australia? Given what I read, I am surprised I haven't seen folks use it in scratch builds.
Last edited by fender3x; 13-03-2025 at 03:51 AM.
It's hard to go wrong going a little overboard with shielding!Originally Posted by EsquireEsque
It's not a widely used wood these days - Northern Silky Oak was once used in furniture manufacturing and I believe also in indoor construction many years ago... It's not "rare" but mostly available in the Eastern States from what I understand.
It's used a bit in Acoustic instruments - apparently it's a fantastic "tone wood" (most Australian hardwoods are, but are extremely heavy) but the vast majority of Australian guitars are made overseas - and there's not much SSO in China!
You can buy blanks of it - but it's much more expensive than a blank from China.
I had some a little while ago which I now wish I'd kept for making a guitar.... although as a result I'm using something else to do my "practice" on.
We've had folks use Australian hardwoods here but I don't recall one with SSO. All the wood I have looked at is pretty heavy, but SSO looks like it would produce a guitar that will be roughly in the basswood ballpark for weight. I have heard that it can be purchased in the US, but that it's very pricey. How is it there?
It would have to be imported into the US - I'm not aware it is grown there in plantations.
Not that I'd know for sure - but it seems to have a lot of the properties of (Honduran) Mahogany.... just a bit prettier.
In the link (my previous post) the prices are given for blanks - they're pretty indicative, I think.
The US dollar is "trading" at about 1.5Au dollars I think - but then there's postage (if you wanted to import it).
I know of a furniture builder who has a few half slabs (about 4m x .4m x 30 or 40mm) and I can buy it off him (he has no use for it).
At that length it's a bit warped, but when cut into 400mm x400mm it'd be pretty easily used.
I know he's still got at least 3 such slabs - not sure how much he'd charge now (but I bought a slab off him for $300 in 2018).
I see what you mean. The blanks in the pics are beautiful--and if you can get it for free that's quite a catch. Even in Australia they are a bit pricey be my cheapskate standards. That said, it's not wildly more than Honduran Mahogany...and it is, indeed, prettier!
In the pics they are quarter-sawn.
What I might get is just flat sawn - there's an occasional "fiddleback" but that about it - just the texture of the wood (a bit like "lacewood")
Book matching may account for the price difference, here and there. I tend to think that's more of an acoustic or veneer thing. I think a nicely figured piece of wood can be really nice. I know people go crazy about quartersawn necks, because they are supposed to be more stable. I haven't really had stability problems with flatsawn necks, though, and they tend to make for much nicer patterns on the headstock.
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