Has anyone made a guitar out of red gum?

[Alkay]

I have some spare here and thought I could use it to build a guitar from scratch.
I know it would be heavy but how would it sound?

Cheers,

Alkay.

[AndrewA]

Hi Alkay, You can make a guitar out of any wood (and nearly any other material), but the question should probably be should you do it.
Besides being heavy, it may crack with age, most tonewoods used on guitars have been aged, or kiln dried, before you buy them. If you can find someone to cut it down, it may look good as a veneer over another wood, but if you are just looking for something cheap to use for your first scratch build, you can't go past pine.

[Alkay]

Hi Alkay, You can make a guitar out of any wood (and nearly any other material), but the question should probably be should you do it.
Besides being heavy, it may crack with age, most tonewoods used on guitars have been aged, or kiln dried, before you buy them. If you can find someone to cut it down, it may look good as a veneer over another wood, but if you are just looking for something cheap to use for your first scratch build, you can't go past pine.

Thanks AndrewA,

Good points. I just thought I would ask. Pine might be a good start.

Cheers, Alkay.

[Fretworn]

Did a quick google search and the consensus is that it is too heavy, very hard to machine (especially when dry) and prone to splitting and splintering.

[Brendan]

I'd also be careful as I'd take a stab at any gum being a harmonic killer - just thinking a liquid (even if it is pretty solid) that gets hit by vibrations will dampen them and possibly take some of the tone out of the wood.

[euroa guitars]

Most of my old CBG builds had red gum fret boards, the source I had was very old air dried Red Gum paneling looked pretty good with some occasional nice figure. Probably way too heavy for anything else though.
CBG below Red Gum fret board and Vic Ash neck (fret work not exactly straight!)