A day has come, another remains TBD (beech burl body)

Sadie-f

Senior Member
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I've mentioned this in a few posts and specifically in this thread Beech as a body wood; that while I've got access to all the tools for NC routing a guitar body, it has not been in plan for a couple of reasons. Viz:

I'm far more experienced at finishing wood than in construction, also, Warmoth has a pipeline of good quality woods, as well as their production process for bending a 1/4" A+ grade top onto a base.

Parenthetically, I promised I'd only either acquire / build a new electric if a specific huge burl came down in a winter storm (my line on acoustics is no more bought, if I get another, I gotta build it).

Turns out this tree fell last winter, my daughter saw it was gone on a weekend trip a couple weeks ago, and learned that it's been set aside to air-dry. So maybe I can obtain a guitar-sized bit, I'll be making some calls this week. Air drying also affords more than adequate time to contemplate where to source wood for a neck. I think maybe that's a harder technically than the body construction .. also to think on how to shape. I'm not thinking strat for this one, and I would like to do a shape that will show off a LOT of wood feature .. whether as uncolored beech or with my usual approach to color / burst .. tbd.

Anyway, here's hoping I can snag a section of this wood, I've passed by the tree easily a hundred times, have often stopped to admire her. I'm sad she's no longer there, however the winter storms in that area are pretty epic, so the day had to come, we'll see about the next day :).
 
Great Idea. Good luck on it. If you don't mind a suggestion, try to get a piece that's closer to slab-sawn than quarter-sawn for the body. Quarter is good for acoustic tops, However for solid-bodies it can be prone to develop cracks and to warp. Slab-sawn often yields more attractive figure in the piece also. I await your progress reports eagerly on this......................... :headbang:


PS Never Mind. My ancient brain just realized that you said beech burl.(DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)  :confused4:
 
PhilHill said:
Great Idea. Good luck on it. If you don't mind a suggestion, try to get a piece that's closer to slab-sawn than quarter-sawn for the body. Quarter is good for acoustic tops, However for solid-bodies it can be prone to develop cracks and to warp. Slab-sawn often yields more attractive figure in the piece also. I await your progress reports eagerly on this......................... :headbang:


PS Never Mind. My ancient brain just realized that you said beech burl.(DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)  :confused4:

Haha, I also realized my own confused moment in this, if I can't get a board of straight grain wood from this tree for a neck, I shouldn't have too much trouble finding some straight beech from the same area :).


 
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