Catalpa For Body Wood?

[rgand]

Has anyone worked with catalpa as a body wood? If so, what are its characteristics (workable, too soft, splits out easily, etc.)? I've never heard of the stuff and there's a site selling blanks of it. It's fairly nice looking and less expensive than some woods.

This site is of some help but not enough.

This site says it's mostly used for fence posts, railroad ties and cheap furniture.

Any input on this wood for a guitar body?

 

[AirCap]

I have a cabinet maker friend - John - who has built with catalpa for years. He even made a very nice cabinet ala Mesa/Boogie for a pal who built his own tube amp. John told me it cut, sanded, took finish, and so on about like ash. As we know ash, is used a lot in Fender stuff - and we know it sounds great as a tonewood. Personally, I would love to have some catalpa lumber cut in sizes large enough for solidbody guitars. Also - it's an American domestic - so why not use it?

 

[bagman67]

Go for it, Robert!  That pictured blank is a handsome looking specimen.

 

[Rick]

Looks like it has the characteristics of Alder, so it would work.

 

[Fat Pete]

Some more info on The Wood Database. Low crushing strength suggests it's rather soft - 2,740 lbf/in2 (basswood is 4,730 lbf/in2). But, see this thread on tdpri.com for a perfectly nice example of a catalpa-bodied Tele.

[edit] Sorry, you can probably safely ignore the crush strength thing, it's actually harder than basswood and is indeed similar to alder in that respect.

 

[dmraco]

Looks amazing.  I bet it would really pop with some clear.

Everything points to a nice neutral toned wood.  Go for it!

 

[ByteFrenzy]

I did a quick google on 'catalpa wood guitars' and a heap of things popped up. Necks, sides and backs for accoustics, solid bodies. One of the top related searches was 'catalpa vs mahogany' so I'd say that's what it would probably most closely compare with. And it does seem to mostly have verrrry nice figuring.

 

[rgand]

Thanks for all the input. This is the feedback I was looking for. I like to cruise through the wood supplier sites now and then to see what they offer. I'll consider it for my next build. I need to finish the one I'm currently working on first, though. Speaking of which, I got some routing done on it today.  :icon_thumright:

Thanks for the links, Pete. That Tele made of it was nice looking.