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Using my wood.

They'll do it, but before they'll commit you have to send the wood to them for review. They won't just turn any old hunk of lumber into a body/neck.
 
Cagey said:
They'll do it, but before they'll commit you have to send the wood to them for review. They won't just turn any old hunk of lumber into a body/neck.

I didn't know that was an off the menu option. I assume there is an upcharge and multiple steps but good to know if I ever find that dream piece of cocobolo neck blank.
 
Judging by the quality of the pieces they ship, I gotta think getting an outside piece of lumber to pass muster is not easy. They not only have to worry about what the end result is going to look like, but whether the moisture content is right, whether the grain orientation will work for the piece, whether there are spurious bits of nails/screws/barbed wire/etc. embedded in the wood, and probably other things us non-wood nymph types might not consider. For example, you never hear about Hickory necks/bodies - why is that? Something we don't know, apparently, because it's a pretty hard wood and not exactly rare.
 
I built the cabinet for my first guitar amp out of hickory. It is indeed tough durable hard wood. It's also wound up tighter than a <can't think of a good expression>. I ripped it down to pieces 3-4" wide and glued them up, planning to run that through the planer. The stuff was curling like banana peels as it left the saw blade.

Do I think you could make a good guitar neck of it? Yes. Do I want to hazard a guess how many you'd have to make to get a good one? No.
 
Cagey said:
Judging by the quality of the pieces they ship, I gotta think getting an outside piece of lumber to pass muster is not easy. They not only have to worry about what the end result is going to look like, but whether the moisture content is right, whether the grain orientation will work for the piece, whether there are spurious bits of nails/screws/barbed wire/etc. embedded in the wood, and probably other things us non-wood nymph types might not consider. For example, you never hear about Hickory necks/bodies - why is that? Something we don't know, apparently, because it's a pretty hard wood and not exactly rare.

This is especially true, and speaking from experience, Ken inspects incoming wood and rejects a good 50% of what has been shipped.
 
No surprise that Ken would reject 50% of the wood... What happens to the rejects? Sold to furniture makers or wholesaled to a big box store?
 
AirCap said:
No surprise that Ken would reject 50% of the wood... What happens to the rejects? Sold to furniture makers or wholesaled to a big box store?

Rejected means, they go back on the truck back to the lumber mill.
 
I had found a wonderous top of spalted maple on ebay a while back, and called to see if it was possible to get W to build me a bass using it.  Unless it is kiln dried they won't consider it at all.  This particular piece was not, so it was a non-starter.
 
Not to highjack the thread by any means, but i have a secondary question. Would they paint a body you sent them?
 
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