How do you pick your wood

[John54]

was wondering how do you guys pick a quality peice of wood. i understand for a top you want what looks the best but for the core woods how do you know if its a good tone? do you look in the grain or weigh the peice or is it more like the lottery?

 

[supercolio]

It should sound good when knocking it. It should be dense and dry, and with little to no cracks. That's about it.

 

[bob123]

Email a luthier, a lot of them are far more helpful then you'd ever expect...

 

[canuck brian]

Biggest thing i go for is for it to be defect free - preferably no bug holes or rot. Warped or twisted boards are usually off the menu as well.

Other than that, if it looks good.

 

[Konfyouzd]

There have been a couple of threads about this lately. Is there a particular reason you ask, OP? Not picking on you, it just seems like there have been a lot of threads lately that come across like: "I have a ton of GAS from browsing this site and I'm now overthinking my selection in guitars." Again, not trying to pick on you specifically, I'm just curious.

 

[explosivo]

Biggest thing i go for is for it to be defect free - preferably no bug holes or rot. Warped or twisted boards are usually off the menu as well.

Other than that, if it looks good.

This.

Checking, warping, rot, bug holes, and depending on if it's for the neck: straight grain and as defect free/straight as possible (wavy grain patterns are cool for body blanks, but make me nervous for neck timbers).

Of course none of those rules apply when you're talking about burl/spalt caps

 

[canuck brian]

This.

Checking, warping, rot, bug holes, and depending on if it's for the neck: straight grain and as defect free/straight as possible (wavy grain patterns are cool for body blanks, but make me nervous for neck timbers).

Of course none of those rules apply when you're talking about burl/spalt caps

I just flat out refuse to use spalted or burled stuff anymore. Too much of a pain in the ass.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Do you have to fill spalts just like burls? Probably a silly question, I've just never seen a raw piece of it before or pictures of someone working with it.

 

[canuck brian]

Do you have to fill spalts just like burls? Probably a silly question, I've just never seen a raw piece of it before or pictures of someone working with it.

A lot of the spalted stuff is so soft you can pick it apart with your fingers. Almost spongy like consistency....a LOT of CA glue and epoxy was my friend on the two that I worked with, but it'll be a cold day in Hell before I ever do it again.

 

[djohns74]

A lot of the spalted stuff is so soft you can pick it apart with your fingers. Almost spongy like consistency....a LOT of CA glue and epoxy was my friend on the two that I worked with, but it'll be a cold day in Hell before I ever do it again.

Boy, this sure makes me happy that a certain someone who may or may not have posted in this thread already ultimately decided against a spalted top for a recent build.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Who?