Planning out some projects. There's a lot of construction in the neighborhood and I've managed to negotiate a nice supply of scrap wood for various projects. One thing I have quite a bit of is OSB. The thought came to be yesterday to see how well it could be turned into a neck for a CBG. I was interested if anyone had tried this before and what their results were?
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http://www.resslerguitars.com/custom-guitars-gallery.htm
OSB guitar halfway down.
Sounded good to me when he played it....
Huntz
Hoy it in the skip, it's all it's fit for
If it were me, I would use it as a thick fingerboard. Just glue it on a stick of hardwood on the back and a couple thin strips on the edges to hide the ugly chips. Leave it all nice and square for a lap guitar. With plenty of poly or lacquer it would shine and have a real unique character. If paired with an OSB top on the box it would blend nicely.
I have plenty of OSB scraps from building my barn a couple years ago. I might just give this a whack too. Someday.
Keep up the creative thoughts and questions. Don't let the contrary opinions discourage you too much. Failure is a learning opportunity.
OSB, unless I'm mistaken is 'oriented' so taht it has strength in a certain direction. I'm not going to say it would work as a neck, but I'm not going to say it wouldn't:
"While OSB does not have a continuous grain like a natural wood, it does have an axis along which its strength is greatest. This can be seen by observing the alignment of the surface wood chips. The most accurate method for determining the axis of strength is to examine the ink stamps placed on the wood by the manufacturer."
"When tested to failure, OSB has a greater load-bearing capacity than milled wood panels"
So maybe it would. Can't hurt to try. Probably wouldn't add to the sound of the guitar acoustically but slap a pickup on there and see...
OSB would work as a body (I've seen some pretty cool solidbody guitars made from it) but as a neck it would be a waste of time...the timber from the pallets would work probably as a neck. Despite what people say about softwood for necks, it works...I use it for my 'make and play' classes when we make cigarbox guitars...I've done hundreds of them with 1 x 1 1/2" softwood necks
i'm thinking after 1 day with string tension , you could shoot arrows with you osb neck.
Oriented strand board? I bet it wouldn't sound very good, but don't let me stifle your creativity. There was a luthier who built an archtop guitar from pallet wood and it sounded fantastic. I've also heard cardboard guitars (including the neck) that were ok.
I dare you to build it and prove me wrong...
I wasn't planning on doing the whole thing from OSB, just the neck. How much does that effect the sound? And I've also been taking apart some pallets to use in another build. At any rate the stuff was free and if it doesn't work out I've had some practice making necks...
My concerns with the OSB for a neck are there is lots of glue, so that would dampen the sound. Also the strands are oriented every which way, so they're not going to be very strong for tension going in one direction. I bet it would be ok as a hollow body though. (I'm thinking like Danelectro Masonite bodies.)
The pallet wood would be great for a neck. You could use pallet wood sides or spacer blocks for the hollow body.
One way to tell if a material is going to be any good for a musical instrument is to hold it somewhat loosely by the edge with one hand and tap on it with the fingers of your other hand. If it makes a pleasing tap tone, then it will be a good sounding instrument. If it sounds kind of dead, then it won't be so good. You can use this to test out cigar boxes, etc. before you by them.