First of all: I got lots of useful infornation on this site, so I'm very thankful to all of you.
I'm currently finishing my second build (http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/dsc0000139?context=user) which has a pine neck, so I'll try it out. But anyway, I'd like to know your opinions about that wood. It's weak and too soft but it's also easy to find (a friend of mine works with it, so I can get lots of pieces).
Is there any use I can give to it on my next guits, which hopefully will increase their quality? I think it might work pretty fine to make the sides of the bodies if I don't get proper cigar boxes.
That neck on the pic got totally bowed after getting it home, but some hours under the sun got it back straight...
Any advice? Thx!
Replies
I used pine for a bunch of canjos we did in a class for young students. It was great for those and I used it "on edge" so was plenty strong for that application. For regular necks you would really need a strong truss rod to keep it from bowing under string tension, at least of 3 or more. I guess you could split it and laminate in a piece of ply down the center to add strength but may be more trouble than it is worth (unless you get free plywood too).
There are two main types of pine, white and yellow. White pine is one of the softest woods. Yellow pine is a different animal, it is similar if not slightly stronger than poplar, can be as hard as mahogany and is a tad stiffer than poplar. The downside of yellow pine is that commonly available sources are fairly wet and prone to warping once cut. Really you'd want to leave this stuff sitting around the shop for 8-12 months to dry out, cut to rough size then wait a couple more days before milling to final size. If you can find old yellow pine, that stuff is the bomb.
I used some old (~30 year) southern yellow pine for the body of a uke and it sounds surprisingly good.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/boat-paddle-soprano-ukulele
I've not used soft woods for necks but have extensive experience with Southern yellow pine. It is much denser and harder than other pines and firs and mills very nicely. I used it in the commercial manufacturer of rocking horses years ago. It also has a distinct grain and takes a stain better than softer conifers.
i tried a pine 2x4 once and the neck was fine. i did scrap the gitty tho for other reasons. i almost exclusively use red oak and hand tools.(electric drill is my only power tool) i dont think red oak is as hard to cut and shape as others make it out to be, however i have tried maple once(with a red oak finger board) and found it is a little easier to work with
Face it with a mahogany strip for the fret board and it worked ok for me on my first couple of builds
I like Ash, Oak and Mahogany.
I'm working on a couple of slide guitars with pine necks. I routed a 1/8 inch channel into the neck and dropped in a 1/8X1/2 inch steel bar. I'm thinking it should stay pretty straight but I chose a slider in case it doesn't!
I have done 2 or more with pine and my fave and most used git, the White Owl, is made from a pine (or maybe spruce) 2x4. Avoid knots and knot heads in bad places. Maybe go a bit thicker. The old time early cbg folk used what they could scrounge.
As for the better woods, I like maple quite a lot, poplar not so much and aspen not at all.
Built the neck on my "Junkyard Dog" build out of pine 1"X2" that had laid out in the garden for a little over two years. Aged and yard dried with a piece of 1/4" oak for the fingerboard. No problems so far and the CBG has a great voice. Experiment with it and if it doesn't work, salvage the good parts and build something different.
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If we're talking about laminating-why not laminate pine to hardwood to pine etc in order to get the best of both worlds?
Theoretically, you should only laminate together woods that absorbs (expands) and releases (contracts) water at the same (or fairly similar) rates so as to minimize stress at the glue joints.
[This water absorption/release is the woods reaction to changes in humidity. And finishing the wood in polyurethane, or other wood protection schemes, probably helps to reduce this problem.]
This is why I generally laminate together boards of the same kind of wood.
However, lately, I have been building necks made of a solid core of red beech with a slat of cherry (or sapelli) on each side. The solid core is typically 2.5cm x 2.5cm while the cherry slats are 3cm by 0.5cm. This makes the width of the neck 3.5cm, which is pretty good for a 3- or 4- stringer. I like the solid hardwood core because it seems to have better tonal quality. The two side pieces actually extend maybe 35cm beyond the end of the neck and I place a 16cm x 2.5cm x 1.5cm block of cherry wood to form the tail block. This means I force apart the two side slats to form what I call a paddle-box shaped instrument (rather than using a cigar box or a home-made box). These cherry-to-beech wood joints do not seem to have a problem, but then they aren't very old.
So, I'm thinking a pine-to-oak lamination would probably work okay, at least short term (few years). Maybe if building an instrument like a Stradivarius violin that has to live thru centuries of weather changes, then this theoretical problem with matching woods' water absorbing problems may become significant. But, then pine is very soft, and oak is very hard, so I suspect they'd be like the worst case example for this problem, and I have not tried this combination. So, builder beware!
-Rand.
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