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Topic: Oak body ?? |
Brendan Mitchell
From:
Melbourne Australia
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 2:11 am |
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| Has anyone built a PSG out of oak ? Any thoughts or info out there ? |
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Jim Bob Sedgwick
From:
Clinton, Missouri USA
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 8:05 am
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| I have never seen an Oak steel guitar. Number one reason, the wood is about twice as heavy as Maple. Hernia maker for sure |
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Micky Byrne
From:
United Kingdom (deceased)
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 9:24 am
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A good steel builder over here was asked to build a Rose wood steel. That too was kinda heavy. Guess builders do what they are asked for. I think Maple is "the" best wood to go for......better still birds eye if it's a lacquer guitar.
Micky Byrne United Kingdom www.mickybyrne.com |
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Jerry Overstreet
From:
Louisville Ky
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 10:08 am
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Fred Layman built a single 10 out of black oak. It was very pretty and had a really nice sound. As I recall, he had it up for sale here sometime ago. He can correct me if I'm wrong.
Aside from weight, judging from my experience tinkering with oak projects, the grain might make it prone to splitting anywhere fasteners are used especially near the ends. |
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Gareth Carthew
From:
West Sussex, UK
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 1:49 pm
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| Just the thought of lugging an oak guitar around makes me ache! |
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David Doggett
From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 2:22 pm
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| There are many kinds of oak. They are all hard. Old Ironsides was built of oak, and was so hard British cannonballs actually bounced off the sides. I once had an oak work bench that was so hard you couldn't drive a nail into it but had to drill any holes. Live oak is one of the hardest, and the preference of wooden boat builders. Maybe if oak is used, it should be a little thinner to keep the weight down. Never heard the splitting complaint. It doesn't seem to be a problem for boat builders. |
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 5:21 pm
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| my wood book says hard maple is 44lbs/cu.ft., red oak is 45lbs/cf and white oake is 47lbs/cf. if there's 1/4 cubic ft in a steel it shouldn't make much difference using oak. |
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Ken Yates
From:
Vine Grove, Kentucky, USA
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 6:11 pm oak
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I have done consideable amount of woodworking. Oak is a very poor choice for musical instruments. It is course grain and very unstable in all weather conditions, and does not have very good tone carrying capabilities. About all of the very tight grained woods are good, it just a matter of the weight one wants to deal with then, thats why hard maple is so popular.
Ken
_________________
GFI Ultra,S10 w/pad,,,Nashville 112,,,Nashville 400,,,Hilton,,,Profex ll |
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Brendan Mitchell
From:
Melbourne Australia
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Posted 25 Jan 2007 7:21 pm
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| Thanks for the info . |
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Klaus Caprani
From:
Copenhagen, Denmark
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Posted 26 Jan 2007 1:55 am
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Oak might be a poor choice if used alone. I built my 5-string fretless bass with a body combined of very old oak and mahogany. The tone is stellar.
I am actually considering a 10-string C6 lap-steel of a plank of oak that I have sitting around. Anybodys guess how that will sound.
Sorry for being off-topic. I just noticed that there are no pedals in this posting 
_________________
Klaus Caprani
MCI RangeXpander S-10 3x4
www.klauscaprani.com |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 26 Jan 2007 2:21 am
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I read somewhere (alas, old memory...) that oak has layers of wood that vary considerably in density - that open grain pattern you see. Because of this, it is a very poor choice for musical instruments because it absorbs and traps the sound waves, unlike a wood with a more even consistency between layers. (For some reason swamp ash isn't?) If you google "Tone woods" + "Guitars" and that sort of thing, you'll come up with an afternoon's reading, for sure - a lot of people think about this kind of stuff. Because oak is cheap and common and maple is cheap and common, and all the steel builders use maple, one would tend to think there's no secret magic discovery here?  |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 26 Jan 2007 10:08 am
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I have an oak Tele. Weighs way more than a Les Paul. It never sounded very good as a standard 6-string, but when I put on one of Loni Specter's Redneck conversion necks, it came alive as a lapsteel! You can see it here, scroll down a bit.
http://www.lapdancerguitars.com/news.html |
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