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Permalink Reply by Cigar Box Nation on November 28, 2009 at 5:56am

My TurboDiddley #002 was built back in 2004 using pine. The neck is as straight and perfect as it was when I received it. In fact, I've played it so extensively, it's about ready for its first re-fret job.

shane

Kurt Schoen said:

I have made many pine and fir necks, and the actions have not ever raised, nor have the necks been subject to undue wear over the course of 7 years of vigorous regular play. They all have been made using very dry, tightly grained, quartersawn wood, have all had a scarf joint construction, and have had a reinforcing bar inside (graphite). I think pine or fir is a great choice for CBG's, because its lightness keeps the instrument in balance. The fingerboard is the part of the neck that needs to be hard, but the back of the neck sees no fingernails, picks, or slides and so is not really subject to much abuse.

Many airplanes have had pine or spruce spars in their wings. The Boessendorfer (sp?) piano has a spruce rim. I really like it and think the instruments made from it have a unique sound to them.

If you are making an instrument to hand down to your grandkids, maybe they will see some warping when they are your age. And if they do, its probably more the fault of the neck joint shifting or the box collapsing. Other than that, choose a nice dry specimen with vertical straight grain and you are ready to go!

I have replied to this question every couple years on various guitar forums in this manner and it falls on deaf ears. Oh well.

Kurt

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Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on November 28, 2009 at 6:31am

I do, I am geting ready to work on a new build soon, and the neck will be pine. For a 3 string build, not much of a big deal, but now for a 6 stringer, I have read it's not such a good idea. That is a lot of tension on the neck. Now, if you tried something like I want to do, two peices of pine glued together, and shaped down for a neck, that might be okay, but I am not skilled in those ways yet. I can get some cherry at home depot, but for the price and size, I just use pine...I have a small shop and not much space to work in, and they don't have cherry in the small, narrow width that I want. I just got some from the select pine section. So far, it's done me okay.

As for sound, it's not so great, it is really soft. But I use so much distoration and crunch, I don't really mind so much.

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Permalink Reply by Lewis Lee on November 28, 2009 at 8:50am

I've been thinking about what I could do with a couple slabs of fir I have out in the shed; wondering if I could use a slab to make a guitar in one piece. They are very rough cuts through the center of the tree, about an inch thick, gotten from a trapper's cabin way out in the bush by Carbondale Creek in the West Castle area of Alberta. My family has been in the area for over 100 years, and my uncles tell me the cabin was there when they were kids, so I'm thinking it's possible the wood dates from about that era.

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Permalink Reply by Wade on November 28, 2009 at 1:12pm

My favorite cbg came from an old pine floor-very tight grain and reatively light too.

Travis Woodall said:

Okay, Pine is a sort of specialty for me so I will add my 2 cents if you don't mind...Pine is a very unique specie of wood. Yellow pine with no heart is soft and not a great choice. However, heart pine is about 25% harder and antique heart pine is about 50% harder. My company manufactures flooring in both Yellow Pine, Heart Pine and Antique Heart Pine flooring. I will tell you, vertical grain antique heart pine is twice as stable as oak or maple and just as hard if not harder. As the wood ages, the resins in the heart wood crystallize and get harder and harder. Find yourself a nice piece of old, vertical grain heart pine and you will not be disappointed in the results. I promise you.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Mitchell on November 28, 2009 at 4:21pm

If you are willing to laminate the neck you could turning the wood so that is ends up being 1/4 sawn (if that makes sense) and epoxy some steel reinforcement. I have used 1/2"-1/8''x 15 1/2" that I bought at home depot... Of course you will have to glue on a fingerboard.... Could look great... Just an option- Jim

Lewis Lee said:

I've been thinking about what I could do with a couple slabs of fir I have out in the shed; wondering if I could use a slab to make a guitar in one piece. They are very rough cuts through the center of the tree, about an inch thick, gotten from a trapper's cabin way out in the bush by Carbondale Creek in the West Castle area of Alberta. My family has been in the area for over 100 years, and my uncles tell me the cabin was there when they were kids, so I'm thinking it's possible the wood dates from about that era.

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Permalink Reply by Diydc on November 28, 2009 at 4:53pm

I have tried with pine, and even taken the time to put an oak spine through it. Really no good over time. Well advised to try something else, like ashwood from an Axe handle (which is much harder).

If you have plenty of time to waste, then go ahead, but for me the pine neck is no more.

Viola and violin necks are often made from highland fir trees here in Europe, but it seems they do not have the same strain on them as a six string does. If the wood has laid long enough and is quatered correctly there should be a result to be gotten. But I really prefer Cherry, maple, Ash, walnut, etc.
maybe I just got lucky in being able to find plenty of old stored wood from 50 years ago, which is much better to both work and play.

One of my first builds was from an old cricket bat, which is a har and springy willow. Worked great.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on November 29, 2009 at 6:26am

+2

If you can find a wood salvage shop -- one that will collect the woods from old buildings or barns that would be the ticket. Here in the states (SoEast US), we see old tobacco barns for time to time which the wood in it is extremely hard.

Now this isn't something you're just gonna go out and tear one down. Again, if you can find out who locally does house or barn demolition, see what you can get from them (if you can get anything from them). Old wood is far superior in my opinion for just about anything.

-WY

Travis Woodall said:

Okay, Pine is a sort of specialty for me so I will add my 2 cents if you don't mind...Pine is a very unique specie of wood. Yellow pine with no heart is soft and not a great choice. However, heart pine is about 25% harder and antique heart pine is about 50% harder. My company manufactures flooring in both Yellow Pine, Heart Pine and Antique Heart Pine flooring. I will tell you, vertical grain antique heart pine is twice as stable as oak or maple and just as hard if not harder. As the wood ages, the resins in the heart wood crystallize and get harder and harder. Find yourself a nice piece of old, vertical grain heart pine and you will not be disappointed in the results. I promise you.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on November 29, 2009 at 6:29am

kinda like this?

Jim Mitchell said:

If you are willing to laminate the neck you could turning the wood so that is ends up being 1/4 sawn (if that makes sense) and epoxy some steel reinforcement. I have used 1/2"-1/8''x 15 1/2" that I bought at home depot... Of course you will have to glue on a fingerboard.... Could look great... Just an option- Jim


Lewis Lee said:

I've been thinking about what I could do with a couple slabs of fir I have out in the shed; wondering if I could use a slab to make a guitar in one piece. They are very rough cuts through the center of the tree, about an inch thick, gotten from a trapper's cabin way out in the bush by Carbondale Creek in the West Castle area of Alberta. My family has been in the area for over 100 years, and my uncles tell me the cabin was there when they were kids, so I'm thinking it's possible the wood dates from about that era.

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Permalink Reply by The Professor on November 5, 2011 at 5:37am

Tam

I have useed stair spindles from B&Q and Wickes . They do square ones in Oak. Also Wickes do one in Hemlock. It is still a softwood but I have used it with no problem so far. You could also try a local timber merchant. They will cut you some oak or mahogany.

Prof

Tam Givens said:

Thank's for the answers Guys.
I live in Scotland and our main DIY store is B&Q pine is about all I can get there.
I will have to visit a sawmill to get some oak. I have been using oak from a coffee table that my son ruined with cigarete.

Tam

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on November 5, 2011 at 7:33am

I've used the Wickes Hemlock spindles, but I've also put a truss rod and an oak fertboard on them. It's nice stable timber, pretty close grained and easy to work.

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Permalink Reply by Order99 on November 8, 2011 at 3:58pm

I made a few Diddleybows with pine necks last week, they sound great and are holding together well so far-keep in mind however that:

1) Each Diddly has only two strings(tuned to a fifth) of light gauge, and

2) The pine in question for the neck is cut from Seventy year-old Fire-cured tobacco hanger sticks, a legacy from my Grandfather's barn(and now my workshop for the larger projects).

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Permalink Reply by Justice Crafted on December 28, 2012 at 12:21pm

I'll be stringing up my first pine neck (tomorrow?) I imbedded a 1/8X1/2 steel bar in it so technically it's not all pine.

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