I'm starting to do my own body designs and would like to find a relatively cheap place to purchase wood. I dont need top quality but I also dont want to be working with pine from the local home depot. I havent been able to find much locally so I was wondering if anyone had any experience with it online?

thanks,
Nick

where is local?

there just may be hidden treasure chests in your area

all the best,

R

woodfinder.com

type in the wood you want to find, and your ZIP

presto....all the local places in your area.

Tip: type in an exotic species like ebony or cocobolo and you're likely to find places with a larger selection.

Some people here have gotten some really nice maple and poplar from Home Depot.

"nice poplar" in my opinion that is an oxymoron.

Ive seen really nice pieces of poplar here.

Not from home depot but.... Black poplar burl.

Be very careful where you get your lumber. There are a thousand exotic wood dealers and I've had my share of bad transactions from more than a few.

One particular dealer sent me a paduak board when I ordered bubinga, and the post office called and told me to pick up my wood. I started thinking "now how do they know there is wood in my package?" Well, there was no package, just a slab of paduak with my address written on it in permanent marker. I called the place to complain and they basically told me I was wrong and they would not refund the difference. Sorry guys, I know the difference.

Try out Gallery Hardwoods. Larry is a great guy who treats everyone right and knows his stuff.

"nice poplar" in my opinion that is an oxymoron.

You obviously haven't seen some of the high end poplars then. Burled poplar is just on a whole different level.

...Poplar bottom, to me this is probably one of the most underrated woods out there for instrument building. I love this particular piece!:bassist:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/scottyd/Picture006-3.jpg

That's the nicest poplar I've ever seen...

I get *most* of my wood at my local Windsor Plywood in Spokane, WA. They have a reasonable selection... not fantastic, by any means, but decent... most of the *highly* figured stuff is "held out" and purchased by the employees rather than being available to the public. However, they always have large quantities of alder, purpleheart, bloodwood, cocobolo, bubinga, wenge, paudauk, walnut, mahogany, Spanish cedar, etc.

If I want anything fancy, I order from Larry at Gallery. For most of my neck stock, I just go to Windsor, as they have decent flame maple, as well as the woods mentioned above, many of which I use for laminations in neck like this one (all wood from Windsor on this piece):

http://www.sdbguitars.com/prototype_neck_close.jpg

That maple came out of their 1"x2" bin, and was perfectly quartered when flipped on it's side... their cost was something like $1.50 lin. ft. 10' or so gives me all the stock I need for a bold on or glued in neck, including those narrow laminations

Anexotichardwood.com is my preffered place. Mitch and his gang have been wonderful to me for over ten years now. Great crew there and I just ordered a piece of this stuff:


http://anexotichardwood.com/images/turning/Blackwhiteebony.jpg



I love seeing stuff I have never seen before like Black and White Ebony ^

http://www.allenguitar.com/fret_slo.htm - this is a pretty good site for fret board and top woods, etc.

Any suggestions on sources and instructions - specifically interested in neck-through design and truss rods. Thanks

Try a Klingspors wood working shop if there is one in your area.
They do have a small lumber room w/ 1/2 tp 2" thick boards.
But also wander around the store, they seem to drop nice chunks of wood where ever space is available.
They also have packaged pieces that would work for tops and/or bottoms in 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2" thick pieces.

I've seen alder,walnut,bubinga, cocobolo, padauk, wenge, purpleheart, swampash, redwood(heart?) and some killer looking wormy looking maple at my local store.


Matt

Anexotichardwood.com is my preffered place. Mitch and his gang have been wonderful to me for over ten years now. Great crew there...

+1 on these guys...i'm fortunate enough to live about 30 minutes away from the warehouse, I got my lignum, ziricote and spruce from them. What a great place to explore! I'm about to take a trip up there to find wood for build #2.

Anexotichardwood.com is my preffered place. Mitch and his gang have been wonderful to me for over ten years now. Great crew there and I just ordered a piece of this stuff:


http://anexotichardwood.com/images/turning/Blackwhiteebony.jpg



I love seeing stuff I have never seen before like Black and White Ebony ^

PALE MOON EBONY FTW!!

I LOVE palemoon ebony.