Book matched top wood size

Jerry J · #1 02-05-2008, 08:01 PM

I'm in the process of buying various pieces of wood to have a fretless bass built. I've bought several nice pieces of ebony, cocobolo, macassar and b.e. maple for the fingerboard.

I want to chase down several pieces of book match woods for a top. What would be the ideal size length and width so that there would be more than enough wood to not compromise the fit? Heck even maybe have enough to do the headstock.

SDB Guitars · #2 02-05-2008, 08:31 PM

I get all my bookmatched top woods to fit a body blank 13" - 14" wide, and 22.5" - 24" long... This generally allows me to have enough cutoff wood to get a headstock plate and pickup covers.

Jerry J · #3 02-05-2008, 09:49 PM

Thank you Shawn. You've been very helpful.

Nelson Guitars · #4 02-05-2008, 10:15 PM

Are you looking for solid stock to re-saw. Then 7 1/2" is probably the minimum width to look for. You can usually get your peg head veneer out of the scrap where the lower horn isn't.

Greg N

SDB Guitars · #5 02-05-2008, 10:42 PM

I generally don't use billets any larger than 6.75" wide, as my instruments are 12.75" at their widest point, and this allows for plenty of room when cutting.

Also, my bandsaw won't resaw larger than 7" thick...

Jerry J · #6 02-05-2008, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nelson Guitars

Are you looking for solid stock to re-saw. Then 7 1/2" is probably the minimum width to look for. You can usually get your peg head veneer out of the scrap where the lower horn isn't.

Greg N

Greg, I'm looking at pre-cut book matched pieces but have also been looking at pieces that could be re-sawn.

So I will shoot for at least 7.5", thanks for that info. One of the pieces that is already cut is 9 1/4" x 21 3/4". I'm going to snag that one. So the size of that piece should allow for comfort room.

Nelson Guitars · #7 02-06-2008, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDB Guitars

Also, my bandsaw won't resaw larger than 7" thick...

Sounds like a good reason to go tool shopping to me!

It all depends on the material you are looking at. I buy most of my exotic materials in the rough so I need a little extra to joint off and otherwise fix before I get usable material. If you are looking at already surfaced material you can afford to look at smaller pieces.

Jerry, check out [url="http://oregonwildwood.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT"]http://oregonwildwood.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT[
/URL] Nice stock and I believe he will re-saw for you.

Greg N