Wood questions

[laboitenoire]

Alright, I'm thinking of making a fretless four string for myself, as I want to have the experience of making my own instrument. I've been reading up, and if I get a spokeshave, I'll have a good assortment of tools to use. Anyway, I was looking around, specifically at places like Luthier's Mercantile, to see what prices are for various woods. I think that I'll probably go for alder for the body, as a pre-joined 3-4 piece alder body is only around $50 for higher-grade wood. As for the neck, I'm not sure whether I should use rock maple or curly maple (any thoughts as to which is better? ). Also, are the blanks needed to make a neck all around $70? That's the lowest I've seen, but if anybody knows where I can find it cheaper, that would be nice. Finally, for the fingerboard, I'm thinking of either bloodwood, pau ferro, madagascar rosewood, or grenadillo. Has anybody worked with these, and can they tell me which would be good for a fretless? My Peavey uses either rosewood or pau ferro, not sure which. Whichever it is, I think it looks very bland. The finish on the bass would likely be a very dark stain.

[Scott in Dallas]

I bought a ten foot alder board at a hardwood lumberyard for 40 dollars. I can make three guitar bodies out of it.

You might consider getting a cheapo maple blank and making all your mistakes on that. Same with the fingerboard. You have plenty of time to use expensive wood once you know what you are doing. The first time your router rides up on the template and digs a big ugly gouge in your work you'll be glad you did it to a 15 dollar piece of wood.

[FBB Custom]

If you can deal with rough lumber you can do a lot better than $50 and a 3 or 4 piece body.

Larry at Gallery has a 2 pc unglued but S4S alder body on his web site (which is probably gone, but the pricing might still be good) for $45. Personally, I think that 2pc is much more desirable than 3 or 4 pieces unless you are going to paint over it and I would for sure go that route. He also has Khaya and limba and some other interesting woods.

Neck blank @ $70 is probably about par for the course. I would use hard maple if you are going to be working it with a spoke shave. Curly maple is a real pain to work with a spoke shave.