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Home Depot Lumber

N

newyorkiddo

I'm actually a cat.
Jul 10, 2013
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#1
Hello! I recently finished designing a bass I thought would be really cool to make, and so I'm ready to start building! However, since I am flooded with projects and bills, I do not have much cash, and therefore, this has to stay relatively low cost. I already have a neck, so I am not worried about that.
I recently got a job at Home Depot, and I thought maybe I should give their lumber a try. I've never tried making a body from scratch (I usually mutilate already make bodies) so I think this might be an adequate starting point. I'm not familiar with lumber and what sorts of tones they create, but I am also not looking for "the best tone ever", I just need something that will get me a nice, rigid body to mount my leftover electronics and hardware. This is basically my intro to body making, so if i think it comes out well, I will try it with better suited lumber. I digress...
Have any of you made a body from lumber purchased from Home Depot? If so, which species did you select, and how does it sound. Any recommendations?
 
#2
In my experience (not as a luthier, but as a woodworker) HD's hardwood choices are very limited (some poplar, maple, and oak), and not cheap. Do you have any hardwood dealers near you, like those who make hardwood floors or cabinets? They often have their excess "cutoffs" where you can find a good variety of woods at a good cost, proba ly cheaper than HD even with an employee discount.
 
#3
buldog5151bass said:
In my experience (not as a luthier, but as a woodworker) HD's hardwood choices are very limited (some poplar, maple, and oak), and not cheap. Do you have any hardwood dealers near you, like those who make hardwood floors or cabinets? They often have their excess "cutoffs" where you can find a good variety of woods at a good cost, proba ly cheaper than HD even with an employee discount.
Click to expand...

Here in Houston they only carry oak and poplar, they don't carry maple in this area.

OP,
You can get an alder board wide enough to make a 2 piece body blank from either of these stores locally. You can joint the edges, and thickness the boards with a router and a DIY router sled. There are plenty of examples on this website as to how to go about building one.
http://www.houstonhardwoods.net/
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#5
Look for hardwood dealers in your area as well as cabinet makers/ flooring companies as previously mentioned. if you're looking for figured wood and you have the tools to machine it you can sometimes fine things like turning blanks on the 'bay or other woodworking sites. If worst comes to worst you can always order blanks through luthier supply companies but that can get a bit pricey. Be careful with home depot and the other major chain DIY stores that sell lumber... limited selection and stability issues are fairly common.
 
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#6
many years ago, I had a friend who did hardwood floors. I used to get 100+ year old maple boards from him when he'd redo an old place with maple floors. I always figured the best place to get wood for a musical instrument was from an old building so I knew the wood had settled.
 
#8
Made from Home Depot lumber, their select 2x4s. You have to pick through the pile to find nice straight studs with enough clear in them but they are cheap and great to learn on.

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#11
Only concern I have with building from pine is it's softness, which I always fear will compromise long-term holding of screws - although, one can harden an area by soaking with Super glue. But have you tried hitting ebay for body blank? I've scored really nice alder, one-piece blanks in the $35-50 range. If you had a friend or someone else to go in on it with you there are even nicer deals in larger board stock. I got a really nice piece of 2" mahogany, 16" wide by 59" long for $110 delivered. Careful cuts could render 4 bodies, 3 easily.

But they folks above are right, look for a hardwood dealer in your area, they may have some nice board pieces at great deals.

HD's by me carry maple,oak and poplar, but nothing over 1" thick. And their wood is very expensive for the sizes and grades they carry.

Look on craigs - sometimes you will have someone selling old barn or building wood - people used mass amounts of really good wood when it was inexpensive and basically what was there. And second-hand stores will sometimes have a piece of solid wood furniture that is nicked up but a very good deal if you want to knock it apart for the wood.
 
#17
Thanks guys! I will definitely check out those two places Hopkins suggested. I did end up buying some lumber at HD last night. I glued everything together and I will start shaping it soon. I will be happy if it comes out looking half as good as Dadagoboi's!
 
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