I am in the planning phase of my first scratch build. This will be a Telecaster-style guitar, using only woods grown in the Pacific Northwest (I hope to learn enough from this to make a bass in a similar style). My lumber for this is a 2" x 7" x 4.5' board of doug fir for the body, a 3" x 1" x 27" Claro Walnut neck blank, and a lovely figured Oregon Myrtle board, 1/2" x 7" x 32", that will become my fretboard. The size of this will shrink a bit after I surface and level it out, it's currently rough with a slight bow.
I really like the look of the 5 piece laminated necks that Yamaha uses on many of their BB models - Maple with two narrow strips of mahogany running down the middle. And the myrtlewood board I bought has quite a bit more material than I need for a fretboard. This got me thinking about doing a five piece laminate neck with strips of Myrtle laid in between the walnut - both for stability and for aesthetic reasons.
I don't have a photo of the fir, but here's the walnut and myrtlewood, from the top and looking at the end grain. My cat is helping inspect the wood in the first picture here.
The walnut is quartersawn, while the myrtle to me looks like it's riftsawn. both are very dry, under 4% moisture. My thought here is to cut a couple of 1" strips of the myrtlewood, turn them on their side, then insert those between the walnut like so:
Does this look like a reasonable plan? Should I flip any of the walnut pieces upside down? I am planning to mirror the myrtlewood, but I'm not sure if the walnut would also benefit from something like this. The grain is a little bit wavy viewed from above, but it seems straight when viewed from the end.
I really like the look of the 5 piece laminated necks that Yamaha uses on many of their BB models - Maple with two narrow strips of mahogany running down the middle. And the myrtlewood board I bought has quite a bit more material than I need for a fretboard. This got me thinking about doing a five piece laminate neck with strips of Myrtle laid in between the walnut - both for stability and for aesthetic reasons.
I don't have a photo of the fir, but here's the walnut and myrtlewood, from the top and looking at the end grain. My cat is helping inspect the wood in the first picture here.
The walnut is quartersawn, while the myrtle to me looks like it's riftsawn. both are very dry, under 4% moisture. My thought here is to cut a couple of 1" strips of the myrtlewood, turn them on their side, then insert those between the walnut like so:
Does this look like a reasonable plan? Should I flip any of the walnut pieces upside down? I am planning to mirror the myrtlewood, but I'm not sure if the walnut would also benefit from something like this. The grain is a little bit wavy viewed from above, but it seems straight when viewed from the end.
