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Questions about building a body.

line6man

line6man

Jun 20, 2008
17,043
4,730
Close to Los Angeles, CA
#1
I'm sure this probably comes up weekly, so I apologize if this is said ad-nauseam, however, I'm thinking about trying my hand at building a body, and I have a few questions for all the experienced luthiers and woodworkers here.

First off, where is a good source to get wood?
Tropical Exotic Hardwoods of Latin America, LLC was recommended to me, but they are a 90 mile drive. I've found several online suppliers, but most simply list the woods they stock and the price per-boardfoot. I'm looking for either a place I can visit near the Los Angeles area, or an online supplier, like Gilmerwood, that shows pictures of their actual stock.

I'm interested in a somewhat figured piece of Walnut (One or two pieces.) for the body core, or perhaps a nice piece of Padouk instead. As far as laminate tops, I'm open to anything that strikes my fancy, but I'm particularly interested in Amboyna Burl (Depending entirely on the price.:hyper:), Figured Bubinga and Curly Redwood.

Does anyone foresee any problems with those wood combos? Perhaps I'm overlooking potential issues gluing the woods, or with the workability? If it makes any difference, I plan to put an oil finish of some sort on the body.

I do not own, or have access to a planer or jointer, and I really only have a handful of small wood clamps, so I will need to have someone prepare a body blank for me by planing to thickness, jointing, and gluing up the laminate top and core. Is this a service that a wood supplier could offer me? I might have to have a local woodworking shop do it. How much should I expect to pay for such a service?

Finally, who sells routing templates? StewMac has what I need, but they are notoriously expensive! Does anyone else have routing templates for less? Perhaps someone here would loan theirs out?

I need a rear-routed control cavity template (And a control cover.), a Stratocaster neck pocket template, direct-to-wood mount single coil and humbucker pickup templates and a recessed Floyd Rose bridge template.

I appreciate any responses.:)
 
#2
First: Buy crappy lumber for your first build; Poplar will be plenty good.

Second: Save figured woods until you are experienced; $300 in the scrap bin will discourage you. Avoid burls until you know how to work with them.

Third: Expect ~$65/hour and up to a 4 hour minimum for a shop to take on outside work.

Finally: DO NOT cheap out on templates. StewMac tools are expensive for a reason.
 
#3
mikeyswood said:
First: Buy crappy lumber for your first build; Poplar will be plenty good.

Second: Save figured woods until you are experienced; $300 in the scrap bin will discourage you. Avoid burls until you know how to work with them.

Third: Expect ~$65/hour and up to a 4 hour minimum for a shop to take on outside work.

Finally: DO NOT cheap out on templates. StewMac tools are expensive for a reason.
Click to expand...

I planned to start with something cheap first.:hyper:
If I can get the Walnut cheap enough, I might actually start with that.

Wow, I'll be looking at $260-ish to have a body blank prepared!?
Is there any other way to go about this?
 
#6
I agree, use cheaper woods for your first build. You can use a router thicknessing jig like this kinda thing, worked great for me:

IMG_2395.jpg
 
#8
mikeyswood said:
Finally: DO NOT cheap out on templates. StewMac tools are expensive for a reason.
Click to expand...

It would seem that any template made of a rigid material would work just fine, as all you are doing is attaching it to the wood with double stick tape, and allowing the bearing on the router bit to gently roll around the perimeter of the shape you are routing out, but I'm sure that I'm overlooking something. What exactly happens when you use cheap templates?

Regarding the router jigs for thickness planing, I still would have to worry about getting the body glued, as I have neither the size nor quantity of clamps available to glue a two piece body with a laminate top. :crying:
 
#9
line6man said:
It would seem that any template made of a rigid material would work just fine, as all you are doing is attaching it to the wood with double stick tape, and allowing the bearing on the router bit to gently roll around the perimeter of the shape you are routing out, but I'm sure that I'm overlooking something. What exactly happens when you use cheap templates?

Regarding the router jigs for thickness planing, I still would have to worry about getting the body glued, as I have neither the size nor quantity of clamps available to glue a two piece body with a laminate top. :crying:
Click to expand...

The clamps you need are quite cheap, you could do all of this yourself with a little practice. It will probably be more rewarding and fun too. I make my own templates also, I wouldnt buy the SM ones either :).
 
#10
Take full-sized tracings from the body style you like and transfer that to a nice piece of Formica for a template. I did this for a Precision master to cut a few bass bodies from and so far there's no untoward wear or damage to the edges.

Use enough horsepower for your router! You need to have the power to actually cut and not BURN your way through the wood.

Sometimes you can find full-sized PDFs on the internet for templates for the p'ups and trench for the wiring - I found quite a few in my searches and ad-libbed all the others I need.

Psssst! Pickguards are a good template for the p'ups too - just make another template as the PG is rather soft - it's plastic, you know!

I even have a couple of really old joiner-planes by Miller's Falls that I found in a swap meet. At 18-inches long they create a very good surface to join two pieces together. PS: for joining the two halves I used Gorilla Glue a few times and it's very good!

Clamps are cheap and if you make some of the pipe-style clamps, you are only gonna spend a couple of $20's for the basic parts at Harbor Freight - you will buy the actual pipe at a plumbing section in your favorite builder's supply facility.

Correction: I would actually suggest a few different sizes of routers from a Dremel hand-held to their Pro-Line stuff right up to a big 3½ horse plunge- and non-plunge types.
 
#12
Once you're ready to start making exotic wood chips, Tropical Exotic Hardwoods has an online store. They were my source before I moved to the east coast...good guys. Link Removed

A lot of guys here order from Gallery Hardwoods, as well, although I have no experience with them, the owner posts in the LC occasionally: Link Removed
 
#13
Larry is great! But he is mostly retired now. I've several acrylized boards from him that I cannot wait to add to an instrument.

Mitch is still my first source for wood. Anexoticharwood.com cannot be beat.
 
#16
Ok, a little update.

Mikeyswood is going to be sourcing the woods and preparing the body blank for me. :D
The body will be two pieces of Black Walnut, with a 1/4" or 3/8" piece of Bubinga down the centerline. The laminate top will be waterfall Bubinga.

I picked up a spindle sander from Harbor Freight today. Now I just need to order the routing templates and a few small things and I'll be all set to build a body.

I'll be looking around eBay for a cheap-but-decent body blank to practice on, as well.

I picked up a 1/2" pattern follower bit at Rockler today. (It was cheaper than StewMac.) StewMac suggests using a 3/8" bit and a 1/2" bit, but no one besides them seems to carry the 3/8" pattern follower bit.
Is there a reason for this?
 
#17
Other than the smaller radius, I think much of SM's specs are a little self-aggrandizing.

Somehow they seem to do the oddball specs for the sake of their craft - which in this case is prolly just locking down an attitude and trying to feed the mystique of lutherie.

Since 10MM is so close to 3/8" - I just use that size instead when I need such a small radius - that or a spiral cutter with a collet. This 10MM size however, is still hard to find.

With the collet you can use pretty much any bit and still have it follow the pattern.

But yeah - Rockler and CMT are yard$ cheaper than SM.
 
#19
Stew Mac in many cases gets stuff machined to the oddball sizes luthiers prefer because no one else needs it. 3/8" gives you a more usable corner radius in most pickup routs (though still not very usable, IMO) and the shorter cutter length means you will be taking off less material on your first cut against a thin plexi template. Heat from a big cut can cause problems with the template.

Especially the fretting tools, there was no one else making that stuff for years. So I'm sure Stew Mac's (and LMI's) costs were probably high and they pass that along to us.

As for the wood, there is no substitute for buying in person. I thought on the west coast a 90 minute drive was nothing. I bet there are places closer to you, but in any case it's worth a 90 minute drive to go to a great wood yard.
 
#20
FBB Custom said:
Stew Mac in many cases gets stuff machined to the oddball sizes luthiers prefer because no one else needs it. 3/8" gives you a more usable corner radius in most pickup routs (though still not very usable, IMO) and the shorter cutter length means you will be taking off less material on your first cut against a thin plexi template. Heat from a big cut can cause problems with the template.

Especially the fretting tools, there was no one else making that stuff for years. So I'm sure Stew Mac's (and LMI's) costs were probably high and they pass that along to us.

As for the wood, there is no substitute for buying in person. I thought on the west coast a 90 minute drive was nothing. I bet there are places closer to you, but in any case it's worth a 90 minute drive to go to a great wood yard.
Click to expand...

This is quite true^^^

I travel around 1.25 hr to my main wood broker, as much as 5 hours to a couple where I buy specific large quantities(rare, but happens). The first step in being successful in this business, especially the building end, is to have a good source for wood that IS NOT ONLINE. Sometimes we all have to rely on the net for woods but if you rely on Websites for wood, you will never run anything efficiently, and your cost overrun will be outrageous.
$260 for a body blank? 4 hours to make it? No, time involved in making a body Blank with joining, thicknessing, and clamping (EVEN with bookmatched top and back) is 2 hours.(UNLESS it is all done by hand tools, then this could be realistic) I can see $260 for the blank if the wood cost $180, but someone charging you that in shop/labor costs is really proud of their clamping skills....LOL

To start building, find woodworkers in your area that work both domestic and exotic woods. Talk to them, tell them what you want to do, and that you are looking for where to buy woods/lumber stock from. Most times they will help you out, but there are idiots that will be closed mouth, so have thick skin.....;)
 

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