Being a woodworker born and raised here on the West Coast… You’d think I’d have a stash of Douglas fir in my wood collection dedicated to instrument building. Instead, I have handled and gone through hundreds of pieces of Doug fir... whether be reclaimed or fresh off the mill or stock shelves at the local Lumberyard. Many of which were of a very high-quality… Very tight, straight grained, heavy beautiful stuff.
Up until yesterday, I have assumed Doug Fir wasn’t really a suitable Tonewood for instrument making. Thus, its use has been relegated to largely finishing Millwork and or fine furniture pieces IME.
Yesterday, I was at the lumberyard grabbing some jamb material for my own home renovation… And across from me in the VG Fir section (not hem-fir) was this big ol’ banana’d s4s 2x10 (1.5x9.25) that looked to have been there quite a while. Being the wood snob that I am... I immediately noticed the figure popping out of this board along its entire 10 foot length. Upon closer inspection… I realize the whole thing is curly, right through to the other side and is heavy as hell. Well as you can imagine… I excitedly bought the thing for a measly $7.50 per board foot. After loading it up in my van, I Google search “Douglas Fir guitar” thinking; someone must be using this stuff in guitar builds!?
Well, I find out that I have been sadly misinformed about this useful species of wood. After seeing several dozen fantastic images of solid body and acoustic guitars with curly Douglas for tops... I go down the rabbit hole only to discover that Doug Fir can and is being used today for everything from acoustic tops & bracing as an alternative to spruce, to solid body tops and even bass/guitar necks instead of maple! Too cool. I’m so excited to build on my specialty Doug fir stash and incorporating the species into future builds!
For the sake of inspiration... Show me your Douglas Fir!
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), and actually practicing would be a much better use of my time.
