Anybody cut out guitar bodies?

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JackBootedThug

JackBootedThug

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I have old growth american chestnut that my grandfather planted. The last two have finally succumbed to the blight. I would prefer sending a slab somewhere to be cut rather than doing it myself. If I can find my router I would actually try it. Just to make it easy I want either a strat or tele body....nothing fancy. Or a V would be badass also....What do you guys think?
 
My friends dad has a Fodera bass with a American Chestnut top, he paid some crazy price for it and it sounds unreal. I know chestnut is pretty damn expensive so I have no doubt someone out there would be interested in cutting a body for you in exchange for some wood
 
I do guitar bodies ...... but only one shape ...

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Check with https://www.supra-tone.com/

I haven't bought anything from them, but they're a fairly small operation and might be willing to CNC a body from a customer-provided blank.
 
Search on "guitar body templates" - may help make it easier to do yourself. I mean you have a whole tree, right? Maybe make a practice blank yourself and see if it works before sending it out to have it done?
 
rsm said:
Search on "guitar body templates" - may help make it easier to do yourself. I mean you have a whole tree, right? Maybe make a practice blank yourself and see if it works before sending it out to have it done?
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Two big fuckers and another stump I’ve had sitting in my driveway for years…..
 
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hey man I’d check with KNE. They seem very flexible about what they do and they do awesome work
 
I've rough cut guitar bodies before, but I did that with a bandsaw and then finished them with a router. The part you have to watch out for, is when you're routing the final shape with a body template (or whatever you're using), to make sure that your bit is always spinning in the correct direction for the area of the body you're working on. That depends on which way the grain is going. If you're not moving the right direction, the bit will dig into the grain and can knock chunks of the wood out of the body or even rip the entire thing out of your hands. Ask me how I know.. :ROFLMAO:

A guy over at the Warmoth forum sent me this picture that outlines the directions you should be routing:

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I might just get a v template and give it a whirl. The one company responded back with a nope. Wonder what the best cut direction would be for a body?
 
Quarter sawing probably. One thing about it…if I screw up…American chestnut is amazing to smoke with. Not many people have experienced that because it’s basically extinct.
 
JackBootedThug said:
Quarter sawing probably. One thing about it…if I screw up…American chestnut is amazing to smoke with. Not many people have experienced that because it’s basically extinct.
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I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to wood, but I'd be careful about doing a quarter sawn body. Especially if it's going to end up really wide. It's great for necks, and very stable and strong on something as narrow as a neck but all that grain running up/down on something as wide as a "V" body might be susceptible to cracking along those grain lines if it got smacked hard enough. I could be totally off base with that assessment, but just thinking that wood likes to break in line with the grain gives me a bit of pause.
 
I'd pay for a body or blank. Probably Tele, maybe '72 Deluxe but rear routed. I have a Harbor Freight router that I've used exactly once to route a humbucker from a single coil route in a partscaster.

Per this chart , it should be fairly lightweight.
 
You could contact Glaser Instruments and see if they would want some or if not at least answer some questions you might have. There was a video where Joe Glaser takes Tom Bukovac thru some of his wood storage, he's got all kinds of unused Brazillian RW and the like.
 
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I've been hobby building guitars for a couple of decades now. I done at least a couple dozen over the years. A Vee is a good shape to start with. Mostly straight lines and not a lot of contours to worry about. I can give you a crap ton of tips that I've learned over the years. The 2 biggest things pay attention to and get right is routing the neck pocket and bridge placement/alignment.

You can make your own templates out of 1/2" ply, much more economical than buying one. You also don't need a bunch of fancy tools to build the body. You can do everything with basic hand tools, chisels, and elbow grease if you really wanted to. Having a router, jigsaw and orbital sander will make it less laborious. There are a couple of specialized tools you would need if you want to build the neck. For the first go I'd suggest buying a premade neck though.

As far as painting and/or finishing you don't need fancy spray equipment. You can get a good look with rattle cans if you do paint and lacquer. If you're leaving it a natural finish, you have a lot of options; lacquer, shellac, polyurethane, etc. You can brush those on and buff to the desired shine really easy.

The GunsandGuitars dude on youtube has some really good videos for people just starting out. I thinks he's gone to CNC and/or laser cutting now, but most of his earlier videos are with basic tools any buying a neck, pretty much where you'd want to start.

https://www.youtube.com/@GunsandGuitars

PM me and I'll give you a bunch of tips and direct you to a couple of things that helped me when I first started hobby building.

Just as a quick show...
The first pic is one I built from scratch last year. Body is purple heard with douglas fir top stained purple to to match.
The second pic is the one I'm currently working on. It's yellow heart. I plan to make this one into an 30" scale Iceman Bass VI.

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