100+ year old barn wood for guitar?

There is a local woodworking shop that has a good supply of 100+ year old heart pine barn wood. Some is wormy, some is not... all is (obviously) well aged. I think I can get a two piece body blank for a really good price. Considering that early Telecasters and some new ones are made of pine and this is so well aged that is should not ever weep any sap... I wonder if it would be worth it to try building a Telefaker using it... and I wonder, if I do, what neck wood I shoud use. I normally go for a soid quarterwawn maple but with this I wonder if a mahogany neck or an ebony fretbard or something else would compliment it better... Any thoughts about this? I went and took a look at some of the wood today. I think I am going to get them to build me a recording table/dest too. They do really good work. We are having them build us some other furniture so I might even be able to get them to throw in the body blank.... the rest I can do my self.
 
What think ye?
 
J

Yeah... I saw that. I'm talking about something a little less "rustic". They do have some wood with termite damage etc... I plan on trying to get some pretty solid wood but the wormholes interest me... I think they could lighten it a bit plus, who knows, they might add to the tone..
 
I would likely hurt myself with that guitar. If nothing else I would get a heck of a splinter.
 
J

 
 
http://benedettoguitars.com/2011/09/16/flashback-friday-knot-so-bad/
 
 
Benedetto says in his book about making archtops, that the pine guitar he made sounded every bit as good as any tone wood guitar
 
 
sorry misquoted here's what he said :
Per Bob: “I wanted to prove that a great sounding guitar could be made from ‘less than the best’ woods.”

        

whatever you do WEAR A DUST MASK!! 

I once had a barn made out of old barn wood.

It didn't sound all that great, but the lead paint was delicious.

While new pine is indeed soft and reactive, well aged pine is surprisingly stable. And it is damn hard.
I have burned the temper out of several drill bits drilling through old pine/fir.
I have run across a lot of old Yellow Pine here in Texas that fights taking a screw.
Pine can have a lovely, delicate grain to it, though. Especially heartwood.
Plan on burning up some tools. It could be a very worthwhile venture.

Hi jbow, that sounds like a neat project... and the furniture seems like a great idea too.

That old growth Southern Pine is beautiful wood, I'm imagining that there are no visible knots and that the grain is straight and clean.

I'd think the guitar could be beautiful with a transparent finish of some sort.

A mahogany neck could be nice combo too.

I don't think you can go wrong with assembling a fresh guitar to have fun with.

What ever you choose will give you hours of enjoyment.

I'd enjoy seeing some photos of the furniture when you get it.

best regards,
mike

Guitarhacker

RobertB


While new pine is indeed soft and reactive, well aged pine is surprisingly stable. And it is damn hard.
I have burned the temper out of several drill bits drilling through old pine/fir.
I have run across a lot of old Yellow Pine here in Texas that fights taking a screw.
Pine can have a lovely, delicate grain to it, though. Especially heartwood.
Plan on burning up some tools. It could be a very worthwhile venture.

I agree... I have an old house built well over 100 years ago and the wood is pine, rough sawn and trying to drive a nail or a screw into it requires a pilot hole first. 


It's nothing like the pine you buy at Lowes and Home Depot these days. 

 Especially pine that has been drying in an old attic for 50 years...it gets so hard I doubt the termites could eat it. If I were seriously considering building a guitar out of it and had the time I would cut and sand the blank, then let it sit in hot attic for awhile. You can get kiln dried but I don't think its anywhere close to that. As the guitar ages I suppose you get a similar effect, maybe why they say that some guitars sound better with age.

While new pine is indeed soft and reactive, well aged pine is surprisingly stable. And it is damn hard. I have burned the temper out of several drill bits drilling through old pine/fir. I have run across a lot of old Yellow Pine here in Texas that fights taking a screw. Pine can have a lovely, delicate grain to it, though. Especially heartwood. Plan on burning up some tools. It could be a very worthwhile venture.

 
Thanks... it is all heart wood. I guess if nothing else it will be an interestng project, and I really need one about now.
 
That pine archtop is lovely too!
 
J

J, what Benedetto proved is that he could be a great sounding guitar out of pine.

For the record-because so many always state "Leo built the Tele with pine"...He built
the Tele prototype with Pine which makes perfect sense.

There are no guarantees with anything about building a guitar. One makes their choices
for their project and hopefully have a great time with it.
So....have a great time!

craigb


Sort of on topic I guess, but...  If you're going to use active pickups like EMG's, how much does the material that the guitar is made out of really matter?

I'll bite.
 
In tonal aspects....probably little if any.
Since that is not the only determining factor in determining material selection I still consider it
a very important matter.