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

A barn? Is it red? :P

Seriously, it seems like that would make for one cool tele - though admittedly I have absolutely no clue as to all dos and don'ts when it comes to building guitar.

Heck, you just reminded me that I should get in touch w/ friend of mine in California who builds Teles... ;)

 
 
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!! 

People make lots of things out of old barn boards.

My in-laws have a large picture over their fireplace and the frame is made of barn boards. It's really nice.

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

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

Pine is not much of a tone wood. It's much too reactive to climate.

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.

Some recent work has found that a couple of species of fungi infecting wood can improve the tone. Maybe if you are lucky the barn was rotting with the right stuff.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200666/Treating-modern-violins-fungi-makes-sound-like-rare-Stradivarius.html


But seriously a solid body guitar could probably be made of ferrocement and sound as good as any wood.