newcomer and bunnings guitar

[Steve.Toscano]

Hi all. Newbie from Newcastle here.
Just an amateur luthier, almost finished making my first steel string acoustic. Have made a bunch of solid bodies over the years.

Anyway, just going to throw this out there - has anyone made a guitar purely out of timber from bunnings?
As a fun/strange project im interested in seeing what kind of solid body guitar i can come up with from bunnings timbers.

[kiwigeo]

Welcome to the forum Felix,

I'm not the best person to answer your question.....you wouldn't get me into a Bunnings store even if you offered me a lifetime supply of Steinlager beer. Well thats not quite correct.....youd get me as far as the sausage sizzle outside the front door but once Id finished my sanger I'd be back in the car and on my home.

I'm sure you could probably knock up a half decent instrument if you poked around the wood stocks at your local Bunnings....it's just alot easier and less time consuming buying purpose supplied tonewood from reputable tonewood merchants.

[Trevor Gore]

I was in a Bunnings the other day and had a quick look at available timbers. Radiata pine, tassy oak, meranti (dark and light red) and merbau; that was it. I'm not keen on tassie oak, though others around here are. I have quite a lot of stuff other than guitars made out of tassie oak and it moves a lot with humidity. If you can design around that, you may be OK. Merbau is a good, hard, stable wood and used to be available from Bunnies in good lengths, but all the stuff I saw on this recent visit was finger-jointed from pieces ~300mm long. Radiata and meranti work OK, as per this guitar which I made out of off-cuts etc. from a building reno. Be prepared to use multiple pieces for tops and backs of an acoustic guitar.

If you want to make a "different" guitar, I think the dumpster style instrument is more fun to build than a Bunnies special, though Martin might not be convinced that there was much difference! (except that dumpster quality might be better!)

[Taffy Evans]

Welcome to the fold. I have built guitars out of all the timbers mentioned by Trevtheshed over the years including a lap slide, a solid body guitar, Irish bouzouki, a mandolin and acoustic guitar. I do visit Bunnings a lot but have not bought any timber off of them.

Hey Martin I suppose you prefer to go to Otto s Timber in Adelaide.

[kiwigeo]

Hey Martin I suppose you prefer to go to Otto s Timber in Adelaide.

Their tonewood shelves are virtually bare these days...as is the service

[Steve.Toscano]

Thanks guys. I just checked my local bunnings. They only have pine and tas oak. The biggest pieces of tassie oak they stock are 40mm x 18mm so not big enough.
Anyone know of a decent timber supplier in the newcastle area?
Ps. Ive already done a 'dumpster' solid body. Wanting to try a hardware store solid body.

[auscab]

I don't know if there is a Masters store up your way Felix .
I have seen nice Red Oak and Poplar on the shelves down here in Melbourne though.
Certainly not the cheapest way to buy Oak down here, and maybe Oak is not suitable for your needs.
The Poplar could be good though.

[Taffy Evans]

Here's the pine solid body, many pieces glued together to get thickness and size of outline.

I go around our local hardware/timber yard and keep checking their racks. Some years ago, over a few years, I bought all the new Guinea rosewood that was sawn on the quarter that they had. Made some great guitars out of it both acoustic and electric and still have stacks left. It was in 50mm thick boards and took me weeks to slice it up into backs sides and necks, but when I see the prices from Luthery suppliers, I'm way, way in front.

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[jeffhigh]

You could try Hudsons at Gateshead

A few years ago I could walk into bunnings at Kotara and buy Jarrah......

[Crafty Fox]

A few years ago I could walk into bunnings at Kotara and buy Jarrah......

You'd be pushed to find decent jarrah at Bunnings, even in Perth, nowadays. They used to mill most of it years ago!

[Tod Gilding]

Thanks guys. I just checked my local bunnings. They only have pine and tas oak. The biggest pieces of tassie oak they stock are 40mm x 18mm so not big enough.
Anyone know of a decent timber supplier in the newcastle area?
Ps. Ive already done a 'dumpster' solid body. Wanting to try a hardware store solid body.

You Could Join Paul ( Ozwoods ) Band of tonewood raiders ( Bloody Novacastrians )but be warned that we Northerners Shoot to Kill

[geoffrod]

I don't know if there is a Masters store up your way Felix .
I have seen nice Red Oak and Poplar on the shelves down here in Melbourne though.
Certainly not the cheapest way to buy Oak down here, and maybe Oak is not suitable for your needs.
The Poplar could be good though.

hey fellow novocastrian, i went to master's at rutherford about a month ago and noticed they sell the red oak and poplar that rob mention's here. not too sure of the suitability for guitar making of the red oak, but i think i have seen guitar's, as in solid bodies made from poplar.

good luck on your search and keep us up to date on any build progress felix, lots of pictures are always good.

cheers
geoff

[slowlearner]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I too looked into this a few years back and I've used some "bunnings" tas oak for a fingerboard, but that's it. Reason being, most of the timber they have in racks is warped up the wazoo. Not a straight piece as far as the eye can see... well as far as I could see. 18mm thick is actually a good size for a neck blank, but being that there is no room to for it to move, it's a little too small as you say. So I gave up my "bunnings bass" ideas a while back. Even the pine there is pretty aweful radiata. Full of knots and also warped as heck.

I'd try some local timber yards and they will even cut it down to size and machine it for you.

[slowlearner]

Oh, BTW, I've had Tas Oak sitting on my shelves in the garage subject all sorts of changes in humidity for a year now. The 5mm thick fingerboard blank didn't move at all. As flat and straight as the day it was thicknessed.

[Steve.Toscano]

Thanks guys, yes i agree about the tas oak

[matthew]

Three years ago I built a double bass from well chosen quarter sawn Tas Oak and WRC entirely from Mitre Ten. It is a fabulous instrument and I have had no issues with wood shrinkage or movement. The flat back is cross-braced, 670mm wide and the ribs 210mm. Entirely glued with hide glue. You'd think that if there were stability issues these would have shown themselves by now. But a guitar back is a bit thinner, so I don't know what effect that would have.

[Kamusur]

Thanks guys. I just checked my local bunnings. They only have pine and tas oak. The biggest pieces of tassie oak they stock are 40mm x 18mm so not big enough.
Anyone know of a decent timber supplier in the newcastle area?
Ps. Ive already done a 'dumpster' solid body. Wanting to try a hardware store solid body.

You Could Join Paul ( Ozwoods ) Band of tonewood raiders ( Bloody Novacastrians )but be warned that we Northerners Shoot to Kill

Tod

Martin Even the banger sangers are not what they used to be.


Steve

[snakey]

Bit late but there's mac's timbers at Belmont. They have all sorts of stuff there. And marshals timbers at Cardiff. I won't say any of the timber will be "excellent" but worth a call to see if they have anything decent. I've seen some nice rosewood at mac's from time to time.