Oak as a guitar body

TheOtherDennis

I'm sure this question has been posted before, but I can't find anything with a quick search, so...

A neighbour has asked me about a friend of his, who is apparently an excellent guitarist. My neighbour does a lot of woodworky things (his garage is stuffed with all manner of expensive, and heavily used, kit), and he says he has a pal who has been given a slab of oak. His pal wants to make a guitar out of it. Apparently the particular slab of oak has come from a tree that the guitarist has sentimental attachments to, which is why he wants to do something with it that will be meaningful to him, such as making a guitar.

Because my neighbour knows bugger all about making guitars, he asked me for some advice. My advice is not to bother - oak, as far as I know, is far too dense and solid to make anything even halfway resonant, even more so than mahogany.

Am I correct in thinking this? If not, I've already pointed him in the direction of this forum and its multifarious banks of knowledge and advice.

TTony

TheOtherDennis said:

oak, as far as I know, is far too dense and solid to make anything even halfway resonant, 

That's my understanding too.  Dense and heavy.

Perhaps take a thinner and nicely figured piece for a cap?  Or just turn some control knobs.  

Phil_aka_Pip

Why not a guitar stand, or small (boutique) amplifier case?

west

http://www.lowdenguitars.com/winter-2017-limited-edition

Acoustic i know but ......

Whitecat

I saw a boutique build on Facebook a little while ago that had a figured oak top... can't remember what the back was. It looked extraordinary... 

randella

TTony said:

TheOtherDennis said:

oak, as far as I know, is far too dense and solid to make anything even halfway resonant, 

That's my understanding too.  Dense and heavy.

Perhaps take a thinner and nicely figured piece for a cap?  Or just turn some control knobs.  

A cap could be a good idea, maybe on something like Basswood to mitigate the weight!

What's the grain like in the slab?  Any interesting figure?

EricTheWeary

Bits of May's red special are oak aren't they ? The fingerboard and part of the blockboard construction. 

I have a vague memory that Gordon Smith did some guitars with oak tops/ caps. 

WezV

a cap would be fine.  a whole body will likely be heavy as said above.

There will be people out there who have built with it and claim its fine, some of them might actually be fine, but generally speaking its not the best choice for a solid body.   You have to judge the wood you have available

TheOtherDennis

Thanks, all, you've pretty much confirmed what I already thought (and what I've already told my neighbour).

I don't know anything specific about the bit of wood in question, such as what it looks like (or even how big it is!) but i'll suggest a cap for something lighter. I also guess it depends on what he's wanting to do with it - strat or LP or prs style, or even something else.

Rabs

Ohh I don't know...  Ive made a couple of guitars from Oak...  One glued neck, one was a neck through and ive done one guitar with a solid maple body and an oak neck.

Id say as long as you get the weight right by say making a smaller or thinner body guitar the weight is ok.. I wouldn't make a fat LP type guitar with it. Flat top slab guitar, yes.

I will also say that my only big issue with oak is it does eat your tools up...

But id say it can be done for sure.  And for a neck, its a great material.. The maple /oak guitar I made with the oak neck hasn't moved a tiny bit since it was made.

Id post pictures but Imgur isn't working properly at the moment. One of the bodies was made with some spare kitchen top surface I found at my sisters house and I actually really liked how that came out 

I do have a vid of the neckthrough I made (my second ever guitar) but you will have to put up with my crappy playing..

TheOtherDennis

Cheers, @Rabs, but it also depends on what he wants to do with it. I'll see what he comes back with.

GSPBASSES

Let's hope this doesn't deteriorate into another several hundred page argument about tone woods. 

So, my experience with Oak, built a solid telecaster, weighed about 12 lb, sounded awful. Took it apart, machined off 5mm, chambered it too into a thin line F hole Tele with a Oak cap. Still weighed about 8 lb, did sound better then the solid version. Never bothered to try again with Oak. 

TheOtherDennis

GSPBASSES said:

Let's hope this doesn't deteriorate into another several hundred page argument about tone woods. 

So do I, cos it was never my intention to start one of those!

Rabs

Also theres one other thing about this..  It will depend on what sort of cut the oak is too and if its been dried properly..  All the wood I have used has been kiln dried. 

Ohh and I got Imgur working again so if anyone is interested..Heres that guitar I made from an offcut of kitchen work top 

https://i.imgur.com/DNHDGeG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DCypuce.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/P5Za2dp.jpg

randella

Rabs said:

@Rabs - at about 40 seconds you start hitting a D, and all day it's been bugging me what it puts me in mind of. Anyway, got there in the end... Knopfler doing Expresso Love from the album Making Movies. Not doing too well at this embedding videos lark...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etnB1h8hFb8&feature=share

bignorm

EricTheWeary said:

Bits of May's red special are oak aren't they ? The fingerboard and part of the blockboard construction. 

I have a vague memory that Gordon Smith did some guitars with oak tops/ caps. 

Brian Mays red special was made from oak but it's chambered for weight relief and sustain... considering he made this back in the early 1960's .. it's brilliant 
I came across this article on the red special restoration a while back and it's fascinating if you're a Queen fan like me.
https://fryerguitars.wordpress.com/red-special-restoration-1998/

WezV

bignorm said:

EricTheWeary said:

Bits of May's red special are oak aren't they ? The fingerboard and part of the blockboard construction. 

I have a vague memory that Gordon Smith did some guitars with oak tops/ caps. 

Brian Mays red special was made from oak but it's chambered for weight relief and sustain... considering he made this back in the early 1960's .. it's brilliant 
I came across this article on the red special restoration a while back and it's fascinating if you're a Queen fan like me.
https://fryerguitars.wordpress.com/red-special-restoration-1998/

There is a whole book on it if you are interested, great pics on it.

bits of it are oak( I can’t remember exactly which bits).. but it’s not really comparable to a solid or chambered oak guitar.  There is a lot of non-standard stuff in that build

TheOtherDennis

And isn't the only reason there's oak in it because he made it from an old fireplace?

normula1

OK, ignorant question and just out of interest, other than age and the fact that it's been stuck in a bog for a very long time is the bog that Patrick Eggle and others have been making guitars from recently different to normal oak ?

WezV

normula1 said:

OK, ignorant question and just out of interest, other than age and the fact that it's been stuck in a bog for a very long time is the bog that Patrick Eggle and others have been making guitars from recently different to normal oak ?

most i have seen have been tops, or backs and sides.   not full bodies

the fossilisation pushes it towards the denser hardwoods

ToneControl

similar density to mid-weight Ash in this chart innit?

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-density-d_40.html