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I'd have no concerns making a partsacaster from pine now. I've been looking at the guitar build sugar pine bodies for a while.
It's the guitarbuild sugarpine that looks most appealing so far. My preference would be ash or walnut but is pine going to be much softer? No doubt it will be an oil finish.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Most likely it will be a 6 screw trem as availability is dictating so far, but a hardtail would be nice.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
Pine is a fantastic wood for guitars, though. I've not heard a bad pine bodied guitar so far...
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
To be honest I reckon it would more depend on what type of pine it is and where it has been grown, rather than pine vs. other woods.
It's kind of like labelling lightweight Swamp ash and baseball bat, Northern Ash as 'Ash'. They are totally different in weight and density and hardness, but they are both technically from the Fraxinus (Ash) Genus. Northern Ash and you have a 70's strat boat anchor, heavier than a Les Paul and with swamp ash often a guitar lighter than Basswood.
Most continental pines will be harder than Basswood (Lime) anyway. How many companies use Basswood? I'm not a pine fan, but basswood has the biggest tendency for rocking Floyd posts over time if you ask me, although again, it depends on the particular lump.
I think Jackson used Indian Pine for a lot of it's guitar bodies, or was that some sort of Cedar, I forget, I think it was some sort of long leaved, sand growing Pine but they called it 'Cedar' to sound exotic.
This is useful.
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/pine-wood-an-overall-guide/
If it's UK grown, I'd forget Pine and maybe choose Douglas Fir, Larch, Cedar or Hemlock or something, even Leylandii or Cypress. The closer the rings are, usually the harder it will be.
If it's imported again it's a new ball game. Something like Longleaf Pine is a completely different animal to our redwood (Scot's Pine, not Metasequioa) and harder than many hardwoods.
It's all a bit confusing, but I would imagine if it says Pine, it's an imported purpose wood and not any old first fix shyte from a UK mill, just as if it says Ash, it is usually Swamp Ash or a lighter Ash, rather than British F. excelsior or American Northern Ash.
Also think about pitch pine (American Pinus rigida or often longleaf pine) compared to Scot's pine. One is hard as nails and makes excellent boat masts, the other you can imprint with your fingernails.
Get the species, then look up it's typical density and compare that to hardwood species you know and use, that will give you some idea.
Apparently Sugar Pine is one of the softer US Pines. So that will be designed for weight saving, like Basswood or Swamp Ash more than anything.
I've always fancied a balsawood guitar body for some reason. Like a Balsawood Les Paul Custom with the name of the headstock, all nitro lacquered up. I just think it would be priceless to see the look on someone's face when they picked it up, although no doubt the neck would probably snap before it got to that.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
There are also Yamaha's A.I.R bodies which are a balsa like wood capped with a 2mm hard wood* veneer front and back
On these guitars Yamaha solved the bridge mounting issue by bolting through from the back, rather than screwing into the front
* I say 'hard wood' rather than 'hardwood' because of the points raised by ICBM
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The problem I found with doing it myself, though, is that I lack the skills to have done it cleanly - pine is a bugger to work with as it splinters so easily. I wasted two lumps of wood before I was able to get one that didn't look completely awful.
I have a Jackson Steath that was probably the lightest select Basswood you could get. It's Floyd post sockets look like a pornstars' arsehole.