I'm thinking about building a simple slide guitar, inspired by the "make a slide instrument" challenge. I've got a three string cigar box, so I'm planning something simple but a step up from that. Probably five strings for open G (remove the bottom string of normal guitar).
I've got loads of 2x4 building pine lying around so that looks tempting for a cheap (free) source of wood for some sort of neck-through design with glued on "wings". But I've never heard of anybody using pine for a guitar neck. I want it to be a normal guitar type neck shape (not a square lap steel thing) so my question really is will a pine neck be strong enough to hold the tension of five strings or should I be looking for a piece of hardwood? My gut feeling is that it should be OK, but I've never heard of a pine guitar neck...
And another thing... seeing as I'm not intending to fret this (will be slide only) will I get away with no truss rod or strengthening strut? (my three string doesn't have anything like that, but it's under much lower string tension)
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What he said
I know @melvynhiscock has talked about the use of Douglas fir before
I have both a douglas fir, and port orford cedar neck blank in my collection, but have not yet built with them.
Like any wood, you need to judge the piece you have in front of you and decide if you can help it work in any way. If its straight, quartersawn and tight grained it might just be okay. But if you are unsure then don't risk it or use CF bars as extra insurance
its a largely untested use of softwoods so don't be expecting any of us to be able to tell you it will definitely work
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Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
"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
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Football is rubbish.
Yeah, mine is definitely an experiment! I wouldn't suggest using pine of you've not built necks before.
I've built lots of necks and have played it as safe as I can; the pine is kiln dried and was made from the straightest pieces I could find, I've used four pieces on edge, it has a thick mahogany fingerboard, and it is a thick neck (over 1" thick all the way up)! So I'm hoping those factors (along with the truss rod) will be enough to keep it straight and level