Check out this hot piece of ash

[Chistopher]

As part of my guitar building journey, I'm trying to be able to make as much of the instrument with local materials as possible. Also as cheaply as possible without cutting corners. I live near a furniture grade lumber mill and a Lowes, so it isn't too hard to experiment.

As part of this I've taken to making body blanks by hand.



This is fairly low grade ash reclaimed from a forest fire near my house last summer. That's about $20 worth of wood you are looking at. Tried to plane and joint it with a hand planer, but I realized I don't have the patience and did the bulk of the removal with a powered hand planer. I glued them together, now I am sanding them down flat. Probably gonna put a solid finish on this, but I might yet get a good look out of it.

This is my 3rd attempt, and it's the first one that has made it far enough to be usable. The previous two did not have clean enough joints to to match well in the middle but I didn't have an eye for that at that point, so I glued them together anyway

 

[jeremy]

how thick is it?

 

[Chistopher]

Nominally 1.75", but I've probably sanded it down to around 1.6". I prefer a thinner body, especially because this is heavier wood.

This is gonna be my first attempt to free hand a body shape

 

[Snake Aces]

I love ash! It is my shit.

 

[ehdwuld]

How dry is it

If it's heavy it may have a moisture content

It will twist as it drys

 

[ehdwuld]

Roasting it in the oven may help

Don't do it in your wife's kitchen

It will alter the taste of you cooking for ages

 

[Chistopher]

Roasting it in the oven may help

Don't do it in your wife's kitchen

It will alter the taste of you cooking for ages

I've heard you need to lower the oxygen content to do that

 

[Chistopher]

How dry is it

If it's heavy it may have a moisture content

It will twist as it drys

I guess it's actually not all that heavy. It's just a very big slab. Enough wood to make 2 guitars if it weren't for all the wasteful cutting

 

[ehdwuld]

I've heard you need to lower the oxygen content to do that

They do that in industrial ovens so they can get higher temperatures without catching stuff on fire or explosions
Safety

But in most lumber yards the have kilns at 240-300 degress for 12-16 hours to get down to 3% moisture.

The percentage you needs is 1% or so
So you will need to cook off a bit more

You can do it at home, it's just slower

 

[Mincer]

I look forward to in-process pics...I love seeing how these things take shape. Ash is one of those woods that vary wildly.

 

[d1dsj]

Good luck with this, I’ve not the patience nor the capability although o love the idea. I’ll watch with interest, that chunk a wood will look great!

 

[misterwhizzy]

I love a nice, thick slab of ash.

 

[Jeff_H]

I have an Ash Strat copy that I got from one of the smaller builders/suppliers online. I can’t recall their name right now. It’s not all that heavy,, but heavy for a Strat. I have a maple boarded neck on it currently, from Warmoth. I really need a rosewood board to mellow it out a bit. I just haven’t wanted to spend $3-$400 or more on a good replacement.

This Strat build (in 2004) inspired the Custom Tele we built for Seymour and gave to him at the 2005 User Group Day at the SD factory in Santa Barbara. That was a memory for a lifetime, for me.

Back on track, I love the snappy feel of an Ash body. It’s a very immediate sound to me. I think it needs more mids from somewhere to balance the tone, unless you are looking for that bright, immediate sound. I love that you are not opposed to using reclaimed wood. You can get some really cool wood that way. Good for you.

I mainly bought my body blank it because it had such a different and cool grain pattern.