Source For Cedar

[Skip Ellis]

Jim Soloway recently gave his blessing for me to build a reasonable duplicate of his great Loon model. I'll be doing it with a bolt on 24.75" scale and the 1-7/8" fingerstyle nut width. Plans call for a mahogany body with Western Red Cedar top which Jim used on his later models. Pickup will be the standard DiMarzio 36th Anniversary HB that Jim used or a Vintage Vibe Charlie Christian with HB footprint from Pete Biltoft. So far, I'm having a problem finding any cedar that will yield a 1/4" thick top - lotsa acoustic tops out there but no luck with a 'drop' top in cedar, so I'm looking for suggestions for sources. LMI and Stew Mac doesn't have it and I'm waiting for a call back from Gilmer. I'd rather just order a top and not have to resaw from an archtop billet which would be a waste and they're pretty pricey.

Suggestions?

[deacon Mark]

Find some old bleacher seats and see if you can get one to work. I remember Bill Barker found a perfectly straight grain cedar top that he got from an old school that was getting rid of the bleachers. He made it into a really nice guitar and he joking called it the bleacher seat guitar. Close cousin to spruce and the guitar sounded very nice a bit less of the highs and rounder in tone. Barker joking said the wood had been seasoned from all those "farts" from those sitting on the bleachers.

[coldfingers]

I don't know where you're located, but I've seen some lovely pieces of straight & vertical grain WRC surfaced on all 4 sides that come out around 11/16" thick at a couple of lumber yards in Minneapolis. One was Youngblood Lumber, but unfortunately they closed. Siweck Lumber also had some. I'm pretty sure they buy this stuff from a wholesale distributor, but I don't know where. It's not thick enough for the archtops I normally make, but I wanted to use it so bad I made a little parlor-size archtop that didn't need a very high arch. Anyway, the product is out there on the market, so check around. If you're good at resawing, you ought to able to get two 1/4" book-matched pieces out of it.

[Skip Ellis]

I don't know where you're located, but I've seen some lovely pieces of straight & vertical grain WRC surfaced on all 4 sides that come out around 11/16" thick at a couple of lumber yards in Minneapolis. One was Youngblood Lumber, but unfortunately they closed. Siweck Lumber also had some. I'm pretty sure they buy this stuff from a wholesale distributor, but I don't know where. It's not thick enough for the archtops I normally make, but I wanted to use it so bad I made a little parlor-size archtop that didn't need a very high arch. Anyway, the product is out there on the market, so check around. If you're good at resawing, you ought to able to get two 1/4" book-matched pieces out of it.

I'm on the west coast of Florida. There is a decent lumberyard in Tampa that stocks cedar but finding quarter sawn might be a challenge. I'll go check it out after the hurricane is over.

[bohemian46]

What length and width needed, this aside from 1/4 thickness ?

[Skip Ellis]

What length and width needed, this aside from 1/4 thickness ?

Probably about 16" wide and 20" long. The top is 15" wide.

[krusty]

Instrument Part List A&M Specialty Wood

This is reasonably close to me and has always been my go to for instrument wood. Your dollar will go a bit further here.