How important is quartersawn wood in guitar making?

terry watkins - 12:05pm Sep 25, 1998

I'm getting geared up to build my first steel-string acoustic from scratch (I have built several dulcimers and a mandolin). Because of the expense of purchasing wood from LMI, etc., I'm looking at local suppliers. I can get mahogany, walnut, maple, etc. alot cheaper locally, but it's not quartersawn.

I was thinking of mahogany neck, walnut back and sides, spruce top. I would re-saw, dress the walnut myself for the sides and back.

How important is it for the neck/back/sides wood to be quartersawn?

I would still have to order the top from LMI, but the wood for the neck, sides and back I can get so much cheaper locally.

Trying not to spend too much but build a decent instruemnt, or two or three... ;-)

Would appreciate some advice, recommendations from some veteran luthiers (and rookies also) .

Thanks,

Terry,

Here's another view from a pre-novice. You don't necessarily need quartered wood for the neck, but for the sides it's almost a must if you want to successfully bend them. Too much grain runout and the bends will fail. The back isn't a neccessity either - I have seen very highly figured walnut backs that were in no way quartered.

If you go into your local hardwood supplier and pick through the stock, you may just find some walnut that is close enough to quartered that it will work. I found nicely quartered brace stock at Home Depot. It was in the form of marking stakes. You never know where you'll find good wood.

Also, there are several suppliers that sell quartered wood a lot cheaper than LMI.

Quilted and birdseye maple are never quarter sawn, but you see a lot of high end guitars made out of them. In bending sides it helps to have a fox side bender. As Bob Benedetto has said a flat sawn board viewed on edge is quartersawn. So if you laminate your neck it can be made of quarter sawn material.

True - with the maple. I was referring to "lesser" woods like mahogany and walnut which, when flatsawn have terrible runout. I suppose with the Fox bender, you could bend just about any wood. Even the cheap plywood that Martin uses in a lot of their guitars.

I bend 4 mm laun plywood sides in mine.

Runout has little or nothing to do with flatsawn vs quartersawn. It's nice to have quarter or near quarter, but not a major handicap for sides and back - and, as mentioned, flatsawn works well for necks - just keep the grain perpendicular ot the fretboard.

With necks a good option is a three piece laminate. In my case I use local "maple" (not N.A. maple, but a rainforest Flindersia) with a center strip of New Guinea ebony or what we locally call Cooktown Ironwood. The center strip also helps me to maintain symetry when shaping the neck plus aids in stability of the unit.

Hi Terry, I built my first acoustic 21 years ago of the exact same woods you describe. Only the top was quartered, and that not particularly well. I had no problems whatsoever.

We builders tend to get too hung up on minutiae. While it may be easier to bend quarter sawn we should remember that the job of the back and sides is primarily to reflect sound, not to produce it and that therefore flat sawn wood will work just fine. Beginning luthiers should not be using increasingly rare high quality wood, anyway. I really object to the whole 'it's got to be perfect or not at all' attitude. If there is one thing I've learned it's that if you wait 'till everything is perfect you end up doing darn little. Just do it. Torpedoes be damned.

You may be interested to know that I still have the guitar and like it a lot. The walnut has a tone (imparts, perhaps I should say, in light of my comments about reflection) somewhere between mahogany and rosewood. A harder midrange like rosewood, but softer in the treble alla mahogany.

In explanation of runout: trees suitable for tone wood grow at a 90 degree angle to the ground. As long as the sawyer maintains that 90 degree relationship in his saw cut we have little problem with runout. Ideally tonewood is split from billets in order to insure that the lines of separation from the billet are where the tree wants it to be. The tree does not want runout. If the sawlog is significantly larger at the base than at the other end, or if the sawyer should somehow deviate from that 90 degree angle (to the ground), that's when you have runout. An extreme example of this would be if you were to cut a very thin piece off the end of a log (a round, such that you could count the rings), if you were to try to bend this it would break. That's why runout is a problem when bending sides. The early wood, in effect, delaminates from the late wood. Early wood is the part that grows early in the season and has the larger pores; it's generally the darker, thinner lines of grain. Late wood is the other stuff.

While building my first cittern I had the sides just bent and clamped and was waiting a few days for the glue to cure and the set to take. While talking with friends we all heard a "sprooooongggggg". I knew exactly what it was and when we looked at the cittern the rib had cracked along a grain line of runnout and half the rib was pointing out to the side. With as much time and effort we all put into these things, it is not worth using inferior materials.

I have to agree with Alan. You only make one "first guitar". Why deal with warping and splitting just to save a few bucks? Your going to spend 40, 50 60 hours making it. why not make it out of good stuff to begin with? Just a thought...

Taylor just started a walnut line. In a clinic, Pat Kirtley was taken in by the sound so much that he opted to play the one off the shelf instead of his own guitar. it had incredible sustaine and warmth : )

James olson makes multi-layer necks also. I don't know why because i am still trying to figure out how to pick my wood for my first guitar, but if a luthier like him does it, it must be a good idea : )

What is quarter sawn wood anyway?

Quarter sawn wood is wood that is cut in such a way as to make the lines formed by the grain perpendicular to the faces of the board -- I'll try to draw an ASCII picture:
__________________________
| | | | | | | | | | | | | <----grain lines
__________________________

Well, you have to use your imagination a bit. It's the most stable cut of wood with the lowest expansion/contraction coefficient, which is why it's preferred for instrument construction. With some woods this cut is more attractive than plain-sawn wood (curly maple, for example, shows its best figure when quartersawn); with other woods it's more plain.

Does every type of wood need to be quarter sawn? If i can't find quarter sawn wood, is it possible to do it myself?

Does every type of wood need to be quarter sawn?
No -- birdseye maple ony shows its figure when flat-sawn.

is it possible to do it myself?
Yes, but you need to start with a very thick piece or you'll end up with a lot of "spaghetti boards."

If I were to make a strat, would the alder have to be quartersawn?

I have made a bunch of solid bodies from flat sawn alder. Fender bodies are flat sawn. Take a look at a Fender neck and see if its quarter sawn, it’s not. A lot of Ebony fingerboards are flat sawn and cheaper (Squire) rosewood boards are flat sawn or nearly so. Quarter sawn moves in width but rarely cups. Flat sawn can cup and moves in thickness. Quarter sawn is more predictable to use for necks as it is stiffer. Flat sawn can twist (more likely on basses). Alder boards wide enough to make bodies usually have a combination of flat sawn and bastard cut. I don’t book match it just a slip match. If you get a board with a consistent grain pattern in length it will look bookmatched.

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