Alternative to wood on solid body

Ask your wood and other materials questions here. Please DO NOT post pictures and ask us to identify your wood, we have found that accurate ID is nearly impossible, and such discussions will be deleted. Thanks.
Post Reply
User avatar
Fernando Esteves
Posts: 110
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:10 pm
Contact:

Alternative to wood on solid body

Post by Fernando Esteves »

Hello!
I'm from Brazil and here the deforestation of all kind of forests, swamps and whatever else can be transformed into cropland to make soy for the cows food grows every year.

So, I'm starting to become sensitive about use only wood as materials to build guitars, specially because there are some new companies creating new kind of materials to guitar, like Aristides.

I got interested in learn a bit about it, but couldn't find anything and I'm not sure Aristides will tell me anything about their process, it seems like was years of research for them.

Does anybody has any familiarity with that?
Thanks
Amateur luthier from Brazil.
I'm here to learn!!!
User avatar
Paul Rhoney
Posts: 185
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:34 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA USA

Re: Alternative to wood on solid body

Post by Paul Rhoney »

Aristides makes great guitars, and indeed their construction is somewhat of a trade secret. They have a formula, and they prefer it stays theirs. We can theorize though, and think of some ways to make a guitar without the use of wood. For example my guess is that they are using a carbon fiber shell that is filled with some kind of high-grade expanding foam, and the fretboard is made of Richlite. Using composite materials like that is nothing new in the guitar world, just look back to the 60's and what Valco was doing. Many of the old Supro/Airline guitars featured a hollow fiberglass body. You'd be looking at making molds, learning about vacuum bagging, and getting to know a lot about epoxy. Could be fun!
JC Whitney
Posts: 216
Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:19 am

Re: Alternative to wood on solid body

Post by JC Whitney »

Fernando: If you have a minute, Google Paul Rhoney's (previous post) guitars - absolutely fantastic designs.
User avatar
Paul Rhoney
Posts: 185
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:34 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA USA

Re: Alternative to wood on solid body

Post by Paul Rhoney »

Kind of you to say JC, much appreciated. I'm just starting to get back into building again. It'll be a while yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
Jarno Verhoeven
Posts: 76
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2023 1:06 pm

Re: Alternative to wood on solid body

Post by Jarno Verhoeven »

Paul Rhoney wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2024 2:59 pm Aristides makes great guitars, and indeed their construction is somewhat of a trade secret. They have a formula, and they prefer it stays theirs. We can theorize though, and think of some ways to make a guitar without the use of wood. For example my guess is that they are using a carbon fiber shell that is filled with some kind of high-grade expanding foam, and the fretboard is made of Richlite. Using composite materials like that is nothing new in the guitar world, just look back to the 60's and what Valco was doing. Many of the old Supro/Airline guitars featured a hollow fiberglass body. You'd be looking at making molds, learning about vacuum bagging, and getting to know a lot about epoxy. Could be fun!
I think the Aristides guitars are actually solid casts, maybe with a center core for weight reduction, and although they resin they use is proprietary, I cannot believe it would be that special. It is likely that they made a mixture with curing and shrinkage and some kind of solids added for their requirements, but some experimentation is all you need. Given that they have super low volumes (for resin suppliers anyway) it is unlikely that a supplier will make something completely bespoke for them.
Aristides guitars are actually a continuation of an earlier dutch firm making polymer guitars, but I cannot recall the name, did a little search but nothing came up.

SKC Bogart did make basses with a process that you describe their "blackstone" material is a shell with PIR (I think, I saw a crosssection once on a tradeshow, and it looked like PIR) foam inside
Post Reply

Return to “Wood and Materials Q&A”