Construction grade Yellow Pine

[van]

I'm crazy!
I don't think anyone has ever built an instrument out of construction grade Yellow Pine because it is a heavy wood. If any one has, let me know.
I think that if you cut it right and kept the grain going in the right direction that not only would it be beautiful but stable as well. I plan on building a mandola out of this stuff just as an experiment. I am guessing that when I get the back carved I can tap it and hear if it would do for the top, if it doesen't sound right then I will go with a spruce 2X4 for the top. I am almost shure that the yellow pine back would make an excelent deflector. If it fails as an acoustic, then I might put a pickup in it or just show it to someone as an example of what not to do. Anyhow, I am sure it will be fun and a good learning experience. I welcome your thoughts on this matter.

[Mastersound]

Hi van

I'd recommend you go to the Musical Instrument Makers' Forum, register (it's free) and then search the library of discussions. There are lots and lots of discussions on timbers for various instruments and uses, including the various pines around the world. Pine gets used a lot for solidbody instruments, usually as protoypes, in fact the original Fender solidbody had a pine body. I'm more into solidbody instruments than acoustic but you'll find threads on pine in acoustics. Another cheap alternative timber some people have had surprising success with for acoustic instruments is Douglas Fir, once again a readily available construction timber. Having said all that you need to take into account that the timber is actually the cheapest part of the instrument compared to the time you'll put into making it, so don't "spoil the ship for a ha'penth of tar" as it were mate!

[sunburst]

Bob Benedetto says this one has a:

"Two-piece top carved from flatsawn construction grade 2"x 10"pine....Despite the obvious, this guitar plays and sounds as good as any made from expensive tonewoods."

[Antlurz]

Wonder what he used for the neck, back and sides?

Ron

[van]

Rob,
I have used Douglas fir for necks before and also used Aspen for guitar tops. I bought a plank of birdseye Poplar and a plank of flamed Aspen at Lowes this week and also found some quilted Aspen but it was warped to bad so I din't get it. All three are good tonewood and easy to get. My main thing at Lowes is the Western Red Cedar and the Aromatic Eastern red cedar closet lining. Thanks for the advice, I'll go check out that Musical Instrument Makers' Forum and when I get to the yellow pine experiment, I will post some pictures and tell how it turned out. Thanks John for the Bob Benedetto picture. Ron I wonder too?

[sunburst]

Wonder what he used for the neck, back and sides?

"Back carved from two-piece flatsawn unmatched maple, riddled with small knotts, weather checking and discoloration. Sides and neck are plain maple."

[jmkatcher]

What is yellow pine's long-term stability?

[Bill Snyder]

The first mandolin I completed has a yellow pine top. It sounds fine. Here it is. You can not see the grain, but it is somewhere between quarter and flatsawn. Still ok some 15+ months later.

[mandolinplucker]

Different strokes for different folks. I'm retired and have nothing but time but, if I am going to spend my time doing something I don't want to waste it. I know that you have a better chance at building something of quality if you start out with tried and proven materials. I may practice or make a trial fit with inexpensive materials but if I'm going to glue it up and call it an "instrument" I would rather use good stuff from the git-go. Mr. taylor built the "pallet guitar" to prove a point. The only point I would like to make is to make a good sounding,good looking,good playing mando.

[van]

I respect your opinion Tony but I am just a year old in builders years and to be honest I don't have much faith in Yellow pine but I just want to see how pretty that I can make it and if I luck up and it sounds good then I will have an interesting piece of artwork. If it is a total washout, well I cannot say that I wasted my time because being only a year old I have a lot to learn and this will be a learning experience besides, practice makes perfect.

[Antlurz]

That's sort of where I am coming from with the cedar chest topped 20.3 incher I'm building. If the top doesn't implode when I get it done and string it up, it will be a very unique piece. If I'm really lucky, the Virginia Juniper top might also sound good.

If it does self destruct, I'll build a new "conventional" top for it.

Ron

[Bill Snyder]

Gentlemen, over the years pine has been used on countless instruments, some of them no doubt work and sound fine. (Look at John Hamlett's post above.) It just probably is not going to be as consistently "good" as spruce otherwise tonewood dealers would offer it up on a regular basis.