Sourcing Tonewood?

[thebrig]

I'm in the process of equipping my garage out with all the necessary equipment to build basses from scratch, any suggestions for good quality tonewood suppliers wood be very much appreciated. 

[benh]

Tyler Hardwoods carry a nice stock of quality hardwoods - if you call them they are really helpful on the phone. They'll courier as well if you ask, although this isn't obvious on their site. David Dyke is well recommended by many. I've used Reid Timber for a few bits and they've all been quality.

[kodiakblair]

2 hours ago, thebrig said:

any suggestions for good quality tonewood suppliers wood be very much appreciated. 

For bulk purchases of fairly mundane stuff like hard maple , ash etc ; buy from Timbmet. It's a huge saving over buying from other places.

 

https://www.timbmet.com/products/timber/hardwoods/

 

Most of their timbers come as 5" x 2" and typically in 8ft lengths . Not a problem since you'll have both chop and bandsaws in the garage.

 

For smaller orders I'd also go with Alistair Reid in Glasgow.

 

https://www.reidtimber.co.uk/

[Chienmortbb]

Not wishing to restart the tonewood wars but what do you class as a tonewood?

[thebrig]

18 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Not wishing to restart the tonewood wars but what do you class as a tonewood?

You just have! 😉

 

Seriously though, I'm no expert by any means, I just thought that any wood that can be used to make a musical instrument sound good, could be classed as a tonewood.

 

This is just going to be a hobby for me in my retirement, so to start off, I would be looking for the usual suspects like alder, swamp ash, mahogany etc, if I'm able to turn out some half-decent creations, then I might move on to more exotic woods.

[Chienmortbb]

Yes I it was tongue in cheek. The truth is that any wood can be tonewood and that no particular species has a particular "tone". The tone of a wood is detremined by its density and some woods have a vast range of density. Also remember that the woods used by Leo were those availabke locally in the USA. They had no special qualities in the smae way that CTS pots were/are not special. Just a good brand available in the USA when  Leo started.

 

However don't take my word for it. A fascinating research project on woods for classical/acoustic guitars was done by The Leonardo Group of Luthiers. https://sites.google.com/site/leonardoguitarresearch/background/the-lgrp-programme

 

This details the research they have done into using native European woods is both interesting and revealing. Good luck with the project.

[Cosmicrain]

Some of the best sounding basses I've ever made have been constructed from basic Swamp ash for the body and Canadian slow growth Maple with either a Maple, Rosewood or Wendge fingerboard. Add to this top rate hardware, pickups and e.q.'s (be that either active or passive or both) and you have a remarkable sounding bass.  I try and pick a neck blank that rings a 5th above the body blank when building a customers bass, I only apply this to bolt on necks which are the majority of what I build.  I also believe (and this only my understanding after making many basses) that the timber used is only responsible for about 30% (or less) of the tone of the instrument (solid bodied basses) where as the E.Q. pickups and hardware make up the other 70%, also things like very tight fitting neck joints will help with vibrational transfer.  Finally, whatever timber you buy, make sure it is dried to the correct moisture content, you do not need or want glue lines opening up or worse the timber warping/twisting six months after you made the bass due to the timber being too wet when it was used.  These are only my thoughts on the matter, but I hope it helps in some way. 

[Chienmortbb]

49 minutes ago, Cosmicrain said:

Some of the best sounding basses I've ever made have been constructed from basic Swamp ash for the body and Canadian slow growth Maple with either a Maple, Rosewood or Wendge fingerboard. Add to this top rate hardware, pickups and e.q.'s (be that either active or passive or both) and you have a remarkable sounding bass.  I try and pick a neck blank that rings a 5th above the body blank when building a customers bass, I only apply this to bolt on necks which are the majority of what I build.  I also believe (and this only my understanding after making many basses) that the timber used is only responsible for about 30% (or less) of the tone of the instrument (solid bodied basses) where as the E.Q. pickups and hardware make up the other 70%, also things like very tight fitting neck joints will help with vibrational transfer.  Finally, whatever timber you buy, make sure it is dried to the correct moisture content, you do not need or want glue lines opening up or worse the timber warping/twisting six months after you made the bass due to the timber being too wet when it was used.  These are only my thoughts on the matter, but I hope it helps in some way. 

I have heard that Sycamore is a good substitute for maple although I don't have any experiencd myself.

[thebrig]

Thanks for the advice so far, as someone who is just starting out in guitar making, all advice is very much welcome.

 

I have reasonable DIY and woodworking skills but I know it will take time, and a few pink torpedo-ups along the way, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.