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I'm going to make a guitar from whatever wood I can scrounge from Home Depot.
I think I have a set of free tuners laying around here somewhere.
I'm also going to use paint from Home Depot to finish it as well.
The people working there are going to think I'm insane at the inordinate amount of time I'm going to spend finding the right pieces of cheap lumber to split into the components.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I've gotten some pretty nice curly maple at HD. It's on my way home from work, I'll stop in every week or so. They frequently have maple with nice curl mixed in, but it's pretty rare to find in on a 1x6. That's wide enough for a guitar if you don't mind a 3 piece back, which I actually prefer.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Not sure what mine has. Guess we'll see!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

What kind of paint are you talking about?

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I dunno, something Home Depot-ish that hopefully won't ruin the tone. I will likely apply it with a coarse paintbrush an leave visible brush strokes.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Rattle Can Baby , Rattle Can ! John Deere Green !

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
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How about red oak for the bridge and fingerboard? They usually have plenty, and it's a fair bit harder than walnut, which people seem to have gotten away with before.

I think plain ol' polyurethane varnish would look quite nice on a guitar like this.

Sounds like you're in for a fun shopping trip Looking forward to watching the build!

I'm assuming you're making an acoustic...
I've used maple for both the bridge and the fingerboard. Red oak may be problematic, it frequently doesn't get along well with metal. May be OK for the bridge, I wouldn't use it for a fingerboard.
The hard part will be the top, my local HD doesn't carry anything suitable. Most of the softwood lumber is less than desirable, with lots of knots and warping. Their first grade pine might be OK, I've never checked to see if any of it is quartered, but I suspect that some is close enough. You might even find one wide enough for a 2 piece top.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Good to know. What exactly happens? Discoloration of the wood, corrosion of the metal, or something else?

But yeah, maple should be fine for both fingerboard and bridge as well. I'm just not a fan of the look, or of having to put a finish on the fingerboard, or how it looks when the finish wears through (I need a smiley face that's sticking its nose up in the air like a snob here )

The wood turns black and the metal corrodes. Like most everything wood related, some pieces are better than others.
The SPF 2x4s were what I was talking about as full of knots and warpage. I'm sure you right about being able to find one or two that are good enough, I've only searched through those for construction lumber. The selection varies quite a bit from store to store, even if they are close to each other. I actually drive by two stores on my way to work, and I've quit checking the larger of the two stores for maple because they never had any worth getting. It does stock some maple, but not nearly as much as the other store, particularly in the 1x6 size.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I have this Grandiose plan in my head to spend hours splitting and sawing 2X4's to come up with vertical grain no runout sections and then glue about ten of them up seamlessly to make the soundboard. I also plan on splitting the braces. I won't be so picky about the back. and sides, I just want them to look nice. I might break down and use actual wood for the bridge and fretboard.
I might end up using maple for the neck, back and sides, but I considered making everything from 2X4's.
So I need to look for boards marked SPR? Does that mean they're spruce, or does it mean it could be either spruce, pine, or fir?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I have a fretboard made form HD red oak that is 6 or 7 years old and no sign of fret corrosion. I used Iron acetate to turn it jet black and then oiled it. If you really want to keep to the HD thing, you could get your steel wool and a probably a vinegar based cleaner from there to make the iron acetate. I wouldn’t hesitate to use oak for the bridge either. My Home Depot has wider boards of quartered WRC you could joint for tops too.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

you may have more luck finding spruce in the 2x10's or 2x8's - I got a nice 2x8 that was well quartered - I was able to use about 60% of the board (due to runout) for braces

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

I'm looking forward to looking this Sunday! This will be fun, or disappointing, or both!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Can't believe what you americans can find in your your DIY store. In the UK you're lucky to find anything other than MDF.

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

Here's one that's almost all maple from HD. It's a parlor size.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Well I'm out already. I haven't been able to start and there's no way in Hades that I'll be able to finish on time. Too busy in the repair shop.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Too bad, though I guess it is good to have too much work. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Hate to hear that . Glad to hear your work is good though !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/