plywood guitar

Russell Adkins · Post by **Russell Adkins** » 11 Apr 2021 5:11 pm

there was talk of using plywood for a guitar cabinet and i said im going to build one just for the purpose of seeing and hearing how it sounds so here it is not quit finished but well on its way a keyless 8 string with 2 peds and 2 knees I made everything from scratch i even found a rough sheet of 3/4 inch plywood for the cabinet with cracks and voids and knots it really didnt make any difference as long as it was plywood , i think it came off someones roof , well i sanded and sanded got it smooth as i could then put on about 4 or 5 coats of polyeurothen which didnt really help much but it is what it is .My plans are to tune it to low to high G B D f# A B D f# a push pull system anyway ill post again when its finished and let you know how it goes if anyone is still enterested in my projects the end plates and neck are oak btw . other pics are or is a 7 string

Russell Adkins · Post by **Russell Adkins** » 11 Apr 2021 5:12 pm

first pic is the 7 second pic is the plywood guitar

Darryl Coyne · Post by **Darryl Coyne** » 11 Apr 2021 6:10 pm

I'm very interested to know how it turns out. Please follow up when it's done. I love homebrew instruments, especially when they're made from "the wrong stuff" I'm curious about the plywood. when I built my 10 string, I made the prototype with some kind of pallet wood that my company uses to ship machinery. It had almost a quarter tone of drop on 6 when A was pressed.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 11 Apr 2021 11:20 pm

Russ, your keyless tuner looks interesting - can't wait to see it strung up!

Darryl, I made my homebrew from particle board. It should have sounded terrible but it didn't. You can't beat the thrill of playing music on something you made with your own hands.

When I first got interested back in the 70s I considered all-oak but I probably couldn't have lifted it!

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Apr 2021 1:54 am

For a home project plywood is OK.

I remember a music store in Kansas City, MO, that was an MSA dealer (back in the original MSA company days) commenting that the "plywood" was partially to blame for the MSA company failure. The store stopped being an MSA dealer over the "plywood" issue.

Jimmy Gibson · Post by **Jimmy Gibson** » 12 Apr 2021 7:39 am

GFI,s are made with plywood bodies,IMHO they play and sound awesome.

Jimmy.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 12 Apr 2021 7:51 am

It seems like the main interest these days is how light you can make something. Pedal steels, amps and etc.
I wonder what a guitar made out of balsa wood would sound like?

Erv

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 12 Apr 2021 11:41 am

There is plywood and there is dieboard- which is a voidless upscale laminate similar to plywood and way more fitting to be used as a cabinet.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 12 Apr 2021 11:58 am

There is a plywood used for bridge forms.
It is imported from Finland and has twice the number of plies than ordinary plywood.
It is very dense and I bet it would work good for the cabinet on a pedal steel.
It is called "Finform".

Erv

Ken Mizell · Post by **Ken Mizell** » 12 Apr 2021 12:21 pm

Erv Niehaus wrote:It seems like the main interest these days is how light you can make something. Pedal steels, amps and etc.
I wonder what a guitar made out of balsa wood would sound like?
Erv

It would probably have a kind of airy sound to it, but at least it would float, if the need arose.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 12 Apr 2021 12:32 pm

Sounds like a deal!
Erv

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Apr 2021 1:13 pm

Jimmy Gibson wrote:GFI,s are made with plywood bodies,IMHO they play and sound awesome.

Jimmy.

GFI's are made with "dieboard" not plywood. As Jim Palenscar noted there is a significant difference.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 12 Apr 2021 1:24 pm

Ken Mizell wrote:
Erv Niehaus wrote:It seems like the main interest these days is how light you can make something. Pedal steels, amps and etc.
I wonder what a guitar made out of balsa wood would sound like?
Erv
It would probably have a kind of airy sound to it, but at least it would float, if the need arose.

Cabinet drop would be a big problem. Step on the pedals and the whole CABINET would break apart and DROP to the floor.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 12 Apr 2021 1:25 pm

You can't have everything!

Erv

Ken Mizell · Post by **Ken Mizell** » 12 Apr 2021 1:37 pm

It would probably have a kind of airy sound to it, but at least it would float, if the need arose.[/quote]

Cabinet drop would be a big problem. Step on the pedals and the whole CABINET would break apart and DROP to the floor.[/quote]

Wouldn't even need a tuner to detect that!

J D Sauser · Post by **J D Sauser** » 14 Apr 2021 7:23 am

Jim Palenscar wrote:There is plywood and there is dieboard- which is a voidless upscale laminate similar to plywood and way more fitting to be used as a cabinet.

Exactly! Just like billet and cast aluminum are not the same, at ALL!
MSA did in the old days do some trials with Paduke (spelling? A wood sometimes found on knife handles) and also ply'ed Industrial DIE board. The discussions of the past suggested that both materials were "harder" than "rock-hard" maple. Yet, the few "Plywood" MSA's around have not earned much followers. We're talking 70's here if I remember right.

I BELIEVE to understand that at least some GFI's were or are made using DIE-Board.

... J-D.

The Steel Guitar Forum

plywood guitar

plywood guitar

Plywood Guitar