Is Your Guitar Neck Built Properly?
I get this question SO often! What do we mean when we talk about quarter sawn wood?
In this video I demystify just that.
Welcome to all my new subscribers!
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Instagram: @daisy_tempest
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For added serotonin, you can get your very own googly eyes for your spokeshave/tools here: amzn.to/3OCoaxR
Пікірлер: 176
Thoose googly eyes had me chuckling out loud :)
You are so talented. I love your teaching style...the spoke shave totally cracked me up...LMAO
LOL the googly eyes! My daughter had a 5" (sorry...12.7mm) diameter set of googly eyes on her jet ski. Quarter sawn wood is also hugely important for making tool handles.
Probably *the best* explanation I've heard/seen regarding quarter sawn wood.
One of the things I love about these videos is the drawings. I am a visual learner and it helps so much. Keep up the great work.
Your explanations with the line drawings are fantastic. So easy to understand.
@TrevorDennis100
Жыл бұрын
Those tree rings @1:05 were very well drawn, and that was a nice animation. If Daisy did that herself, then I am properly impressed..
Seeing that your spoke shave is so very happy, makes me happy. Her eyes and that great big smile say it all !!! 🎉🎉🎉
That spokeshave is everything!
Thanks for your lessons on timbers for guitars! When you mentioned you maintain your studio's humidity at between 40 and 50%, you reminded me of a sad incident that befell someone I knew. Decades ago, I visited a guitarist in Outback Australia on a particularly hot summer's day (temperature over 40C/110F and very low humidity. He mentioned that on a very similar day (weather-wise) a year earlier, he was sitting in his lounge tolerating the heat with ineffective evaporative cooling when suddenly, he heard a very loud crack! He looked to where the sound came from and looked up at his beloved Maton acoustic guitar, which now had a giant split down the back! (He advised me to store my own Maton in its case with a humidifier of sorts. I opted for a toothbrush holder with its top perforated and wet cotton wool inside and this method ensured my guitars survived almost a decade of Outback heat.)
i made my strat body out of maple and mahogany, maple for the top and mahogany for the back. i got the wood from antique furniture!. it turned out awesome! ive ben playing it for over 20yrs now!
OK. When I saw the eyes on the spokeshave I fell in love. Subbed. But then, I suppose you could say, I'm easy lol! But in truth, my second love after music is wood so that might explain it. Good vid by the way.
Thank you. I appreciate the quality of it and the promise of seeing more of your work.
There's just so much that I would like to know about building acoustic instruments: bracings, finishes, woods, the tools. I think I'm gonna love this channel. I hope it brings you lots of positive things. Thanks!
With every new video I watch, this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite channels! Luthierie (is this a word? My autocorrect doesn’t think so) is a huge aspiration of mine, but I’m clueless about basically everything. You’re doing a great job at making super watchable and informative and inspiring content!!
@JeanClaudePeeters
11 ай бұрын
Lutherie. You can learn from a lutherie book. Cumpiano, Kinkead...
@hereasafanofallsorts5164
7 ай бұрын
Yeah people ridiculously and pretentiously call themselves 'Luthiers' in 2023 - even though none of them build Lutes - Guitar Builder doesnt have the same ring but thats what these people are. Luthiers died out about 500 years ago.@@JeanClaudePeeters
Thanks for the vid! I love what you did to your spokeshave!
thank you for you great video! so much great info!
Great video! thanks for posting really informative and interesting!
good explanation. thank you.
1:25 fun fact you can also count “rings” on dinosaur fossils to estimate a dinosaur’s age when they died
@DaisyTempest
2 жыл бұрын
No way!!!! Incredible.
Daisy - fantastic video! I just subscribed this minute. Thanks, John Gig Harbor, WA
Lovely demonstration
Nice video! Loved your spokeshave. It's nice that some of your tools of the trade are keeping a watchful eye on you! Continued success!
What a fantastic explanation of Quartersawn! Thank you! And I love what you did to your spoke shave! 😂
This channel is so cool! Now we’re interested in what the future brings as far as builds. Thanks from the player in the states.
Awesome video! Really educational, illustrative and entertaining. I actually first learned about you from the interview you did with Aaron Short several months ago, and I'm looking forward to seeing more videos like this in the future. Subscribed :-)
Today I learned some stuff! I hope to learn more from you in the future.
I really enjoy your videos (I've learned a lot), but I LOVE your spokeshave! 😀
this is excellent information! I've only watched a handful of your videos so far and I've learned a lot. also googly eyes make everything better!
Very nice tutorial. First time viewer. I will be heading over to your channel to see what else is there. Thank you for your time.
BTW, your videos are terrific. I don't mean to be only critical. You put a lot of work into what you do and it shows!
I've been a carpenter and guitar player for many years just getting into making my own guitars for myself your knowledge helps me a lot thx
Great video, thanks looking forward to more - Cheers from Canada
As a violinist, it's great to hear the perspective of tone woods from a guitar luthier. Thank you so much for your insight!
nice explanation....keep them coming!!
Very intelligent and your background music is a great choice !!!!
Love koa! Such a fantastic species. So gorgeous and wonderful to work with.
Daisy, I see a lot of fellow woodworkers on the luthier channels, and they will know about quarter sawn boards. Those drawings and animations were extremely well done, and very effective.
Got a great laugh from the spoke shave! :D
Learned a lot about the age of the wood. Thank you!
Great information . 😃
More videos please! These are very cool. What are your favorite tone woods to make guitars with?
Thank You Daisy Tempest, I learned a lot about wood from your video. I love the googly eyes spoke shave. Before I subscribed I watched one of your videos from several months back because KZread showed me the thumbnail and I was interested. After subscribing to your channel, I looked in your channel's videos page and I'm disappointed that the videos page only has your recent videos, the one that I watched only a few minutes before isn't even listed among your watchable videos.
I just discovered your channel. This is fantastic! I love your approach. As far as content, I would love to hear your thoughts on carving the neck. Rounding, shaping, etc. Any formulas, jig, etc.
I know that this a crass remark, but you can handle my timber anytime, you talented, foxy babe!
Love the spokeshave. More shooting board action too!
Man.. I really want to see more guitar building. This is soo interesting.
You're adorable :) this video was so informative! Thank you for sharing your knowledge :)
Excellent video and highly informative! You and others here may already know about this: when I was first starting out in woodworking I discovered a book called “Understanding Wood” by the late, great R. Bruce Hoadley at UMass Amherst. It’s an invaluable resource. Also: I’m very impressed by your drawing skills-I feel the ability to visually express thoughts and ideas is very important for woodworking. Thanks again!
Love the spokeshave! Really made me laugh!
@DaisyTempest
11 ай бұрын
Extremely important addition to the quality
Excellent explanations. Others would likely concur, much of what you discuss also applies to wood electric guitar bodies.
Acoustic instruments are another story, but one thing KZread has taught me is that when it comes to electric guitars, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve seen videos of guys making guitars out of epoxy and colored pencils, cement… coffee beans. And they all sound pretty good.
Love your videos usually watch on my TV can't comment on there
Thanks for explaining quarter sawn to me. I've cut some timber before. And notice the tree tends to grow in sections. These lengths in my opinion were vibratile and non-vibratile. The non-vibratile when struck sounded like a chime. The vibratile when struck felt more like metal. I could tell by the texture of the bark. I think the lengths that sound like a chime are tone wood. And this makes me think of the effects of glues coatings, bracing, ect. I think my preference would be open pore, oiled or waxed. I enjoyed your video. Thanks!
I really enjoy your videos, thanks! I've been involved with carpentry for decades and dabbled in cabinetry - but my goal when I retire is to build my own guitar. Learning so much from you! I've read that rift sawn is actually stronger (sturdier?) than quarter sawn, but more expensive and harder to cut. Wonder what your thoughts were on rift sawn!
I love your spokeshave
LoL... That Spokeshave is awesome!
Top of your game. I love your subtle humor. I thought I knew everything about quarter sawn wood but I learned something. I hope you do start making a lot more videos though that will cut into your guitar building time. 3.28K subscribers is going to balloon to millions. Great work.
@DaisyTempest
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you so much! So sweet of you!
@danbuffington75
2 жыл бұрын
9 days later, already up to 6k.
@scoobert846
2 жыл бұрын
without checking her subscriber count and having watched a few videos, i thought she would be in the hundreds of thousands at least
@DaisyTempest
2 жыл бұрын
@@scoobert846 only just started it really! So kind of you ❤️
@plaidthom
2 жыл бұрын
Love the googly eyes!
very cool....thanks
You need to play around with Olive , Beech , Hickory and ribbon mahogany . Wonderful lumber . Side note : research " Wash Coats" I recommend a high end catalysed lacquer after finial dry fit . Before assembly . That will pretty much put an end to relative humidity issues . Without any tonal lose . Wash Coat : 4-5 parts thinner ( depends on lacquer , you know this ) 1 part lacquer . Spray on 1.25 mils max ! Walk away for 30 minutes . Proceed as normal .
ok ! I look electric guitar 🎸this lol incredible ??? you are very fun and you explain very good :) tks
Was inspired to build a hybrid guitar /harp from the KZread channel RedBud build, but build my creation out of the cardboard boxes. Which is something had on hand and it's an much easier martial to work with if you don't have wood shop and a lot tool to work with. Also was finally able to find a use for the hundred plastic demo credit cards I had for what ever odd ball reason collected. Back when I used to get 3-20 credit card offers a week. I call my 109.22cm (43" tall) by 30.48 cm (12"by 12") at the base creation a Garp. Which is kind of a literary reference to John Irvines book "The world According to Garp." As well combining the names of both musical instruments guitar and harp together.
Your channel is pure gold! I am a guitarist/sound engineer and a hobby carpenter, so it is great to see it working together. I agree that trees are amazing creatures, I recommend you a book by Suzanne Simard called Finding the Mother Tree if you haven't read it yet :) Thank you and keep up great work!
As a cigar box guitar maker I mainly use red oak or hard maple for my necks. My necks run all the way through the guitar body (cigar box) to the tail end. Interestingly, I found that a maple neck seems to project a brighter tone than the oak, which seems to have a warmer tone. I like both, actually.
Thank you
great video
Personally I love various mahogany species. All of my acoustic guitars are mahogany. It's very attractive and sounds good.
Love your videos. Could listen to you all day. If you were in Australia I’d be begging for an apprenticeship 👌🤙🤙🤙
With tropical woods, sometimes the growth rings are so indistinct that it's almost impossible to tell from looking at the end grain. Ebony is like this, mahogany less so. But one fool-proof way to know if wood is well quartered is to look for the medullary rays on the quartered (tangential) surface. Almost all woods show these ray cells, sometimes called "silk" when referring to top woods. They run perpendicular to the longitudinal access of the grain, that is side-to side, like the curly in fiddleback maple. The longer and more plentiful the medullary rays, the more perfect the tangential surface is. They're very obvious with spruce, mahogany and maple. They're harder to see with ebony but there. Rosewood less so, but rosewood endgrain is very obvious. These rays are a foolproof way to judge a top when shopping around at Guitar Center or wherever.
Neat video. Maybe someone else has mentioned it but the different growth rings are typically referred to as the "early wood" and "late wood" and depending on the species these different sections of the wood can vary in density and hardness. I'm not sure if that matters for acoustic properties but I thought it was interesting.
hi Daisy love your work and your videos! I can see you specialise in acoustic guitars but wondered if you have ever considered making an electric guitar. Better still a slim line electro acoustic like the fender acoustasonic which I'm a little obsessed with.
Cool spokeshave 😉
It also comes down too how long they have been dried. If the neck is laminated will also make sure it wont shrink fast thats why most modern bass and guitar has laminateds because they will be more stable and also less likely to warp twist or need too mucj adjustments
Sitka Spruce , closed grain ? Cherry Wood , Ebony for fretboards . Thank You . 🎸🌹✨
Spokeshave is cool! Show us how you sharpened the blade and set the tool depth. Thanks.
So interesting! Thank you for doing the video. I am now wondering how my guitar was made and what kind of wood it is. Do you know of references to tell?
according to google - electric necks would be best made from-- Maple is an heavy wood with a compact grain, emphasizing the mid and high frequencies (similarly to ash and alder, as we will see in a while). With a particularly light color and beautiful figure, maple is mainly used for necks and fretboards, but also for tops or bodies.
I’d really enjoy seeing the steps you take to create a neck from that blank.
I've heard that, because quartersawn wood is harder to acquire and is more expensive, some builders will make necks out of multiple pieces of flatsawn wood with the grain oriented in opposite directions, so that movement of one piece "cancels out" the movement of the other piece. Do you know whether this technique is effective in creating a stable neck?
Same for classical guitars
would love to see the progress of your builds from start to finish if not under NDA with the clients !!! cheers !! and i learned something today !!!
@8:08 when you buy something make it your own. Customization is the key to ownership.
I like these informative videos. Also build videos would be cool.
Liked sure!👍🏻
You should do a video on how to grain fill and what you use to do it with. I'm a guitar builder myself but I have done only electric guitar. I really want to try to do an acoustic guitar but being a whole different ballgame I don't know if I would without some help.
Yes would bang
I cant remember what show I was watching but it said the wood that made the famed Stradivarius violins came from a forest that went through a unusually cold period. The wood was from the mini ice age that Europe had. Stradivarius violins are renowned for their supposedly superior sound when compared to other instruments. This has resulted in numerous studies hunting for a scientific reason for why Strads sound so good.
Hi Daisy. Very interesting video. I note that you said that close grain represents slower growth and better stiffness and that makes sense. However, I've noticed that Adirondack spruce often has noticeably wider grain than sitka and yet it is favoured for its stiffness. Not sure what to make of that. Any comments?
I would encourage anyone who runs into a term that is foreign to you (like "quartersawn or flatsawn") to take it as an opportunity to learn. Don't be discouraged or frustrated if you hear a term that is foreign to you. When you discover it's meaning, your world will have expanded by just a little. Especially if the term represents a concept that is critical to your craft!
When it comes to electrics, were tonewood isn't a thing, basswood body for the light weight, maple neck for the stability and ebony board for the smooth feeling and again for the additional stability. On acoustics I'd go with the classics, maple neck, back and sides, spruce top and ebony fretboard and bridge
I bet you have a lot of ASMR friendly activities. Sanding, carving, scraping … you get the idea.
keep it up
Thanks Daisy. As always a wonderful and informative video. (Do not count my wrinkles or I’ll end up in the Guinness book of records😂)
While looking for a strat, someone told me that a good neck has to be made of quartersawn wood. But I couldn't find a Fender strat with decent wood grain at the neck... so I built a Warmoth. Now that guitar is the only one I've that doesn't require a quarter turn of truss rod adjustment every 6 months. Next time I wouldn't mind to choose something with inadequate wood grain if it's cheaper, as long as it's a bolt-on.
here for more googly eyes on tools now
Indeed... the googly do it for me too!👀🤣
Best combination for me is: Sitka on top, mahogany on back and sides, cedar for neck and rosewood for fingerboard and bridge. 😁
@carlosreira2189
Жыл бұрын
For steel string? Who uses cedar (Spanish cedar) for necks? I've seen Martin use it in a few cases. For classical it's pretty standard. Can you tell me more about this wood combo. Sounds like a D-18 or similar.
@mariojr
Жыл бұрын
@@carlosreira2189 I have a 0000-28 made by a luhtier here on Brazil (@campoyguitars). The wood of the neck is a flamed cedar, but is not Spanish cedar.
@carlosreira2189
Жыл бұрын
@@mariojr Thanks for that reply. Not 'cedrela sp.' really? Do you know the species or the local name? When I did professional millwork we blew through thousands of board feet of Spanish Cedar all marked "Brasil." Amazing wood. They were paying about $3.50 a board foot. The widest boards were 30 plus inches and not a wormhole or a knot to be found. As stiff as medium weight mahogany. Softer, lighter and smells good. The cigar box wood. The wood from Brazil was generally very bland and perfect. The Spanish Cedar from Peru was highly variable and could have some figuring. Hard to work. The plantation grown wood was like balsa, or paulownia, very light, bendy and weak.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on laminated vs solid woods for backs and sides. Does it make that big a difference aurally, and why? I have one guitar in particular that has what I think is laminated rosewood (the kind that would get used on a factory guitar), though the grain does appear to match inside and out. Ooh, that same guitar, which sounds amazing by the way, has what seems to be a very thick layer of poly on it. I wonder how much better it would sound without that, though it's hard to imagine it sounding much better. Loving this channel! I'll try to not flood the comments so much!
@carlosreira2189
Жыл бұрын
It's very unusual for the grain to match. Could be solid. Though a laminated back could be pretty darn good. The heavy poly could actually contribute stiffness and mass and modify the sound for the better. Rosewood (Indian) is a heavier wood to begin with and not the best in stiffness to weight ratio, but it's a great wood. We don't want a back that is too active, as its purpose is to support and reflect the vibrations of the top. The smaller the guitar, the thinner the woods need to be, and the lighter the overall construction. It's physics. If it sounds good, it is good. Consider yourself lucky.
Just subscribed. I happen to be a lover of guitars. I'd be interested in more content similar to this one. We could call it "Guitar Making Theory". I note you are staying away from electric guitar commentary, so I won't be waiting to hear about the proper way to scallop a fretboard..........unless you think that would be fun. Acoustic..........scalloped.......cool.
Just cut a piece of wood in half, and glue the two pieces inverting the relative directions, you'll obtain a very good non-moving piece because the two parts will compensate the movement each other.
How do you feel about cedar of Lebanon for a soundboard. Compared to Australian bunya?