Have you ever gotten involved in a conversation where two groups have toe drastically opposing views so much so that the issue has to be dropped. Eventually the topic rises again and the same result happens. Well, this is what has been going on in my life for the last few years. Most people feel that they cannot build a guitar out of “lower quality “lumber such as pine or even the dreaded…PLYWOOD.

 

Now, there are several grades of plywood that range from building plywood to furniture grade plywood. Where do I stand on the subject? Well, I think that you can build guitars out of multiple materials and not necessarily wood so it would be reasonable to me that a guitar (mainly a person’s first guitar) could be made from low grade plywood to help save money, the environment and to help prevent the usage of expensive high quality woods on first builds.

 

Personally, I feel that you can use any grade of plywood and build a successful guitar with excellent stability and awesome tone. Why is this? Well, I feel that electronics (pots, pickups wiring, shielding) all play a bigger part in tone than the lumber does. Not only that, if lumber does play a part in shaping tone then the voids within plywood should add interesting resonance.

 

I’ve gotten a little tired of participating in the ongoing debates online so I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a low grade plywood body so I can do a comparison with it and a higher quality solid wood guitar. Some of you are saying, “I’ve already played a plywood guitar” which is absolutely correct; so have I but the popular belief is that plywood guitars are of lesser quality and generally lack in tone or are very noticeable against a solid wood guitar.

My goal is to determine three things. Is plywood a viable wood for the first time builder, will it make the build significantly harder and will it have the ability to produce a high quality guitar with great resonance, tone and stability.

 

I’m going to be tracking my build on this page so feel free to book mark it and check back on occasion. I’d be interested in any comments so feel free to add them to my scrap book.

 

To get an accurate assumption on plywood I feel I need to build a guitar that excels at genres like Jazz, blues rock and has acoustic overtones. It’s easy to completely color sound with distortion so I want a well rounded guitar that’s capable of playing just about any style of music you would want. So I decided to build a semi hollow guitar with a solid core. The only guitar that I build that’s semi hollow is the Mutant Jazz so it wins by default.

 

The specs as of now: Wrap around fixed bridge, and 3x3 tuners, flush mount jack and a metal chrome pickup ring. It will certainly be 1 pickup with 1 tone and no volume and I’m looking for a good mid priced ($30.00-$50.00.) I’m not sure on the finish right now.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                 Updated: 07/10/08

Here is a picture of me gluing the back section of the guitar. It’s made of two pieces of plywood that are ¾” thick.

    Building the plywood guitar… where to start? Well I started by cutting out three identical Mutant jazz shapes on 3/4 “ plywood sheets and then sandwiching two of them together with glue. This essentially makes the back and sides of the guitar. The 3rd piece is set off to the side for a while. Once the glue was dry it was time to void the wings (which means remove the excess wood from the wings so they are hollow.)

 

You can do this part with a router if you like but in this case, it’s a wide body and the router wasn’t my best option.  My choice was my drill press and a 1 3/8” Forstner bit which is used to make holes. I set a depth stop so the bit wouldn’t over travel and then you just drill the excess out of the wing.  You’ll note the solid core that runs right through the middle of the guitar. This stays because it gives your neck and bridge a solid core to attach itself to which helps stability and sustain. Any Semi Hollow guitar with a TOM style bridge system has at least a center block. This method also helps to prevent unwanted feedback too.

 

Once I got the wings drilled out it was time to glue the top on. You can be liberal with the glue. Make sure everything is straight. Now, my edges are pretty close to finished size so either give yourself plenty of room to sand the edges flat or make sure your sandwiched pieces are lined up as good as possible. Wood tends to slide around while you are clamping. Go slow and clamp in as man areas as possible.

 

One note of interest: I did not plane any of this lumber. Due to the plys I felt it would compromise the structural integrity of the lumber. Keep in mind that there is very little chance that you would not be filling a plywood body with filler and painting it so a small gap somewhere won’t really hurt; after all there are gaps in the plywood. Once the glue dries I’ll be able to sand the edges square with the top and then cut my F-Holes.

 

One thing I’m looking at is doing this guitar with a minimal amount of tools. I have a production sized drill press but the bit that I used was about $12.00 at Lowes. I’d suggest to at least get a small 9” drill press from Ryobi. They are cost effective and don’t take up a lot of room. When I first started I used one exclusively. I wouldn’t suggest using a bit like that with a free hand drill. You risk going through the back of the guitar. If anything, use a router if you are going with a semi hollow design or if you don’t want the investment, make it a complete solid body.

                                                                      

 

                                                           Updated 07-10-08

     Here is a body shot of the Mutant Jazz. I still have to use the sander to get my edges flush since I glued three plys of wood together. This is a mid sized semi-hollow that’s 3.25” thick: give or take a little. As you could see in the previous pictures, the wings are hollow and all I have to do is lay the template back on top and route out the F-Holes. When I do it will expose the hollow wings. Now the traditional way is to build them just like an acoustic guitar: banded sides with ribbing and glued on back and top but this is much less labor intensive, yields an excellent guitar and there is added rigidity to it since the back and sides are crafted from one solid piece (in the case of the plywood guitar, the back and sides are two pieces of plywood laminated from five smaller pieces which essentially means that this guitar’s back and sides are made from 10 plys of glued wood!

 

Once I sand the sides it will be time to add things like binding or radiusing the edges. In this case, the guitar will be completed with a solid color of paint so there is no need for binding. I plan on using a radiused router and use the side of the guitar as the template from moving around the body. This is why it’s very important to make sure you have your sides where you want them. Any waving, dips or bumps will show on the chamfer that you put on the edge. Take your time with this step!

 

                                                                             Updated 07/11/08