Metropoulos Forum

While I've been at Uni I've slowly been amassing the wood to build a doubleneck strat, from local timber yards and ebay. So far I've got:

• Shitloads of English Sycamore (our version of maple, almost identical) for the 2 necks
• 2 pieces of Cocobolo, one for each fretboard. Cut from the same piece of wood to look identical
• 2 pieces of Alder, about 7 or 8 inches wide. Long and thick enough to make up the body, but they'll need another block of wood inbetween to get the 18" width of a double-neck Strat.

It's gonna be the standard 6 string / 12 string combo, and will be fitted with single coil sized humbuckers (probably PAF type). Which wood should I use for the 3rd piece in the body? I'm considering Walnut since it's easy to obtain in England, and don't particuarly want to go with another piece of Alder. I do have some African Mahogany that I might be able to use, as it's a huge 16" x 25" piece for making a 1 piece LP body and there's bound to be some left over - the only down side is that I'd probably have to cut it up a bit and glue it to make the third part of the body.

I would use the English Sycamore. The Mahogany combined with the Alder is gonna be a little too warm and resonant. If the English Sycamore you mentioned is like Maple, it would combine to the sound of the alder to give the overall sound of the instrument more attack, sustain and color. To me alder is not a good wood for Humbucker's. Works great for single coils though.

I think you may be right - I definately hear better results in brighter woods with humbuckers, and the best tone I've ever got was from my custom Warmoth that has a 9.2k A5 bridge humbucker and a hard (northern) ash body. I've heard that English Walnut has a similar bright tone, so I might get similar results from that too. There's plenty of Sycamore lying around my house now though, for

Man, that is some beautiful wood .

Beautiful FB FYI Cocobolo is quite an oily wood, so beforeyou glue the FB, it helps to wipe the gluing surface of your FB w/ acetone or lacquer thinner to ensure better adhesion. Good Luck!

Yeah I've heard something like that before - thanks for the tip. I'm just considering now whether to use Titebond liquid hide glue for (not perfect but better) vintage authenticity, or using their standard Titebond original glue.

What about Limba?

I really really wanna try some, for quite a few projects I have in mind, but the only place I can ever find it is eBay USA - which means paying triple for what I could get Brazilian Mahogany for - a bit too expensive tbh.

I've been using elmer's carpenter wood glue with great success for years, It's probably the same as titebond. The liquid hide glue is not the same as hide glue that you would melt in a heated glue pot. The granular hide glue prefered mainly on acoustic instruments (mainly violins and mandolins)as it is more brittle when cured and (in theory) supposed allow more energy transfer through the wood joints. Also it is used on an instrument that eventually will require a neck reset. I would not reccomend hide glue for electric guitars. Titebond or Elmers Carpenter glue will give you a stronger bond.

I've been using elmer's carpenter wood glue with great success for years,

Titebond or Elmers Carpenter glue will give you a stronger bond.

I second that recommendation

Hide glue makes it possible for some instruments(violin, mandolin, dulcimer etc.) to be completely dismantled for future repairs. Look at is as semi-permanent, semi-strong glue. A little steam/heat, and a seam knife, and you can comletely dismanlte a violin.
Carpenters glue is intended for permanent applications, clamped and cured, the bond it creates is often stronger than the wood its bonding(most woods), and a lot less suseptable to temperature,not impervious by any means, but more resistent than hide.

Tone Slinger wrote:Man, that is some beautiful wood .

I would miss the single coil in the neck!