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Anyone tried lauan or philipine mahogany as neck/backs/sides? they're readily available and cheap in Taiwan (3 bucks a board foot). Thing is they come in various species like white maranti or something... Would be much cheaper than ordering sapele neck blanks from tonewood dealers (they are heavy) and I can concentrate all my imports on light things like fretboards and other small items... exchange rate really sucks now.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

There are a lot of guitars building factories in Taiwan. Yamaha used to build there, and maybe still does. Maybe you could talk to people at one of those factories and see if they have advice. I think you will find that they use Philipine mahogany for necks, and maybe backs and sides. I have heard of people using it for backs and sides, but I never see it listed at suppliers in the USA. South American mahogany used to be very inexpensive in the USA, years ago, so there was no reason to use Philipine, which is not considered quite as desireable.

You might also talk to someone at these factories to see if you can buy material from them. Some of those people have the same interests that you do, and they might be glad to help. They get their wood in bulk, and it is usually not very expensive. You may find that you do ot need to import anything yourself.

Some more. I recalled that Nato was listed on some guitars as the neck wood. I Googled Nato and found many references to it being used as wood in guitar building, including backsand sides. Nato is a term sometimes used for some of the woods that are Philipine mahogany.

Smart thinking Tia Fu, to be exploring your local possibilities first rather than paying the ransom of the carriers is a very good thing. For what it is worth, it is IMHO that any light weight stable 1/4 sawn wood is perfect for necks regardless of what people want to name it. If it is not currently recognised by the pros that have not tried it, but it works well, it is bound to be recognised as perfect neck wood when the they finally get educated. When I have a project at hand, I like to look for the properties of the wood I can put my hands on rather than rely on the name or reputation of a wood I have been told is best.

Same with backs and sides, it is just fine to build with cheaper cuts, but they 'must' have the properties which make them suitable for instrument construction or your just wasting your time. This is why I suggested the value in buying from a reputable vendor, at least you hopefully benefit from their experience as compensation for the premium you will pay to ship to Taiwan. Also you avoid a lot of the waist, saw dust and hard work that comes from resawing your own, but for the heavier pieces like neck billets and such, I think you are on the right track.

Cheers

Kim

I've built many guitars with nyatoh ( the japanese called it nato ), its a bit denser than mahogany. The Philippine mahogany is a commercial name and its not a genuine mahogany, we have lots of it here aka meranti. There are generally 3 types , white, yellow and the red meranti. A couple of big manufacturers used it as a substitute for mahogany.

Jeff

I used Phillipian Mahogany for a piece of furniture many years ago and swore it off for good. The wood is sort of punky soft. It was very hard to scrape or sand smooth as it tended to splinter up in certain areas. I would not trust it to be strong enough for a neck unless you added some epoxy graphite. I think there are a lot of better choices out there.

It seems to me that this wood varies widely in its physical properties. I suspect there are MANY species or sub-species sold as Philipine mahogany. The veneer sheets that we commonly see on cheap hollow core doors are generally coarse and splintery. Barry probably ran into some similar wood. But I have had other boards that weren't nearly as coarse. They were hard, lustrous, and with beautiful figure when quarter sawn. I have a spectacular coffee table made of that wood, and edged with honduran mahogany. Nice combination. If you have wood that is straight, strong, and workable, I see no reason not to try it. I have a big stash of mystery wood that may be one of the harder varieties of maranti, (scrounged out of a crate wood pile decades ago). I grabbed it for random furniture projects, but will start using some of it in instruments, too.
Patrick

What Barry said! Luan is the stuff they use to make that cheap crappy splintery plywood that warps all over the place. I'd stay well away from it.

Well I was careful about what kind of lauan to use... I have seen various types of "lauan" in Taiwan (they are quite common here like I said). Some are really soft like balsa wood and really splintery... maybe good for making model airplanes or something (probably not anything serious though). Then I seen a piece of wood at the lumber shop that I usually get my plywood from which I thought it was white oak and the lady said it was "white lauan" which I think it's probably white meranti. It looks quite hard and solid and looks like it would fit the bill for necks. Then I have also scrounged up some furniture (the sticks are too thin for anything though) that looks like lauan but the thing was so hard that I can't even plane it because the plane blade just skips right across it! and it looks deep red and mahogany like. I think I will bring a piece of the sapele neck blank to the lady and see if she can find anything like it. As far as backs and sides I have seen a bunch of Taiwan cypress panelings that looks like it might work... I'll see if I can get them to resaw it. I was given contact info of a company (the only one in Taiwan) that supplies guitar parts but I called them and they told me to call tomorrow... I find suppliers in Taiwan are really reluctant to deal with individuals... it's almost like guitar making is a secret protected art in Taiwan or something. I hope I don't get a death threat or something because I got a feeling that wood trade is tightly controlled by special interest groups (AKA, mafia) since woods other than ply and MDF and low grade lauan are really hard for the general public to buy.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I am making some necks out of red meranti that I've had for about 30 years. It is a bit heavy in weight and coarse textured compared to mahogany but mills and carves reasonably well. It has white inclusions in the pores, similar to what some of the south american mahoganys have.

That company is nice to individual makers like me, but please remember we are not his main clients. If you need anything, just discuss with them by phone and go there personally. Ther're not MAFIA, btw.

P.S. They are very busy on the shipping day. Imaging thousands of plywood B&S sets being loaded up to the transportation container in time. I've seen it, and I just waited 'til they finished their job.