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I searched the forum and didn't see anything. My friend has a large Ash log he is splitting and I was considering taking a billet for a first time archtop guitar. Is this a bad idea? Does anyone use Ash for acoustics?

Thanks,
Kent

Todd may correct me but i think his yes applied to the second question (not the 'is this a bad idea'). If you look really hard, you may be able to find and example of him having used ash in an acoustic

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Fender made tons of solidbodies from ash, and I see a couple flattops are made with ash by some overseas companies.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

ash: large open pores (at least european ash), but bends nicely (only made linings out of it). taps like cardboard, but so does maple . i´d use it if i´d have access to good stock.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

if i was going to put in the effort to carve an archtop, i'd go with an appropriate wood for it. i'd hate to carve lots of contours with ash; it is pretty "splintery" and coarse grained, and as other noted, not very spectacular acoustically. aside from all that, i think it is unattractive to look at. if you must use it, use it on the back.
my two pence

I've only ever used Ash once. On a Lute. Sounded perfectly fine to my ears and it obviously sounded perfectly fine to the person who bought it. It wasn't on the shop wall for very long - a few weeks. That suggests it was spectacular enough.

tiger stripe ash? wow, that is pretty nice indeed. i haven't ever seen ash look like that. but was the top ash too.....?

Figured Ash isn't that unusual. I wasn't aware that he was referring to the Top being Ash.

for a top? i suppose it should be to heavy... but someone should know better than me...

Michael : those lute ribs are wonderful!

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Here's a shot of some local Texas Ash planks. I think they are Arizona or Green Ash.
These are about 12 feet long to get an idea of the scale.
I think these are quite lovely.
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I used it on the OLF Build-off #2. I used curly ash with a cedar top. It sounds really nice. Easy to work with.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Thanks for the replies. We're going to split it into billets tomorrow so we'll see what it looks like. It's about 36 inches in diameter so it's a good sized log.

At least out here on the west coast, Ash is very inexpensive right now. I contribute this to the
fact that millions of ash trees are dying from emerald ash borer attack. I'm going to plan a trip
back to the local lumberyard to see if they have any figured ash.

And I agree with Todd that Ash is a lovely cabinet wood. I haven't done any real cabinets out
of it, but I built my wife an apple grinder/press completely out of Ash. It machines well, and has
(to my eye) beautiful color and grain.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

I have a nice Guild dred make from ash. I think it dates from the early eighties.
It looks something like this

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

literally every ash tree is either dead or dying in chicagoland....and there are a lot of ash trees here. they should be giving ash away

I'm working on a baritone with ash back and sides in class. I missed a class (which are every other Saturday) after bending the sides. So, when I went back 4 weeks later and took them out of the mold, the spring back was quite severe. Ended up getting a good lesson on hand bending to get them right, which I hadn't done a lot of. Actually, Alan did most of it but I did manage to do part of one once I got it through my thick skull what you need to do. Otherwise, the stuff has worked great.

Matt

Ash is one of the easiest woods to bend. In addition to Guild, Martin has used it on at least one model guitar....the D-16A from the late-1980's. They sound fine to me.
White ash is about as dense as maple, so it would be a poor choice for a top. Green ash lumber is usually grouped with white ash, and has similar density. 'Swamp ash', which is much less dense, is a favored wood for solid body electrics.

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John

FWIW, I played an inexpensive Washburn (?) all ash guitar a couple years ago. It had surprisingly nice tone: sort of warm and midrangey, like an all koa guitar. I've no idea what type of ash it was. Obviously, it didn't sound as good as a '30s Martin all koa, but it leaned in that direction.

I've made a bunch of my classical guitars using our local Green Ash. You can find a few of the build threads on this forum.

It makes wonderful guitar wood. You can also cold bend air dried wood. Dampen it, wrap it in foil for an hour or two, unwrap it, the bend it to your form. Clamp it in place and leave to dry. So easy!

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
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