Oak as a guitar body

CarpeDiem

I made a guitar body and neck out of oak when I was at school, from a table that was being thrown away. Whilst the guitar played ok, it didn't sound particularly good and lacked resonance. As has already been suggested, I would use the wood to build something else, eg guitar stand, music stand, cabinet.

Garthy

WezV said:

bignorm said:

EricTheWeary said:

Bits of May's red special are oak aren't they ? The fingerboard and part of the blockboard construction. 

I have a vague memory that Gordon Smith did some guitars with oak tops/ caps. 

Brian Mays red special was made from oak but it's chambered for weight relief and sustain... considering he made this back in the early 1960's .. it's brilliant 
I came across this article on the red special restoration a while back and it's fascinating if you're a Queen fan like me.
https://fryerguitars.wordpress.com/red-special-restoration-1998/

There is a whole book on it if you are interested, great pics on it.

bits of it are oak( I can’t remember exactly which bits).. but it’s not really comparable to a solid or chambered oak guitar.  There is a lot of non-standard stuff in that build

The body core is oak with blockboard wings, but there really isn't much oak in the body:

The neck is mahogany, but the neck goes under the first  and middle pick ups. The rest of the body is blockboard with a huge chamber on the top half of the body from strap button to strap button and a smaller banana shaped one between the control cavity and tremolo. There is a third chamber where the trem springs are, about the size of a fist, most of this chamber has plywood on top and the remainder has a perspex cover over the springs. The control cavity is also cavernous. The guitar was designed as a semi-acoustic but he bottled it when it came to putting the F hole in. There are mahogany veneers on top to make this jigsaw of a guitar look like it's one piece of wood.

As you say the book is fantastic, especially the X-rays. the level of thought that went in to it means to me that Brian and Harold May should have an equal credit in pioneering guitar construction as anyone else such as Grover Jackson & Ibanez. In my mind the Red Special is the original superstrat although I always think it looks like a long lost Gibson prototype.

WezV

ToneControl said:

similar density to mid-weight Ash in this chart innit?

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-density-d_40.html

TBH, I wouldn’t Build with most ash either.  It’s not all like the nice light American stuff

flyingv

https://i.imgur.com/oqq6NFV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/u7uFSHi.jpg made this Strat  hardtail body from oak a few years ago, quite weighty' darker tone than your average HH fender though.

GoldenEraGuitars

I have an oak strat body here to finish. My Passat weighs less. Not sure how it’s gonna turn out tbh