The First All-Reclaimed Woods Guitar

I had been using reclaimed woods in guitar making almost from the start of my career, but preparing for the first Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin in 2014 inspired me to try and build an entire guitar from reclaimed woods.

Woods for the guitar. L-R mahogany sides from Victorian chest of drawers, mahogany from library bookcase, Douglas fir from old door, Indian rosewood from old dresser, mahogany back pieces from Victorian chest of drawers.

The first piece of wood I chose was some beautiful Honduras mahogany that had been the top of a Victorian dresser. This was given to me by my friend Andy Wheeler because it was falling apart. Like a lot of this kind of furniture the drawers were made of pine with veneered fronts and so was the frame - something the seasoned wood scavenger comes to recognise - however the top was a nice solid piece of mahogany and when I removed it I could discern some beautiful swirly figuring on the underside. I cut it up with back and side sets in mind and got two sets from it. One of these would be for the show guitar.

The neck came from a nice piece of straight-grained mahogany that had been part of a library bookcase. It's always good to have a literary connection.

For the soundboard I used Douglas fir. The house where I live and all the surrounding houses on the same estate were built in the early 1930s. All the wood in these houses is Douglas fir. The doors are made from very tight-grained quarter sawn fir that is nice and stiff. I first discovered this wondeful wood when I replaced our own back door because it was rotten at the bottom. I saved it and began using it for internal bracing on my guitars. SInce then I have recovered many of these fabulous doors when neighbours have been throwing them out. I've used this wood for soundboard bracing from almost the first guitar that I built, but more recently have been discovering what a great soundboard wood it makes. Its stiffness means it can be worked thin and therefore be responsive in a guitar. Also because the wood is over 90 years old there are chemical changes that have taken place in the wood that will be similar to those that have occurred in prized vintage instruments. I also used this for the soundboard bracing.

Douglas fir doors rescued from a neighbour's skip. The panels are plywood but the rest is solid and mostly quarter sawn.

The fingerboard and bridge were made from Indian rosewood that was an upstand on the back of an old dresser. Again the age of this wood gave it a beautiful even quality that's harder to find these days.

The rosette and head veneer used pieces of more old mahogany.

The thing that was very striking about this guitar is its light weight: 1.5Kg. It is very sensitive/responsive and the sound pops out of it.

Front view showing the Douglas fir soundboard and rosewood fingerboard.

The back - a beautifully-figured book matched pair of pieces of 19th century.Honduras mahogany

This first foray into an all-reclamed-wood guitar was a resounding success, literally, and has encouraged me to pursue this route whenever I can. The thing that is very apparent when using these woods is that they were all destined to be thrown out, but while the furniture they came from had reached the end of its life, the material itself is in prime condition and all the better for its age. It is very satisfying to be able to give new life to these wonderful pieces of wood.