Thinking of good cost-efficient musical instrument materials

Hello, this is Cheena.
Nowadays, you can buy even wood at 100-yen shops. As a luthiers, I’m grateful that MDF and SPF can be easily purchased.
So let's play around with some cheap wood this time.

Laminated plywood

Anisotropy: Somewhat
Price: Somewhat cheap
Strength: Slightly high

Plywood is a board made by laminating thinly sliced boards so that the fibers intersect.
Although it is generally not used as a musical instrument material, it is not impossible to use because it has a certain thickness and is cheap.
It is important to note that depending on the material used, it dents and scratches easily.
In addition, the compatibility with planes and saws is very poor, and the orthogonal fibers may get caught and cracked, so choose your tools wisely.

OSB plywood

Anisotropy: None
Price: Cheap
Strength: Slightly high

Oriented strand board, commonly known as OSB plywood.
It is made by adhering a large amount of wood chips with a certain degree of orientation, and although there are few examples, it can also be used as a musical instrument material even if the surface is slightly rough.
A certain level of strength is guaranteed as a characteristic of the material, and it has a unique appearance due to the combination of various materials.
It is often used in DIY introduction videos because it has almost no anisotropy (difference in characteristics such as strength depending on the direction of the material) and is easy to handle, except for some tools.

Laminated wood

Anisotropy: Yes
Price: Slightly high
Strength: High

It is a well-known material that does not need to be mentioned. It is often used for cheap guitars.
Since the adhesive surface of the edge meshes with the jagged edges, it can be immediately judged as laminated wood.
Compared to the above-mentioned materials, it has stronger wood-like characteristics, and while warpage and shrinkage are less compared to solid wood, it is a material that can be easily handled, and does not easily crack when cutting or using a planer.

MDF plywood

Anisotropy: None
Price: cheap
Strength: Low

A material that decomposes wood into fibers and glues them together.
It is very cheap, and if it is about 6 mm thick, it is weak enough to be broken by hand, and the cut surface is rough. If it is a high-performance MDF, it can be used as a building material, and it is easy to cut in any direction, which is different from wood.
However, it is generally easy to mold and is difficult to use as a musical instrument material without additional processing.
Basically, it is often used as a template for trimmers.
Depending on how it is used, it is also a material that can be used in many ways with ingenuity and technology.
Since there is literally no grain, and paint can be spread evenly on the material.

Veneer

Anisotropy: almost none
Price: cheap
Strength: Low

Veneer is made by thinly peeling wood such as maple with heather and sticking Japanese paper, or a finish in a sticker form on it. It is intended to be applied over other materials to change its appearance, and cannot be used alone.
Thin pieces can be cut with a cutter knife, and thick ones of several millimeters can be shaped with a trimmer or chisel.
In terms of guitar materials, it is often treated in the same way as a laminated top.

This time I have briefly explained about wood. In addition to these, there is a wide variety of wood including thermo wood.
Let's choose according to the purpose and desired appearance.

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