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#1
03-26-2022, 06:10 AM
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Was Elm ever used n making guitars?
I have a question for you wood geeks: I just read a piece about a holdout stand of American Elm trees in Maine. Almost all of our elms were killed by Dutch Elm Disease starting in the 1960's, and were practically extinct by the 1980's.
Was elm wood ever used in making guitars or musical instruments? The story said a nice piece of burled veneer was probably the source of the beetle that came here bearing the fatal illness. Does anyone have/know of furniture or anything else made of elm, if not guitars? If it was used in guitars, what was it used for? Thanks. 
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#2
03-26-2022, 06:19 AM
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Yes, I have a photo of an elm guitar, not bad looking. The wood is probably hard to work due to intertwined grain, but gets very hard with time.
Info and photo on tonewooddatasource.weebly.com. (sorry, I don't know how to do links, you'll have to type it in or cut and paste) And it is far from extinct, lots of young ones around, which usually die before full maturity. Once in a while you'll see one with a 2' or larger diameter trunk, but mostly they die by 1" diameter.
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The Bard Rocks Fay OM Sinker Redwood/Tiger Myrtle Sexauer L00 Adk/Magnolia For Sale Hatcher Jumbo Bearclaw/"Bacon" Padauk Goodall Jumbo POC/flamed Mahogany Appollonio 12 POC/Myrtle MJ Franks Resonator, all Australian Blackwood Blackbird "Lucky 13" - carbon fiber '31 National Duolian + many other stringed instruments.
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#3
03-26-2022, 06:55 AM
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Traditionally elm was not used in guitar making. I don't doubt that someone made an elm guitar, in fact I'd be shocked if they didn't but it has a number of things going against it. First off, it is very difficult to work due to the interlocking grain. I've worked with elm a little and it was brutal. The second, and more serious issue is that it's not terribly stable. It tends to move around even after properly dried. Historically American elm was used for things like wooden crates, animal pens and low cost flooring. All things were stability was not of the upmost importance.
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#4
03-26-2022, 09:30 AM
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You can get a Lakewood guitar made with European elm. I think it’s their 30 series - M30, D30 etc. It might be easiest to get it custom ordered. They used elm as an anniversary model in 2016.
You can also get Amish furniture made of elm in Pennsylvania. I love the grain. Here is my elm guitar stool. It has a slight depression in the middle, making the grain stand out even more: 
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------------------------------- Gibson J45 12 string Gibson J45 Studio Walnut 6 string Furch D24 SR 12 string Rickenbacker 330w 6 string
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#5
03-26-2022, 09:36 AM
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Original poster wants to know, as posted in the threadline (thread title): "Elm ever used n making guitars?" Obviously meant to write "in," of course.
Yes. The Freddy Krueger model. It was a nightmare to play. By the way, this same question came up here in AGF back on 8-13-2018 in a thread over at Elm? I responded to that thread, where I made the following comment: Quote:
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The Acoustic Guitar of Inyo: 30 solo acoustic covers on a 1976 Martin D-35 33 solo acoustic 6-string guitar covers 35 solo acoustic 12-string covers 32 original acoustic compositions on 6 and 12-string guitars 66 acoustic tunes on 6 and 12-string guitars 33 solo alternate takes of my covers Inyo and Folks--159 songs Last edited by Inyo; 03-26-2022 at 11:06 AM.
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#6
03-26-2022, 05:21 PM
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I've worked elm wood. It was awful stuff.
Just because it's wood, doesn't mean it is a candidate for instrument making.
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______________________________________ Naples, FL 1972 Martin D18 (Kimsified, so there!) Alvarez Yairi PYM70 Yamaha LS-TA with sunburst finish Republic parlor resonator Too many ukeleles
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#8
03-28-2022, 07:53 AM
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Hardest wood to split. Even harder than hickory. I can't imagine it bends easily at all.
I used to cut/split cord wood. You don't really split hickory. You really have to shred it due to interlocking grain. Looks like shredded wheat after a trip through the splitter. Elm is worse. Interlocking grain and the wood is hard as iron.
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"Vintage taste, reissue budget"
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#9
03-28-2022, 08:26 AM
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Interlocking grain does make it harder to bend. But less likely to crack.
__________________
The Bard Rocks Fay OM Sinker Redwood/Tiger Myrtle Sexauer L00 Adk/Magnolia For Sale Hatcher Jumbo Bearclaw/"Bacon" Padauk Goodall Jumbo POC/flamed Mahogany Appollonio 12 POC/Myrtle MJ Franks Resonator, all Australian Blackwood Blackbird "Lucky 13" - carbon fiber '31 National Duolian + many other stringed instruments.
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#11
03-28-2022, 10:46 AM
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Quote:
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses....
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#12
03-28-2022, 01:47 PM
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We used to salvage elm wood at the local landfill for fire wood. You couldn't split it down to size for the stove, so we'd rip it with a specially sharpened chain on the saw, producing excelsior. Also, the line about elm in the old 'Fire Wood Song' went:
"Elm wood burns like graveyard mold, E'en the very flames are cold" I actually had to put the wood in on either side and light the fire in between so that the heat reflecting back and forth would be enough to keep it burning. It took a lot of elm to equal a cord of oak. OTOH, back in the Boston suburbs in the 80s it was easy to come by; everybody was cutting down dead elms. The one real use I've heard of for it was as hubs for wood wheels. Apparently that's what Ford used on the early Model T's. It may have found some use as pully sheaves. I wish now I'd saved some out for a guitar. It could not be much more difficult to work with hand tools than Osage Orange.
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Keep the music playing!