Pining for Pine?

[Edward Rodriguez]

I just started the luthier program at Musicians Institute and have a question for y'all. In class I've asked a couple questions about using Pine and have been told that it doesn't make a good wood for a build because it's "unstable." When I pushed for clarification I was asked why I was "fixated" on it. I was told that Pine is too soft a wood for guitars and that screws would eventually loosen and strip out. It seems that quite a few builders have used this wood. What is the long-term experience with it?

[Dan Smith]

Screws in an acoustic guitar?
I would guess Pine is harder than Redwood, Cedar, and Spruce.

[Rodger Knox]

There's really nothing wrong with pine, it's just that there are many alternatives that are better than pine.
It's not usually as dimensionally stable with variation in RH, or clear of knots as spruce, redwood, or cedar, but if you find a good piece of wood, there's no reason not to use it just because it's pine.
Check out some of the Challenge threads, seems like I remember one pine topped guitar.
For an electric, there's really no reason not to use it.

[Dan Smith]

Screws in an acoustic guitar?
I would guess Pine is harder than Redwood, Cedar, and Spruce.

Oops, did not realize this was in the solid body forum.
Pine is fine for electric solid bodies.

[David King]

There are all types of pine from eastern white to radiata, western poderosa and southern yellow and they all come in different densities. On the very light weight pines you can always inlay a harder block of maple or plugs to hold your screws or you can locally harden the wood with CA, HHG. These teachers are simply touting the party line because it's easier to to say "no" than to use their heads. The lighter the wood you can find the louder the acoustic volume and the better sounding the guitar generally. If they won't let you use pine because it stinks up the shop look for a paulownia surfboard blank and use that. It will blow them away...

[Dan Smith]

I don't use Pine because I don't want the resin on my tools.
Lots of fellers make Pine-casters, and I have seen some good looking Pine acoustics.
Every single piece of wide Pine at Home Depot is cut from the center of the tree with the pith running though it. I have looked. I reckon it would be unstable.
Maybe that is what the instructor was thinking about.
He did not have to be a douche-bag when answering your question though.

[Eric Schaefer]

I just received a large amount of bookmatched pine sets from a guitarmaker who passed. Some of the sets look pretty decent and I'm looking forward to experimenting with them. I'll keep this thread posted!