How much wood?

[Micah Covington]

Approximately how many board feet of wood is required to make an electric guitar? I am looking at making an LP Junior inspired guitar.

[David King]

It depends on if you nest the body halves or start with a solid body blank. I'm not sure how thick and LP Jr is but you might be able to do it with 6/4 lumber so you might get by with as little as 3 board/feet if all the dimensions are just right. Typically folks will buy a blank that's pre joined and with be 8/4 thick and 14" x 24", that's about 4.5B/f
Neck wood is even more variable. Traditional neck blanks with yield two necks but at least 1/2 the wood is scrap. If you stack the heel and do a scarf joint at the headstock you can get by with less than 1B/f but again the dimensions are critical. Someone who actually builds guitars can give you exact figures.

[Rodger Knox]

There's probably about 2 board feet of wood in a LP junior, but that's not what you need to know.
The board feet you need to buy depends on the diminsions of the lumber and how it will have to be cut & glued to be a guitar. There can be a huge wastage factor, 2 or 3 times the final amount, so 4 or 5 board feet would be a reasonable guess.

[Micah Covington]

Thanks a lot.

I have built basses before but I had all of the wood for free and I am wondering how much I should buy for a LP JR inspired build. I guess I just need to plan it out.