I've never worked with oak any further than to toss it in the woodstove, and a few furniture repairs, but I'm guessing the real reason for not making instruments out of it is the trouble in finishing due to filling pores and such. Hmmm...worth a try though.

I've had a couple of Fender electric guitars with one piece (aside from the skunk stripe truss installation) necks. In other words, no seperate fingerboard. There are practical reasons for not doing this.

For traditional, acoustic, and/or unusual instruments, I prefer construction which can be taken apart to ease repairs and upgrades.

As for tooling, all of the current construction methods owe something to the pure handwork of the pre-electricity era. Many builders still use alot of hand work so there's no reason why you can't either. The one tool I would miss the most would be the stationary sander, mine's a belt/disc unit, because it lets me do some fine fitting I can't do reliably by hand. Second would be the drill press. Spend your money on books and clamps and measuring tools before big power tools.

In the first 3 days of this week I've fixed or upgraded or accessorized four acoustic guitars, one bodhran, one mandolin and one flute case. The only power tool I needed was the sander...tomorrow I'll need the drill press.

Thanks for bringing this thread back!

Peace, Mooh.