So my friend Dave's cousin Greg had a big maple tree cut down in his front yard. Rather than all if it going up in smoke as firewood, they invited me over, broke out the chainsaw, and filled my SUV with as much as could fit.
I bought an extension for my bandsaw, milled 'em up, stacked 'em up, and let them air dry. Once the moisture levels dropped sufficiently, down into the humidity controlled basement they went for a year.
I started with a couple of the smaller pieces that dried quicker and had interesting figure. First pass I got three backs that were large enough for a L-OO sized guitar. Thinned them down to 1/4" and stored them for many more months.
Once I was sure they were dry and stable.... I picked the one on the left to start building the first guitar.
For the sides, there was one particular board I liked -- it had a long narrow strip of flame and darkened by the rot in the core. I took a piece of pine from a tree I cut down in my own yard to build sides, neck, and tail block. I then cut the flamed maple strip into tiles and epoxied them to the pine. Neck joints are among the most critical in building a guitar, as such I find it a great deal of fun to come up with a completely different design each time -- this one is an internal tongue-and-grove, with a raised neck held in with two furniture bolts. Neck angle is adjusted by rotating it in the pocket and using shims to hold it at the desired angle - worked like a charm.
For the neck, I took strips of relatively straight grained piece of the maple and laminated them together.
I didn't have anything from a tree I cut up myself that I thought would be a good fit for the finger board and bridge, so I ended up getting an off-cut from Goby Walnut who specializes in local trees. I figured that was close enough. Speaking of figure, I also really liked the live edge on the piece I picked out of the "cheap bin" - I believe it cost me $1.
The top is stika spruce from Alaska Specialty Woods. Not exactly local, but it fits the theme.... When I put in an order for the "clam" guitar top and a random selection of other stuff - one very inexpensive item was not in stock. They asked if I wanted a refund or a higher grade top for the same price? I said either a refund.... or if they are up for the challenge send me a top that they thought would make a good sounding guitar but was so wonky looking they would be embarrassed to sell it & was destined to be firewood. They included two different tops of this caliber, this is one of them. I love it.
And now.... we have great sounding little guitar made out of a couple-dollar's worth of wood (and several years of work!)
Eventually I'll get around to making a few more....