Keyboard Cheek stock; planning work / working plan

Got my fourth and FINAL Fatar keyboard yesterday. Works great; plastic keys - not the nice cherry wood keys....

So; planning my work to work my plan, I would imagine my next step in the console build would be to begin on the permanent keyboard stack cheeks. Any ideas what I should shoot for for the lumber stock? I would imagine the console is going to be painted to "hide" any mistakes I might make during the construction of said beast.

Should I get my stock from Home Depot / Lowes, or is there a specialty site in America you would recommend to buy the stock from? I'm thinking of using just pine for a mockup and then moving it to the final product once I get all my dimensions exact....

Thanks for the read,
Mark

Hi Mark

I just sent you a PM.

Graham

It seems like, when I built mine, I used stock from Lowes. I used Poplar, because it had nice grain and I was going to stain it dark walnut. I made a cardboard template of the side of the keyboard stack, and cut it out of a large piece of thin (maybe 1/4") stock, large enough to make the stack. Then I decided where to make the "stairsteps" and cut those. On a matching piece, I cut only the stairsteps. I then used 1 x 2 stock to fill the space between. I got some decorative molding and cut little pieces to cover the edge of each 'step'. After filling the holes, sealing, and staining, it looked quite good (to me anyway)!

~Scott

To continue, ( I had to go to physical therapy) what I made was, in essence, a hollow box, that fits over the ends of the keyboards. The poplar cuts and sands easily, and takes stain like a champ! Since it's a light color, if you want to go light, you can as well. I believe they also had red oak and walnut, but don't quote me, since this was about 10 years ago.

Anyway, good luck on whatever you decide to do!

~Scott