Domestic Guitar

[kencierp]

Rick,

When I was to Barnes and Nobles a while back, I was paging through a giant volume of prized guitars (can't recall the name of the book) and came across a picture of stunning a Cherry guitar you crafted -- do you have a picture of that instrument you can post? If memory serves, it was natural -- after I saw it, I ordered a supply of Michigan black Cherry.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Tommyboy,
I am a knifemaker also, and I have used tulipwood for handles....very hard and dense, and takes a wonderful polish...a great handle material.

Now David......
The best domestic wood you could use, if you can get it is Mesquite.
Hard, dense, nearly poreless.....beautiful plentiful in Texas, however back & side set sizes are not all that common. I LONG to build with it.
I have used it also for knife handles, and I love working with it.
I may have a contact for some in Texas and I'm going to pursue it. My daughter met guy there who owns a sawmill in Texas that exlusively mills Mesquite.

Kevin

[dandenson]

Kevin,
I am in the process of building a walnut SJ cutaway with mesquite fingerboard and bridge. I found a very straight-grained piece to work with. Hard and dense with a glassy tap tone. I think it will work well - it looks very much like a piece of rosewood. This is guitar #3 for me.

Regards,
Dan

[Ken Hundley]

Kev, can you make a multi-peice back ot of it? That way, you could work with smaller peices. Just a thought.

[David L]

That is an awesome example of cherry!

David L

[kencierp]

That is just amazing!!

[Darryl Young]

I've wondered if you could use "burnt" persimmon for a fretboard? I'ts a fairly hard and dense wood. I had a deer grunt made out of persimmon and the guy "burnt" it while still spinning in the lathe. I think he used pressure from the back side of a blade to do this. Here is a pic of what it looks like. The persimmon deer grunt is on the left. On the right is a turkey call made of walnut and maple. Notice he only "burnt" the persimmon in certain places along the length of the tube. I guess the burnt look is caused by the heat generated from the tool burnishing the persimmon.

Hunting Turkey Call and Deer Grunt 1.JPG

Hunting Turkey Call and Deer Grunt 2.JPG

[David L]

I don't know how many people are like in so much that I have somewhat planned out my next several guitars if only loosely. I'm thinking that I would like to make #4 an all domestic. I have a really decent set of curly cherry B&S, however, they are flat sawn and nothing like the quality of RD's previous photo, I believe Ken mentioned (and I could be wrong about Ken being the one to state this) the one advantage to slab sawn material is that it is less likely to split. I'm thinking walnut binding and other trimmings (sound like a Thanksgiving meal), cherry/walnut neck, still up in the air about the FB and bridge, but there are several acceptable domestic options, none of which I have ruled out.
They do have some pitch pockets that I'm hoping most or all of which will be eliminated when thickness sanded, otherwise, they will have to be incorporated into the design as "character" (something that I'm not crazy about). Also the figuring is much nicer than what my less than acceptable photography skills show!

David L

[kencierp]

Not sure I mentioned the splitting thing -- but its true the all woods will peel apart along the grain easily. I've never really built a guitar using slab cut wood -- off the quarter riff sawn - yes. I see some guitars made of exotics that are surely slab materials -- lots of Brazilian Rosewood. I would think waves and cupping could be an issue -- but that's a guess.

[David L]

Yes Ken I agree that cupping waving and warping could be an issue. Here are some pictures of the sides, better figured (perhaps not visible from the pictures).

David L