Decorative Wood Burning

[Meng1988]

My wife is an artist and wanted to do some wood burning somewhere on the guitar.

Has anyone done this?

Are there any concerns? ie would it weaken the wood? would it make finishing the guitar more challenging?

[ruby@magpage.com]

Here is something I have wanted to do - it is done with ink but I have thought about doing it with woodburning. The lines are so thin and shallow I don't think it would do any sonic or structural harm - especially it you left off the purfling. These are traditional decorations on a Hardanger Fiddle - a Scandanavian instrument that has 4-6 drone strings under the fretted strings. Many of the Larson instruments of a hundred years ago had tops asa thick .13 to .15, so you could make an instrument with a thicker top.

[tippie53]

striking

[rcnewcomb]

Martin had some laser etching on the LX1E Ed Sheeran model.

Screen Shot 2018-05-10 at 3.19.27 PM.png

Luna has various models that are laser etched.

Luna.jpeg

[Diane Kauffmds]

I can't think of any adverse effect that wood burning would cause, especially in the upper bout. The only thing I can think of is the soundhole.

If you decide to burn a decoration around the soundhole, inlieu of using a rosette, I would forgo the usual soundhole bracing used on steel string guitars, for the type of bracing used on many classical guitars. The soundhole is completely supported on classical guitars. I hate to use the word "laminated", but for want of a better word, this is what I would do around the soundhole, if you decide to burn decorate.

The photo is just a sample.

p_soundb15.jpg

[MaineGeezer]

The heel is also a candidate for decoration. Here is a photo of a carved heel, but I don't see why one couldn't burn a design just as well.