Best wood to learn side bending?

[Tomcat]

Walnut bends fine and cherry too. Remember all wood need a couple of years of seasoning/drying (or kiln drying) before bending. Just gets some and try it! What are you waiting for?

Thanks for the info, Carl. And I'm waiting for...a chance to finish my current two kits before I start buying for the one after that!

But that does bring up another question: when you buy tops and B&S sets from a standard site (e.g. Stewmac, Exotic Tonewoods, Blues Creek), are they generally already seasoned, ready for just the couple of weeks of acclimating to your shop's humidity, or do you expect them to need longer seasoning?

[carld05]

They're ready w/shop acclimation.

[Tomcat]

They're ready w/shop acclimation.

Thanks for the confirmation 😀

[Diane Kauffmds]

Mahogany and cherry are easy bends. The first wood I bent was cherry, followed by Mahogany.

[jread]

I learned on birch, which is easy to bend but probably isn't good tonewood.

[/quote]

JLT: Birch is actually a fabulous tonewood. Harmony and similar Chicago made guitars were often solid birch. It grew all over the Chicago area and a lot of furniture and guitars were made from it. So many, there's hardly any birch left up there.

My 1st venture into repairs was this Stella by Harmony. It was my very 1st guitar and I "ruined" it back when I was a kid and sanded all the paint off. I replaced the top and back with red birch from RC Tonewoods. I was so new back then that I had Mr. John Hall thin and join the top and back for me. I re-used the original braces, neck, and sides.

This guitar sounds pretty great.

[Tomcat]

I've ordered some of those mahogany "seconds" from Exotic from the link posted earlier in the thread (thanks Carl!!) for first practice. Such a bargain, for the purpose in mind. I'm glad to know that cherry and walnut are also easy bends. I'll see how the practice goes before I order more wood.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice!!

[Tomcat]

Jread,

The birch guitar is beautiful! It's it possible for folks to post audio clips on the board, too?

I have a couple of questions on the design. It looks like the strings cross the bridge and attach to a tailpiece. Does the bridge float, held in place only by string tension, or is it still glued in place to ensure the proper scale length? And does the bracing under the bridge still need to be as strong, or can it be less structured to leave the top freer to vibrate?