Official Luthiers Forum!

Dear friends, luthiers, OLF members,

I am Terence and I run the guitarbench.com website. Some of you may know me from the forums and personally from my love of acoustic guitars.

The website is an extension from my days writing freelance for Acoustic magazine in the UK and as part of our site, we are trying to build a tonewoods database which specifically incorporates actual experiences from Luthiers and players.

I am currently on an article about Macassar ebony and would like to ask for your experiences working with, and the tonal envelope it produces in your hands. I am looking to include your experience into the article and collate what folks have to say about Macassar Ebony!

Your quotes will be unedited except for punctuation, spelling. It will be clearly attributed to your name and a link to your website as well as this post will be included. It will be a good opportunity to connect with my readership as well as folks looking for more information on tonewoods!

Warmest regards,
Terence
www.guitarbench.com

Although I've only built two guitars with macassar ebony, a dreadnought and a classical, I love the stuff. I think it's beautiful wood and the guitars sound great. It can be difficult to bend and it's also relatively heavy, but the results are worth the effort. I'm actually kind of surpirsed I don't see more guitars made with it.

Pat

Rather high damping. I'd consider it best suited for a blues type box if someone want a lot of thump but not a lot of sustain. Speaking relative to other woods, of course. It's not like its cardboard or anything.

Thanks Howard and Pat!

Howard, how do you find working with it?

Adn Pat, what kind of tonal results have you been getting with Macassar ebony?

warmest regards,
Terence
www.guitarbench.com

Terence buddy Andy Zimmerman who is a member here with the screen name Andy Zimmer (I think) has built with Macassar a bunch of times. I recall him calling it a personal favorite too. You might want to contact him via his web site - link below.

http://www.lazydogguitars.com/

In terms of boards and bridges, I run a tap comparison for folks looking to choose between BRW, EIR, Mad Rose, Madagascar Ebony, and Macasser...the Madagascar is at the bottom of the pack, while most folks find the Macasser close to MadRose and EIR in the sustain and tone department.

Great wood for bridges, fretboards, binding and faceplates...lower damping than many other ebonies, has a great deal of visual appeal, and lower mass while retaining close to the same surface hardness. I seldom use Madagascar or Gabon ebony if suitable Macasser is available. I particularly like it for binding, where the warm bittersweet chocolate color warms up what can otherwise be a too-cool color note. That color/texture contrast is just perfect with a wide range of top and body woods. Where not constrained by tradition, I'll use the Macasser over other ebonies.

Terence,

Both guitars had Englemann spruce tops. The thing that struck me about the dreadnought was its projection. With regard to sustain, I hadn't noticed anything either way so I guess that means it was average. As I was building the guitar, I knew it was going to come out heavy and I was worried that there wouldn't be much volume so I was surprised and pleased at how loud it was. The classical guitar was much lighter in comparisson yet, when first played, it was relatively quiet and I was a little disapointed. However the change in just over a few hours of playing was amazing. I never knew a guitar could open up so much in so little time. It probably was also a function of the new strings settling in. I'm not very good at describing tonal qualities so all I can say is that this guitar, to my hear, sounded very sweet and beautiful. I would not call it overly bright. I sold it within a week of it being finished and, I must admit, I have some regrets.

Pat