Official Luthiers Forum!

after having a bit of difficulty with the madagascar ebony i was going to bind my first with, i decided to switch to macassar ebony. i definitely could have made things work, but decided to change the original plan. so the zoot man sent me some beautiful macassar ebony binding and enough material for the end graft and heel cap. so far im in love with the stuff. its gorgeous, bends like butter and holds its shape very well. some of the pictures ive seen of mac ebony under finish tend toward the orange side. the stuff i have does the same when wet. i have however, seen other photos that show perfectly tan or beige color against the chocolate brown and black. is there a trick to getting the tan to stay tan? or does it just vary from piece to piece? i love the figure and color of the stuff i have, i would just prefer that it stay tan under finish. any suggestions? heres a link to the color im going for. you have to click on the mac ebony sample at right to get to the picture of steve henderson holding the guitar im speaking of. if it doesnt work out ill be ok, its still great looking stuff.

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproduc ... ssar+Ebony

_________________
sweat the small stuff.

Heath my friend PM Andy Zimmerman he has built with Macassar a bunch of times and I am sure he would be able to help you out here.

i knew i could count on hesh and todd. i scraped the surface in question and slapped some mineral spirits on it. its not orange, but i would say the brown does lean that way. it doesnt look bad, just not what i originally had in mind. oh well, live and learn.

_________________
sweat the small stuff.

Here is a macassar back and side set that I got from Bob. Some of his stock is quite reddish.

_________________
Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

yeah, thats kinda what i was talking about. please understand that i am not in any way complaining about the material that bob sent me. he is a VERY kind man and went totally out of his way to help me. i was just surprised at the degree to which the material changed colors when wet. that is my own ignorance and lack of experience working with the stuff. thanks for the photo and info, ken.

_________________
sweat the small stuff.

My favorite Macassar 'brands' (to use a word out of place) is when the wood has some reddish streaks in it. I love it like that.

_________________
There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

here is another sample of Macassar under nitro

michael, dude that is a great looking guitar! is that one of yours or is that the gift from your family that i remember from some time ago? gorgeous either way!

_________________
sweat the small stuff.