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Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
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Author:  bob_connor [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:35 am ]
Post subject:  Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Have just finished this one from Tasmanian Blackwood and King William Pine.

The bindings are ebony, the fingerboard is some curly Blackwood and the neck and bridge are also made from Blackwood.

This one is a departure from our normal builds in that the sides are laminated.

Two sets of blackwood were bent and then glued with Titebond. Both side sets were bent at .080 so the total thickness of the sides is a bit over .160. It doesn't add a heap to the weight of the guitar as the blackwood is quite light.

It certainly seems to have made a difference to the sound of this instrument. It projects extremely well ie it's loud, and has strong presence in the mids. It's certainly encouraging enough to try double sides on a few more.

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Here's some pics of the sides.
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Author:  Pat Foster [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Looks great, Bob! [:Y:] [:Y:] Nicely appointed but not "blingy". I like it a lot.

Finish?

How do you think the pine changed the tone?

Pat
Author:  SteveCourtright [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Just gorgeous...the figure on the blackwood is just mouth-watering.
Author:  rlrhett [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Blackwood is expensive here in California. I am not sure I could afford to double up on the sides. However, it makes me think of using a thin hard to bend side laminated to an easier to bend and less expensive wood. Anyone have any experience with that? Would the different woods laminated together cause a stability problem (I doesn't seem likely given that plywood is just that, but you never know).
Author:  Mike Collins [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Beautiful gitar!!!

The blue purfs. are neet!
Did you make them?

Any pics of the top bracings?
Is the Pine available to others ?

Mike
Author:  Robbie O'Brien [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Stunning!! [clap] [clap] [clap]
Author:  Allen McFarlen [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 3:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Mike Collins wrote:
Beautiful gitar!!!

The blue purfs. are neet!
Did you make them?

Any pics of the top bracings?
Is the Pine available to others ?

Mike

You can get some King William Pine from Tim Spittle at Australian Tone Woods. He's got some in the mail to me right now.

I also got to see and hear this guitar of Bob's last month. It's every thing he says it is. Projection, volume and note clarity is quite astonishing. It's a really lovely little guitar.
Author:  John Kinnaird jr [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
That is a striking guitar. Very tastefully executed.
I am really curious about the King William Pine. Who sells that?

John
Author:  Geordie Adams [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
thats a warm brown guitar, ebony bindings and end graft work great.
any sound clips?
best wishes
Geordie
Author:  terence [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Really nice guitar Bob, you must be very proud!!!

Terence
www.guitarbench.com
Author:  Tai Fu [ Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
I saw some acacia type wood from Taiwan at a supplier one time, I took some water to it to see the figure and it looks so beautiful but the price is only 1/10th of Koa. It looks just like Koa too.
Author:  bob_connor [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 5:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Thanks very much for the kind words folks.

Pat - the finish is Mirotone 3220 which is an Australian produced pre-catalysed lacquer. The local guitar factory, Maton use the satin version on some of their instruments

As far as the sound of it I'm not sure yet. I need to build some more with it. This is the second, both of them being 0 models with Blackwood back and sides and they sound like cheese and chalk.

The first one had the top thicknessed to 2.75mm and is a very sweet sounding instrument, reasonably balanced but if anything lacking in the top end.

The second one (this one) has the top at 3mm and has much more mid and top end presence(and much more projection). So I'm not sure whether it is the thickness of the top or the fact that this one has very thick laminated sides. I need to do some more work with this before coming to any conclusions. Suffice to say I'm keen to do more laminated sides after hearing this instrument. I don't think the way that I voice tops has changed that much in 12 months.

Mike - the purflings came from Gurian. They are fibre, which I'm a little suss about at present. They seem to swell under finish and some months down the track leave small ridges in the finish. (others here in Australia are reporting the same thing) So my next order will be dyed wood as opposed to the fibre. The jury's still out on that 'til I try the wood ones.

The top bracing is very standard Martin scallops but I do forward shift the braces to try and give these little fellas some more bottom end. Unfortunately I don't have any pics.

King Billy is available through Tim Spittle at Australian Acoustic Tonewoods but it is difficult to source decent sets any more. It is protected and no longer logged so we have to use what gets scavenged from the forest floor or from rivers and lakes.

It is incredibly slow growing and they can take a few thousand years to reach maturity.

It's actually not a pine and is closer to a Redwood than anything else.

Properties-wise it probably sits in between Cedar and Engelmann as far as hardness and is never that stiff, particularly cross grain, so I don't reckon it's any good for larger guitars.

John K - I sent your bro a set of this last year and he tells me he'll be building with it toward the end of this year. So I'm keen to hear his thoughts after he's worked with it.

Geordie - no sound clips yet. I'll try though.
Author:  Bill Hodge [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Beautiful piece of artwork Bob. [:Y:] [clap]
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Sweet, Bob. That's the guitar I'm going to build.
(Well, different shape.)
But you continue to inspire, mate!

Thanks for posting,

Steve
Author:  James W B [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Great looking fingerboard.Is that something you sell?
James
Author:  bob_connor [ Wed Apr 08, 2009 5:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blackwood/King William Pine 0-18 Finished
Thanks Bill and Steve.

James - a fingerboard like that would be available through Tim Spittle, although I wouldn't recommmend it for an instrument that's going to get a lot of use. Blackwood isn't that hard.

http://www.australiantonewoods.com/atw/prod03.htm

This guitar is being kept by Dave, who builds with me, for his own personal use so it's not going to be heavily used and should hold up reasonably well.
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