Official Luthiers Forum!

Got this from Zoot a few days ago...into the stash it goes. Rings like a glass bell.

Very Cool Haans! What kind of zoot is it?

Um, Hesh, the Subject line says, "Hormigo."

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Is that spalted sapwood? It looks fantastic!

Hormingo is a wood? It's pretty cool - has anyone built a guitar with it yet and if so how does it bend, plane, glue, sand, and of course sound (once it's a guitar I did read that it rings well now)?

kinda looks like this spalted BRw sap I had a couple years ago .... on the heel cap was some leftovers ... its a redwood topped bari ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

About all I know about it is that they make marimba keys out of it and it's called the wood that sings. It's very fine grain (no filling required), hard (hope it bends well), and the tap is unlike Rio, Coco, EIR. It's very glassy when tapped, at the risk of a lot of silly humor, I'll say it sort of tinkles when tapped, as I said, like a glass bell. Whatever the sapwood is it's just as hard as the rest, so I don't know.
That's it, anyone know any more?

Only that this pretty Hormigo set is sitting in my stash, waiting to answer all questions

I have 2 sets of Hormigo here from the Zoot man !
They look just spectacular!
One has a sapwood center with NO spalt or other color.
The wood can load a fine sandpaper in my 16-32 sander -but is no problem with 60-100 grit.
It's as dense as Braz. & just rings like a bell.

I'm making some classicals with it this winter.
I really think it's a great find for us makers.

Mike

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Mike Collins

Mike, Christian, when you get around to bending ribs, please let us know how it bends.

That's a great looking set. But I wonder who is Zoot and how do I see what wood he has?

Tim

Zoot= Bob C. at RC Tonewoods

Great, Haans,
Just what I need - more WAS.

Seriously, that is some seriously beautiful wood. I'm not usually a fan of sapwood, but that spalting is just fascinating.

Going over to Uncle Bob's site now......

2 minutes later....... Phew - he seems to be sold out for the moment. I guess I'll be able to pay the phone bill this month...

Yea, I'm not a fan of sapwood either, but this surely is something special. I guess I'll have to make a "modern Larson" someday with some kind of wood binding.

Don't ever assume that, because none shows on the website, that he is out of anything. Call him. Only about 1/3 of his inventory ever makes the website. At least that's what I was told.

I'm not saying he has any! Just don't assume he doesn't. Phone calls are cheap!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Phone calls to the Zoot man can be expensive.

Who is this Zoot????

Well time for some OLF history lessons for some of the folks who have not been here all that long.

As mentioned zoot is wood, fancy wood and the Zootman is Bob C. founder of RC Tonewoods and my adopted uncle and I am his adopted pain in the arse nephew. The term "Uncle Bob" at least for forum use was coined by me.... The Zootman got his name because, well you guessed it because he has fancy wood like a fancy suit or a "zoot suit." Anyway it all made sense in real time when it went down.

And now for some historical pictures from the OLF archives of Uncle Bob aka The Zootman:

This is when Uncle Bob had a new shipment of Nara I believe:



This is from when Uncle Bob started stocking Monkey Pod and you can also see his nephew this Hesh creep in the pic too....



IIRC this shot is the very first one that I ever Photoshopped of Uncle Bob....



This commemorates when Uncle Bob being the ever unselfish sort that he is made a deal with the devil at the crossroads so that he could bring us the finest, most unique and value priced zoot/wood available....



And here is my personal favorite shot of Uncle Bob as he manages his ladies who are also out looking for unique wood... for us to purchase...



And so goes the legend of The Zootman aka Uncle Bob!

Quick update...

I just hand planes the sides down to 0.08" with a LV low angle Jack. Hormigo planes much easier than I expected. A bit more resistance than Mahogany, but not a lot. The cuts seem a bit cleaner than in Hog. Definitely much easier to plane than Macassar Ebony The sides ring forever when tapped. I won't bend them right away, but I'll keep you posted.

Christian

Thanks Christian!