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Would you folks use this back? The sapwood has some blue-ish staining and I would love to hear some peoples opinions on using backs with sapwood like this.

Thanks much, Peter Z

Honduras? Looks awesome. I could get you rid of it for a small fee.
Sapwood gets stained easily since it is light in color... Stick your fingernail in it in various places and it feels as solid as the heartwood, I'd say go for it. Also cut some of it from outside the pattern and see how it feels when splitting and tearing it.

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Build log

In a heartbeat. Cocobolo?

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

Yeah, it is Honduran. The sap wood is as hard as a rock. It's not low density punky stuff. I can't get my fingernail in it any more than the heartwood.

I guess it's good to go...

Pete

If you don't use it, may I?

YEEES

Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'd use it! That back looks great.

Quicker'n a South Texas Jack Rabbit!!!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

No!
Don't like sapwood. Of course I don't make modern guitars...

Sapwood? Yucky-pooey...usually.

You asked.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Alright Pete, come clean, this was just a gloat!

Doug and Haans,

Thank you so much. I thought I was the only one.

Steve

Now Hans, stretch yourself.
Or, creak a bit in the other direction.
Just try it. Do it. C'mon...

Oh, and you too, Douglas.

And Steve, yikes! Get with it guys!




Now as for me, I wouldn't use that stuff at all. Looks nasty.







JJ

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Thanks for all your inputs. Sounds like the stuff is good and usable. It will probably show up in the classified section in a couple of days (it's a classical size set or OM with wings). After thinking about it and reading the posts. I don't think I am a sap-wood kind of guy either but at least I know the set isn't junk.

Thanks, Peter Z

I shall be camping in the classifieds then, trying to resist buying it
Sapwood like that is a bonus to me, especially since it wastes less of the tree. And that ink line is awesome

If the sapwood is sound, there is no structural or sonic reason not to use it. That leaves aesthetics. I cannot count the number of times that a customer has rejected a raw piece of Brazilian rosewood because it has sapwood.....and the same person would go nuts over the photos of a finished guitar with sapwood.
On this guitar, there is sapwood in the center, next to the backstrip. I dyed it black.



More BR sapwood photos.

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John

wow. That's a beauty.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.