Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all!

Just out of curiosity, has anyone here built a guitar with zollernia backs and sides? or heard one?
i´m curious because in the brazilian circles it´s a very respected and noble wood for guitars, but i have seen little mention of it in the american forums.


cheers,
Miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Two questions:

Can you give the complete taxonomic name?

Does it have any other common names?

As a side note I have not heard of it in guitar circles but I don't make it to many guitar circles. I'm just a wood geek.

Chris

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

Came up with http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27331769/SOUTHAMERICAN-EXOTICAL-TONEWOODS
comments are at the bottom
No experience of it, nor source for B & S

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

OK: zollernia is tree genus, also - like dalbergia and machaerium - in the fabaceae group, coming from the north of south-america. some species i´ve heard about:

Zollernia paraensis
Zollernia falcata
Zollernia iliciflora

here´s a link with info on the z. paraensis variety: http://www.thewoodexplorer.com/maindata/we1258.html

and here´s a guitar from greg byers: http://www.trilogyguitars.com/www2/shop ... s-standard

in portuguese it´s also called orelha de onca (ocelot´s ear) and pitomba. follmann ( http://www.follmann-tonewoods.com/info. ... e&&con=idl ) calls it "hard rio rosewood" in english, but i can not vouch for this name.

cheers,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

That's a new one on me. I say try it if you can find decent back and side set material.

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

i don´t have it with me, i guess it´s difficult to source outside brazil. but i´ve been reading about this wood in a brazilian forum and it´s said to give the acoustic guitar the "greatest projection" with a tonal quality similar to brazilian rosewood, which got me intrigued.

BTW, another name for it is "pará jacaranda".

cheers,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes