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Just a quick one. How well would anyone who has used Zebrawood rate it as a tonewood?
What is it like to bend, and is it comparable to any other woods in terms of workability and sound?

Thanks,
Tom.

I'm building one now out of it. I bent it with a fox style bender. Make sure you rap it in wet paper bc it will crack.

I haven't bent it yet, but have built many Native American flutes out of it and they have great clarity. When working with it, it is brittle and be carful of splinters when handleing it.

I have a beautiful quartersawn fine grain old-growth 8/4 Zebrawood plank. I use it as a flat clamping surface for certain operations, such as clamping a fretboard to a veneer for an accent stripe.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I found bending to be a piece of cake. Jointing gave me some fits though. Even my best sharpening job left my planes just glancing off. I had a heck of a time with it. Ended up using the old sandpaper and level trick. Some people complain about the smell while working it but I didn't really notice it. I do notice it if I stick my nose in the soundhole though! All in all I thought it was worth the effort joining it, as my guitar came out beautifull and has a great rosewood-ish sound.

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Rob

Zebrawood bends fine. It's a little difficult to work. Does not plane worth a flip, and dulls sandpaper fast. It makes a nice guitar though.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

It smells wrong.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I found it bends quite easy at 315 degrees. Don't over-moisten, as lighter color areas tend to cup. I prefer bending it dry. Smells like pig s**t when you work it with powertools.

Bob

Maybe the piece you had came from the wrong end of the zebra !!


Not to steal the thread , secondary question . Zebra as neck wood on Mando ?

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One of the nicest sounding SS I've played was a Zebrawood/Cedar built by Daniel Minard who hangs out here. That's a good combo for sure. I'm using it for appointments on a Bolivian Rosewood jumbo I'm building right now. I think it was John Hall who showed us a book matched binding idea that I'll use. It looked very nice.

As Wud would say...

Yes, that's exactly how it smells! Definitely not from the front end of the animal...

Yeah, what they said.

Beautiful wood, bends well, almost pore-less, splinters easily, don't even try to plane it, smells bad. With all that, it makes a beautiful guitar and so far, I have managed to make a couple of great sounding boxes with it. Recently, I used zebra cutoffs as binding on a mahogany L-0. It was quite striking. As a matter of fact my avatar is a zebra dred body with an extreem bearclaw top.

You would be well served to cut your sides to shape before bending so you won't risk splintering and cracking it as you contour the bent sides. Oh yes, cut the binding channels with care, use a new, sharp router bit, because this is another time it will easily splinter. I make at least 2 and sometimes 3 shallow passes on the binding channel.

Is it worth the effort? Yes.

Regards,
Tom

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I spent most of my money on women, guitars and whiskey, the rest I wasted.

Avoid the planer

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Thanks for the advice guys I really like the look of it. So for thicknessing, would i be better off sanding by hand or using a thickness sander? As for the smell, maybe i'll have to install an air freshener in the box! But the smell sounds like a serious consideration, a guitar which smells like a dung heap could be real off-putting to a possible customer!

You can't even plane it ACROSS the grain?

The smell goes away or atleast for me it did. And I would thickness is with a thickness sander. And don't even think about planing it gross grain. You'll just rip it up. Found that out the hard way.

The finished guitar doesn't have a strong smell. You could use Spanish cedar linings for those who like to stick their nose in the soundhole. The sides can get a little rippley if you work them too thin.

I find it only smells bad when machining. Goes away quickly.

Bob

As Bob said, go gently with the water when bending. I got all kinds of cupping in my sides from spritzing too heavily. The blonde stripes seem to absorb more water than the darker wood & swell like crazy.I plan to use SS II next time.
Otherwise, I think its a great tonewood. With all of the minor issues mentioned above. Avoid planing! Use a scraper instead.
I didn't have any trouble jointing the back, but dug in while planing the back strip & had to glue a huge splinter back into place.
The wood I used didn't smell so bad. A little funky, but I kinda like the smell of a barn.

I think this is a fantastic wood in both tonal qualities and look. I will say that we should name this Zebramanurewood . It sure don't smell like a rosewood .
Joking aside the things you need to be aware of with this wood is that it is common for wind break and voids . The benefits of the wood is the contrasting grain . Look at this close so you don't grab a piece with the wind break or cross grain fracture

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Is "wind break" what I think it is? Maybe THAT'S whyit smells so horrible!

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

like that do ya !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Thanks Some bend it dry i hear. I really like the look of it, so i think I'm going to use it for the next build which will be a baritone, can't wait to start it!

Sure does - I made the mistake of thickness sanding some on the same day that I resawed and sanded several Alaskan Yellow Cedar tops. The combined funk was industrial strength.