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and it's only about 5km from my shop too...

They have honduran mahogany, sapele, ebony, teak, asian rosewood, etc. (too bad no EIRW).

I got these two planks, one is honduran mahogany, and the other is sapele. The honduran mahogany is flatsawn, and has a few wormholes and one end is slightly rotten... it was cut off (it was a really long plank). The sapele other than some sapwood at one edge is nicely quartered, but feels like it's really dense... would make a nice neck but its going to be a heavy neck.

What do you guys think about sapele as neck material? how do you deal with their relatively high density?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

FWIW Taylor uses Sapele for necks. I don't think we need to start a Taylor debate, but there are a lot of happy Taylor customers out there.

You could also rip the Mahogany into strips & laminate a neck. Being all from the same board you should have good color match.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Sapele's one of my favorite neck woods; strong, stable, and carves well. Oh, and lovely color! One of my favorite body woods, too; some of my "best" guitars are sapele...

+1 for Grumpy

It's also really easy to get well quartered stock with little or no runout. I just paid $22.00 for enough stock to make 10 neck blanks (13/16" x 3" x 24").

Wood selection is definitely nothing compared to what most Americans get...

They have mahogany, sapele, and a few others like ebony, narra (will see how they work as back/sides), rosewood (I think it's D. Odorifera), and padauk. While I won't pay 22 dollars for enough stocks to make 10 neck blanks (it would be a real steal... I got a deal on some maple and it doesn't make 10 neck blanks, but about 6) the savings on shipping alone is worth it. If I get a commission I'll still get LMI's stuff, but that's because their stuff was carefully selected to work, there's no sense in chancing it on unknown wood when customers are involved. I have managed to find spruce guitar tops in Taiwan but the quality is disappointing to say the least, they were sawn rather than split and therefore have terrible runout.

Has anyone made guitar back/sides with cypress or teak and "chicken wing wood" (also known as pheasantwood, scientific name senna siamea)? they're common here, since these woods were commonly used throughout Chinese history.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Rockler, woodcraft, and so many online places to get wood and have it shipped to you. Not to mention shipping from places like LMI, Allied, etc. don't generally cost more than 40 dollars. I pay over 200 dollars shipping to order few board foot of wood from those places. Also I am not even sure if paying about 10 dollars per board foot for honduran mahogany, maple, and sapele is considered normal... seems a little on the high side.

I sure can't get bloodwood, cocobolo, purpleheart, or EIRW in Taiwan, no one heard of it.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

It can be pretty good. I'd say 75% of my exotic wood was purchased in Amish country from an Amish dealer who imports tons of wood.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I feel very fortunate to have Edensaw Woods based in my little home town of 9500 people.

Checkem out.. edensaw.com

I have around 10 Neck blanks of Sapele. Mixed, in that most seem that they are from different trees. All of them are heavier and harder than any Honduran Mahogany that I've come across. More difficult to carve but not fiendishly so. As I finish my Necks with Oil Sapele seems to burnish a little better than some other Mahogany types. That's where the hardness seems to be a bit of an advantage, giving a slightly slicker feel.

I'd love to see a guitar made from pheasant wood. It also grows in Hawaii, and seems to be popular for ukes.

It seems to me that embracing your local woods would show some confidence, as well as being practical. To us in the US, woods like these are exotic.

AFA cypress, technically western red cedar and POC are cypresses.

Well cypress definitely has distinctive smell and WRC (which is available here, just not sure about their grain structure as it pertains to luthiery) is favored for cabinetry because it repels insects. The smell is so strong that the whole shop smells when working them. I guess the more important thing is runout and grain density... which isn't always easy to find.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com