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Sorry, no pictures. One of my cousins showed up with a Paul Reed Smith custom acoustic. Beautiful. The binding looked like curly maple at first glance. But the dark light alternation was took much for that. Very high definition bands. Any body know what this might be? I'm asking him to send me pics

Mike:
Looks like curly Maple to me. But I'm not very good at the guess the wood on the computer screen game.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

99% sure that's curly maple.

Probably a combination of really good intense curl, and the finish used that makes the contrast so clear. My guess is that epoxy was the first thing to go on the wood.

Also possible, especially considering that it's PRS, is that they used their stain-and-sand technique that they use on their electrics to enhance grain figure. Stain soaks deeper into the endgrain bands of the curl than the side grain, so lightly sanding leaves alternating dark and light.

Probably well curly maple, epoxy fill or stained, from the toning.

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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.

Looks like flamed maple to me. Don't see anything special about it.

For sure maple. Here's one with bindings off cut from the other

Ken

One can achieve that effect on curly maple binding with EIR B/S by sanding the rosewood dust into the maple. IMO, it's a nice effect and I have used it on several guitars.

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"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

Ok, I agree that it's curly maple. And thanks for the tip about sanding in some dark wood dust.

Perchance, does anybody know what finish PRS uses?

Mike

Clear Urethane according to this http://www.prsguitars.com/detail/finish.html#

And from the FAQ's,

In our history, most of our instruments have been finished with a polyester basecoat and acrylic urethane topcoat. We feel acrylic urethane looks and feels the close to the old nitrocellulose finishes but avoided the issue of future finish checking. Several PRS models, including our Sunburst, Satin, Modern Eagles, and DGT models use a nitrocellulose finish in order to provide the classic feel and tone of vintage instruments.

In 2010, PRS Guitars introduced its new V12 finish. This finish was developed over 12 years, and it is intended as a midpoint between nitro and acrylic with a classic feel all its own. V12 is extremely thin to allow the guitar to resonate, but it is still incredibly durable with no risk of reacting to leather or guitar stands in a negative way.

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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.

From PRS's FAQs on their site:

6. What kind of finish does PRS use?

In our history, most of our instruments have been finished with a polyester basecoat and acrylic urethane topcoat. We feel acrylic urethane looks and feels the close to the old nitrocellulose finishes but avoided the issue of future finish checking. Several PRS models, including our Sunburst, Satin, Modern Eagles, and DGT models use a nitrocellulose finish in order to provide the classic feel and tone of vintage instruments.

In 2010, PRS Guitars introduced its new V12 finish. This finish was developed over 12 years, and it is intended as a midpoint between nitro and acrylic with a classic feel all its own. V12 is extremely thin to allow the guitar to resonate, but it is still incredibly durable with no risk of reacting to leather or guitar stands in a negative way.

Snap Hesh!

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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.

On another thread, Waddy posted some pictures of a guitar with Curly Sycamore. I'm wondering if the ID I'm looking for is Sycamore, not Maple? Here are more pics of the guitar in question:

Sycamore is a broad term and I believe that some maple in Europe is called sycamore. So I'd still bet it's a curly maple binding

Just checked out the PRS site and went through the specs for their acoustics. Nearly half of them use curly maple as binding and the others don't use anything else that looks like maple or Sycamore.

As such - it still looks like maple to me...

Thanks all.

Good thing too, I just ordered a bunch of curly maple!

I believe they are both the same family, Acer.
Maple seems to be a bit harder, heavier and stronger than Sycamore.

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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.

Even though American Sycamore bends easily, I think it would be too soft for binding. The local wood I have used is quite soft. Never heard of sanding rosewood dust into Maple. Sound's like a cool experiment I may try.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Curly Koa can sometimes look golden. It is typically a darker tone than Maple, more brownish. Sycamore is typically lighter than Maple. I'm guessing its Maple also. Some trees are lighter and some are redder and even browner toned.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Have to be careful here. In North America, the name "sycamore" usually refers to species in the genus Platanus -- this genus is not in the same Family or Order as the maple genus, Acer. The wood from the American sycamore (P. occidentalis) is certainly softer than sugar/rock maple (Acer saccharum), but still a good substitute for many other species of Acer and has rather nice ray figure and makes attractive binding.

In Europe, species of Platanus are usually referred to as "plane tree". The North American P. occidentalis and the European P. orientalis, as well as their hybrid (known as the "London plane") are especially popular for street planting, as they tolerate urban conditions and pollution. I've seen them planted in cities around the globe.

The confusion with names comes from the European native Acer pseudoplatanus often being referred to in parts of Europe as "sycamore". The common names "sycamore maple" and "false plane" are also used and much less confusing. The leaves of A. pseudoplatanus are a dead ringer for the leaves of sycamores, hence the name. Despite the frequent similarity in leaf shape, the two genera are dead easy to tell apart: the leaves on maples always occur along the shoot in opposite pairs, whereas sycamore leaves are borne singly, alternating along the shoot

I believe only the English speaking part of Europe refers to Acer pseudoplatanus as "sycamore", and I believe they also call it "London Plane". In Scaninavia the name for maple is "lønn", Acer pseudoplatanus is "platanlønn". In German it is called Ahorn / Bergahorn, or Falsche Platane ("false plane"). I don't speak any of the Latin-derived languages, but google translate suggests names that seem to be closer to the Latin name. That cleared a lot of things up, I'm sure

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Of course you're quite right, Arnt. I remember well my first trip to Oxford in the UK, soon after graduating with my forestry degree in Canada in the 70's. A lecturer there wanted to show me their "sycamore", and I quite pompously corrected him and said, "No, that's a maple". Given the different English common names on both sides of the Atlantic, we were both right. (He knew exactly what he was doing when he baited me, and I fell for it.)
No, that part is not correct. "Plane" trees in Europe are all species of Platanus, never Acer. The name "London plane" usually refers to the hybrid (P. occidentalis x P. orientalis), which is the commonly used horticultural variety used for street planting in Europe.

There's a good reason why we use recognized Latin names when publishing in science -- I also use Latin scientific names in my build records to describe the woods used in my guitars.

Hi Tim, thanks for the correction. I certainly agree that referring to Latin names is a good idea, as illustrated by this discussion

Sent fra min SM-G900F via Tapatalk

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin