Official Luthiers Forum!

I was going thru scraps at work today and found some bamboo. Very hard and dense stuff. I wondered if it would work well as a fret board. Sure is pretty.

Dave,
Is that the plyboo stuff ? In my experience bamboo is not the most stable stuff. Hard to work with, nasty splinters. I have used bamboo flooring, plyboo in several thicknesses and built bamboo flyrods. You are right, it is pretty and hard.
Link

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Yes it is the plyboo. It came in 4'x8' sheets and we built some cabinetry with it. There are 3 plies, the two outer plies, or face plies, are 1/4" thick with a 1/4" core ply. I was thinking I could resaw a 2 1/2" piece and run the two halves thru the sander and remove most of the core ply from the backs and have a couple of 1/4" thick pieces for fret boards. I can picture a dragon inlay in it, or maybe a beautiful Asian woman in traditional costume.
You're right about splinters from this stuff, they definitely give white oak and pecan splinters a run for the money.

White oak and pecan, kids stuff !
The worst is Wenge. Take Western Red Cedar and a metal splinter , old dry Doug Fir, combine them and you have
Wenge.
Dave, Ply boo comes in 1/4" sheets but I know you want to use what is on hand.

You can try it. Two things come to mind. One is I bet it takes off on you but maybe not, give it a try. Two I wonder about the integrity of the edge joints once the top layer is free from the middle layer. Might be fine. No reason why it shouldn't as far as the material goes. Bamboo glues fairly well but when they put that stuff together they might be counting on the middle layer to help hold things together. Now you have me curious. I have some left overs in my shop I might saw up to check it out. The stuff is great for instant cutting boards. Just saw to size, round over the edges and Bob's your uncle. They last a lot longer if you impregnate the end grain with epoxy. Put some laminating epoxy on it and heat with a hair dryer, sucks right in. Actually this feature of the end grain is what makes the stuff a little reactive to changes in humidity.
Link

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I ran a 1/8" wide sliver of western cedar up under my right thumb nail once. That was over 25 years ago and I still cringe remembering the awesome pain.

How do you propose to radius the fretboard. Seems like it will expose and feather the strands that make up the bamboo. Of course, maybe the entire slab is impregnated with resin which would consolidate the entire fibrous structure. I have seen that done with soft structured woods, such as spalted maple. Makes a beautiful fingerboard and the resin makes it a really hard and slick fingerboard.

I think you would definitely have to bind the edges with a traditional hardwood

Anyway, bamboo is really a grass and as such has an entirely different cellular/grain makeup than a "real" tree. That's why you don't see it in 2x4 framing studs.

_________________
Hank Mauel

Hank, That isn't a problem with bamboo. It has it own structure that holds it all together. The thined down areas on the edges of the board would be have the same integrity as the middle area.
L.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Also, Hank, we built some cabinetry out of bamboo ply and we worked it as though it was wood. I made face frames with mortise and tennon joints and ran the frames thru our wide belt sander. We finish sanded with neumatic orbital sanders with 180 grit and broke the edges as any other wood we use and it all turned out gorgeous.
I would radius the prospective bamboo fret board with a sanding block, being very careful of splintering on the edges. I thought a black binding around it would set it off nicely.
Tomorrow I plan to sand a board down as I described in previous post and the drop it onto it's corner on the concrete floor. I'm curious to see if all those 1/4"x1/4" slats will stay together. Then, I'm thinking, I would like to subject it to moisture and see if it comes apart.
I will watch it closely as I sand it and see if it stays flat or not. Stay tuned. If this stuff stays true I am going to slot it and see what happens shoving wire into it.

Can you post a photo of this stuff?
Is the face that you are going to use a "flat slab" or does it consist of laminated pieces? I'm confused when you say 1/4 x 1/4 slats as that sounds like it would have a "butcher block" laminated look or like a good wood workers bench top. It's certainly not cut like a wood veneered cabinet plywood where the "money" wood is peeled off the log and laminated to the core.

As for fret tangs, I'd think you would want to glue them in instead of relying in the fiberous bamboo to grip them firmly/long term.

_________________
Hank Mauel

Hank, This bamboo sheet was made from binding long 1/4"x1/4" sticks together in "butcher block" manner. There are three layers of these.The middle layer runs at right angle in plywood fasion. We got this delivered to the shop in either 4'x8' or 5'x8' sheets, I can't recall right now.
Bamboo is as hard as a rock and has a nice ring when tapped with a hammer.
I will try to have a photo of some of this posted tomorrow evening. My son has a decent digital camera I can use.

I tested this bamboo today and found it is some pretty cool material. I don't yet know what was used to bond these strips together, but what ever it is it is good. I can't break it apart. I soaked a small piece in the humidity chamber, a sink filled with water, for an hour. When I removed and towel dried it I checked for any swelling with calipers and the piece measured the same as before the wet test. Not only that, but the piece was nearly fully dry in a half hour. Even after it's soaking it would not break apart. The water didn't even noticeably raise the grain, it was still as smooth as I had sanded it. I know I'm novice at wooden instrument building, but I can't find fault with this bamboo being used as a fret board.
I'm unable to it at the moment, but I will try and get a photo of what I have with me on a post this evening.

I tried ordering some of that "Cali-Bamboo" (seems its big on the left coast)

I want to run some through the thicknessing sander. I think it might make an interesting body material. Somebody is already building guitars with it...

Mike

I thought a piece of this would work nicely as the top of a semi-hallow electric, like a Tele style maybe. Today I was trying to break a thin piece and it took a lot of force. It bent a lot before it gave.

It's also hollow so thats why there is no natural non-man made bamboo lumber.

I think in Hong Kong they use bamboo as scaffolding material. They simply take pieces of bamboo and tie it together with some kind of string and the thing holds up pretty well. In China (at least back in the day) they got houses made entirely out of bamboo. The good thing about bamboo is that they grow very fast, takes very little time to get bamboo to grow to usable size, and the bamboo shoots (what a bamboo looks like when they are young) makes good food too. It's one of those things that gets used a LOT in China. The reason we don't see bamboo 2x4's is because we're used to using pine or fir for those. I am sure if bamboo were processed into a 2x4 (it would have to be in plys) it should be much stronger than pine or fir 2x4's.

_________________
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

How about a Bamboo Guitar A Yamaha FGB1
The head laminate is Rosewood. I thought that was a wrong choice. I think its a laminated Yamaha

Well, it's obvious to me I am not the only one interested in guitar who sees the possibilities of bamboo. I wonder how many other of my ideas aren't original?
I think bamboo makes for a beautiful guitar. I wonder how it sounds in an accoustic. Bamboo is such a versitile substance.

I was watching a TV show where a guy was making bicycle frames out of the stuff...

_________________
Jim Hansen

Calfee has been building bamboo bikes for quite a few years:
http://www.calfeedesign.com/bamboo.htm

i seen one of these before second hand in a local music store. I thought it was ugly and still do. Reminds me of flooring for some reason. It didn't sound to good either.

I don't see how that Yamaha, with a bamboo top, could sound very good. Seems to me it would be like using rosewood for the top of a rosewood bodied guitar. I'm willing to bet a spruce or cedar top would sound pretty nice on a bamboo body.