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Now, I'll ask this only out of curiosity, I will most likely not bid on that zoot, but: Have a look at this incredibly beautiful piece of redwood.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110494938305&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have never seen quilted redwood before. Could make quite a stunning guitar top. I guess using it as a solid top is out of the question, as it's so heavily figured, flatsawn, and apparently has some minor checks.

BUT: Would you use it for a double top? Just curious whether you think that a structurally sound spruce backer + a top out of this would be enough to make an outrageous looking AND great sounding guitar.

cheers, Christian

That is one pretty piece of redwood though, looks like a Van Gogh painting!

Joe

A friend of mine was helping a neighbor clean out their garage once the husband died. He found 5 boards about 4ft long of 3/4" tounge and groove wood with strange curl on them and offered these to me as he knows I'm a woodworker and might appreciate this. It's very old growth redwood that was made into 8" wide tounge and groove panels for either paneling or flooring. We're guessing that he was installing this paneling and kept the pretty boards for himself to use "someday". We all know about the compulsive need to hoard zoot.

The grain is not quilted as the auction you show. It's curly with large curls every 1-2 inches. The grain has about 45 degree runout when the curl climbs/dives out of the board. There's no possible way that I could cut this thin enough to use as a double top, as it would just fall to pieces. Someday, I'll soak this in west systems epoxy so it will hold together enough to resaw into 3/8" slabs for electric guitar tops. But I don't see how they could be used in an acoustic with this huge amount of runout.

So the curl looks somthing like this?

Very much like that! How thick were those slabs when you sawed them and how thin did you wind up sanding them once you completed the double top? I am assuming that's a double top isn't it?

I did not resaw them I recived them from Hank years ago at .18 thick. I final thickness sanded to .125 " pre bracing and the average final thickness after tunning was arond .118"

I did a double top figured redwood last year. It is well reviewed by all who play it. Below is a thread where I talk about how I accomplished it.
If you know how to voice it and how to determine thickness based on deflection or flex/feel, I strongly recomend the double top.

BTW - Decided to try it base on a beater Washburn beach guitar I had. It was a dread that sounded OK, but the top was laminate or what looked like Formica and spruce. I thought if they could make a dread from Formica that sounded decent, why couldn't I make one with figured redwood.

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=22323&p=307075&hilit=redwood+epoxy+lutz#p307075


This thread shows the final product and has a Youtube link.
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=23108&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=redwood+baritone

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