Official Luthiers Forum!

Does anyone have experience with Pear wood? Would it make good Top material?

I have a current build " mandola" that is cherry and shaped like a pear , and woundered about pear as a tone wood for a top . bad idea ? good idea ? dumb idea? never tried idea ?

_________________
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/

As a top for a acoustic? I have never built or heard one, but I bet it would be very quiet, as pear is a hard, dense wood. I've heard some birch and maple topped acoustics, woods which are about as dense as pear, and to my ear they were quite unimpressive, at least as far as volume goes. Turners and carvers love pear, it is homogeneous, doesn't split easily and is without pores. I think old lutes sometimes had pear staves in their bowl bodies (not tops) and bridges, and for backs and sides for an acoustic guitar I'm sure it could work fine.

Here's a recent mandola I made, I've shown the pictures before, but what the heck. It has a pear FB, headplate, bridge and appointments.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thanks arnt . So , its really to hard for a good ring tone top wood . That unit looks beautifull btw.

_________________
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/

James-
I used (steamed, commercial) pear wood a few times (not for guitars) and I think of it as being in the beech/cherry range for hardness and workability.
I'd certainly consider it for back/sides for a guitar. My feeling is that if you want your project to sound like a familiar guitar, you should stick with the 'usual suspects' for top woods.
Do you have access to air-dried pear, or the usual steamed stuff? (the latter has a much more uniform color; I don't know if the steaming affects the bending qualities of the wood.)

Cheers
John

Pear wood is quite commonly used by British builders. One builder who comes to mind is is David Reid (http://www.darluthier.com/guitars.php) who is trying not to use more unusual and more indigenous woods to the UK. He uses pear and apple wood for his Vault Backs especially. However, I haven't seen it used as a top.