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Anyone used this? How does it sound compared to WRC or spruce? I have a nice stiff, tight grained set and wondered what to pair it up with. I have EI rosewood, Madagascar rosewood, Cocobolo, Andaman vermillion Padauk, American black walnut, English walnut and Mahogany.

Any Ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Bill S.

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Dream to be a luthier

I've only used it for backs and sides, where the comparison is to Mediterranean Cypress :^). I like it fine for building flamenco blancas.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I have use it for Flamenco B& sides
The samples I tested were similar in stiffness to englemann but about 18% denser.
That would turn me off using it for a soundboard.

Have used it for 1 tenor uke top thinned down to 1.7mm-1.9mm..Glued up abt 5 backs using yellow cedar.One can get different results depending on how the back is thinned either 2.5 or 2mm . the thinner 2mm back will probably give more volume especially if using the Marcelo Barbero flamenco plan. I also will be using it as an inside piece for a laminated side.

I have used it on several of my Rubicon models (jumbos). You can see one in the LMI catalog on the Alaskan Cedar page. The body is koa and it is an awesome guitar. It lives with a good friend of mine, Steve Hawkins, in Portland. He's a DADGAD player and the guitar just sings in the open tuning...rich bass, clear trebles and a real full tone and sustain. I think it has more headroom that WRC and I even flatpicked it a few times before it went to Steve after the 2009 Healdsburg Festival. You can hear a couple of tunes from that guitar on the Artists page of my website...but hurry, the website will go away mid September.

If you don't have koa, I'd go with a wood in the koa density range...California black (Claro) walnut comes to mind first. If you're looking for California walnut, let me know. I have a good number of sets that are going in the "shop cleaning" sale.

Hank

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Hank Mauel

Ernie,

The flamenco back thickness thing is an interesting topic (at least since I just glued the back on my first flamenco, inspired from the 51 Barbero). I made it about 2.5mm thick, which is similar to what the plan asks for. I've been chatting with a more experienced maker and he said he made his first few flamencos with a 2mm back which did give an explosive sound, but later he went to thicker and he liked them better, as in more focused and more powerful. I guess it really depends on what sort of flamenco guitar you want, an accompaniment one (very light and explosive) or a solo one (a bit heavier, a wee bit more classical) Since my customer asked for the solo sort, it was an easy choice to go thicker. Plus that thinning the back later is possible, putting back the wood isn't.

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