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I am about to start building a Dred with wenge. Am wondering if someone with wenge experience can provide me with some basic thickness dimensions for back and sides. Any other info, as it relates to bending, finishing etc would be greatly appreciated. Having just resawn an 8/4 plank, I already know that it is splintery and is prone to cracking.

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Under Compensated Nut!

Then you can guess that it doesn't bend easily....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Sounds like a job for ------ "SHAZAM!!"

SuperSoftII

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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.

I've found that it bends very easily. Even tight cutaways have been no problem. I'm using a blanket and tend to bend a bit on the warm side. I finish up with my bending at about 340°F, then lower the temp down to 280° for 20 minutes. Let it return to room temperature, then give it another 20 minutes at 280°, and let it cool. I thickness my wenge sides to about .085". This has worked for me.

M

I've only done one, but had no trouble bending it. Bend at 80-85, back at 90-95. Same as rosewood, more or less...

Wenge is a fantastic wood for acoustic guitars. I too had no trouble bending it... just don't twist it and all will be well. You know it is very crack prone so you'll probably want to put some kind of cross-bracing on the sides. Pore filling may take more applications/time than other woods, other than that it takes finishes just fine.

One of the best sounding guitars I ever built has wenge back and sides... the sides were laminated with padauk each at around .05-.06" which made a very stiff rim. The back was around .10".

Thanks for all the information, folks. I appreciate your time and contribution.

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Under Compensated Nut!

Hasn't been my experience, but then.... I haven't worked with it in 20 years or so.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I recently completed a wenge OM and the new owner is very happy.

As you say it is very prone to cracking and splintering, but it bent for me without issue at around 1.8mm using a home built fox type bender.

I used egg white to pore fill but it took a few sessions to get it level.

Worth the effort IMO

Good luck with your build.

For clarity...

It has a tendency to split/crack with the grain not against it. It does make an excellent sounding instrument.

M

after a dread and a parlor, found it did not bend well, flexed it to allow it to crack in the weak spots, repaired the cracks, epoxy pore filled 4x, still had little pits, drop filled those with nitro, had shink back of the drop fills over time, and tonally it was no better than EIR or coco. not worth all the hastle for me unless a customer specifically wanted it. then id have to upcharge for all the extra effort required. maybe the slab i had was worse than other wenge, but im kind of put off by it.

I'm in this camp. If you have any faith in tap tone it rings like a gong. Only bent one side set with no problem but bent lots of bindings and appointments with no problem. Might depend upon runout if you find it problematic. IMHO makes a great guitar but owwww the pores. I can't think of a more porous wood.

I bent a set of .085" wenge bindings a couple of days ago with no problem. I spritzed some water, wiped it with paper towel, and wrapped it in brown paper. Started the bend at 250F, finished at 315F, and let it bake at 315F for about 10 minutes.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Keep some tweezers nearby,
for da splinters.

I had one in my thumb yesterday that was almost 3/8" long! Feels like it's still in there.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks again for all the input, folks.

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Under Compensated Nut!

I've only built one Wenge Guitar, it bent easily, finished beautifully (after a marathon pore fill) and sounded great.. I'm going to do another for sure! Also I did not have many issues with splinters but maybe I was just lucky.. I like the wood.. Oh and yes it does crack along the grain lines but it is usually clean and easy to repair.

Kerry

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My Website http://klw-strings.com
My Luthier's Blog...http://klwstrings.blogspot.com

It does make nice boxes, too. Made this from offcuts... Traditional pumice pore fill technique and then french polished.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Here in Guitar Hell (New England) everybody I know that's used it has been unhappy: they've all cracked.

Alan, are you referring to the tendency for you to experience wide swings in RH in your neck of the woods?

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

SteveCourtwright asked:
"Alan, are you referring to the tendency for you to experience wide swings in RH in your neck of the woods?"

Wide indeed, along with frequent and rapid. Something like 2/3 to 3/4 of all the storm systems that hit anywhere within the continental Us eventually come through New England, so the weather is always changing. It is, as Mark Twain remarked, one of the glories of the place, but it comes with costs. There are very few days, usually in the spring and fall, when I can dispense with the humidifier or dehumidifier, and just open the shop windows.