Official Luthiers Forum!

Great looking guitar Rob.

I can't quite decide what you used for a top. It's the color of cedar but looks more like sitka.

The more I look at it the more it looks like cedar.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

That looks like a western red cedar top and cherry binding to me

I've got to get me some ziricote as I have been seeing so many guitars made of it and in pictures alone it's becoming my most favorite looking wood. Incredible stuff! I like the look of the mahogany bindings with it very much. I think you are right to say that anything will go with it.

Rob, IIRC, you used Morado (aka Pau Ferro) for bindings on your guitar. Alan always seems to have plenty of it around and it goes with just about everything.

Matt

Guitar #1 for me was Ziricote/WRC with curly maple bindings. It looked really nice.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I do like Pau Ferro also. I have used a bunch of it.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Here's a ziricote / sinker redwood one I did, it has side cutoffs for bindings.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

That's a beauty Arnt. The cut offs look great ! Love the rosette and the look of the guitar. Very well done !!!

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Thanks Matt... I believe you are correct. Morado sounds right.

Joe/James... the top is "lucky strike" Redwood. Went whole-hog on the first one.

I have not finished it yet, but I was struggling between choosing ebony and Koa for my binding on a Zircote guitar I am working on. Luckily I found that Gurian Instruments has ebony bindings with Koa purflings. In between the dark woods the Koa is a brilliant color when wet. I am excited to see how it turns out.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

John, that is going to be a beauty!!! And it even has a venetian cutaway! I would never have the nerve to try that on such expensive wood.

I would love to know how you did the bending. Iron or form? How much heat, did you use water and how much? Maybe SSII? Any insight you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Thanks, This might be more information than you wanted but since I had it available. It was a client that picked out the wood and the style so I thought I would try. I know the the wood is supposedly real brittle and hard to bend.

I decided that I was first going to see if I could bend the tight Venetian cut away this the guitar design has. To increase my chances I used almost all the tricks to bend brittle wood.

The first was a new suggestion from some forum. Wash one side of each side with naptha; turn the board over and mark where the naptha comes through. This seems to be a brilliant idea as it will highlight any existing cracks. Then on wax paper flood the marked areas with thin CA.







The sides were thinned to about 2 mm or .080" and then starting a bit above the waist I used a scraper to take the area in the Venetian cutaway to .070"



I spritzed the sides with super soft II and let them sit over night.



while warming the sides in my fox style bender to about 300 degrees I used a heat gun to warm the inside of the Venetian cutaway.



After all of that the bending was uneventful and I had very little spring back. In the last picture you can see it in the mold with no clamps.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Wow, John that is good stuff. That bend does look pretty tight. Thanks for posting!!!

I've only done a couple venetians but both were EIR, but then it is one of the easiest woods to bend.

One question, before you started the bend did you spray the side with water?

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

No, but they were still moist with super soft. I have found that when I am bending brittle stuff, that too much moisture works against me. Water tends to want to stay at 220 degrees. I learned on a bending pipe some of the woods wants to bend real hot and water turning into steam kept the wood cooler than I want it.

I bent the ebony binding in the picture on a bending iron at full temperature, with a very light spritz of water to help to start the heat conduction. At the very hot temperature I was able to easily get the tight bends.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

John, thanks for sharing the techniques you used.
I see you used paper in the sandwich, did you wet/dampen the paper at all?

_________________
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 did not dampen the paper in this case. The paper I used was kitchen type parchment paper.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Love this thread, it should be renamed "Guitar Porn"

_________________
Say what you do, Do what you say.

So many beautiful guitars, so little time....

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust