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so my daughter ( 3 1/2 years old) wants a pink guitar:) ... Since building a Brazilian tulipwood or pink Ivory guitar for a child is out of the question, which wood would you guys advise me to use? I'm looking for a light red wood that won't turn brown too quickly. Padauk is more of an orange hue and fades away fast. Red heart (chakte Kok)? Bloodwood? Any other?

And please don't tell me to dye it pink ... :p


Thanks,
Miguel.

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Allied has a few sets of Pink Gum left.

How about using maple and dye the wood during finish?

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Guitar-Luthier- ... 1239156605

I have a nice selection of redheart sets like these. It stays fairly red/pink.

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
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Curly maple, dye it pink. I know, you told me not to tell you....
If you don't want to spend a lot for the materials (I don't blame you), curly maple dyed pink, will give the effect she wants and a decent shot at a good sounding instrument.

Purple heart is easy work with. I just finished up a Soprano Ukulele for my daughter. It might be a tad dark but you could see if she'll go for it.

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You can use lots of different woods and either dye them, as has been stated, or you can stain darker woods to bring out a red tone. Or you can spray a true red in your top coats. You have lots of options.

Canary wood
Pau rosa
Box elder
Macacauba

_________________
John

How about bubinga?
It's fairly cheap and a bit on the darkish pink side.

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Sen CL Goh
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Thanks for the replies, you got to love this place. Amongst the woods I can get locally (Sorry aaron...) it might be worth to try Purple Heart or bubinga. At least they're cheap if colour is off.

Macacauba I have some and mine is more of a red brown. John, which pau Ross are you referring to? African or Brazilian?

Btw, is blood wood as hard to bend as I've heard?


Best,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Never bent blood wood sides but the blood wood binding i have used bent very easily.


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I think if a small child wants "pink", you ought to show her the dull red wood you plan to use and see if it satisfies her definition of "pink".

Also, she possibly doesn't even know what "pink" means.

Yes, it can be very difficult to bend. I've done two bloodwood guitars, and had trouble with both sets of sides.
It has to be really thin, I think I went to .06" on the last one. Here's a link to the build thread.
viewtopic.php?f=10133&t=37283

I think bloodwood is too red, I'll have to agree some curly maple with a pink stain would be most likely to please a little girl.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

First Act.
Done.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Curly Cherry??

Yeah, I can imagine a little girl not quite buying that some slightly pinkish brown wood is pink. Then again, she might not really care that much until she is 5 or so...

The most child pleasing result might be had by simply spraying with opaque pink lacquer... Sorry, but someone had to say it... Bonus points for sparkles and unicorns...

Perhaps you could avoid luthier purgatory by compromising with pale maple etc and a rose tinted glaze coat.

Well, Hesh paints them black and people love them. I like the idea of sparkle, too. Years ago a friend who is an auto body repairman sprayed a solid body black for my son. The black actually had subtle sparkle in it. I am sure at one time abalone was considered outlandish, but now it's the best. So give the kid what she will like.

My favorite electric guitar is an old beater brownburst Danelectro/Silvertone with a few sparkles tossed into the clear coat. My neighbor's 4 year old girl really likes this guitar...

Go to ebay and do a search for pink guitar.

I understand as my grandson will be turning four. His guitar will be a very light blue on the top and a lite red back and sides. I'll use maple and make stain for the colors.


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I think that Canarywood is very beautiful. Stripes of yellow, pink red.

now, this has flourished into quite an entertaining thread... believe me, the little girl knows pink well, all her god dang wardrobe is dang pink (thanks mummy) ... but, most importantly, her loving father is stubborn about getting the thing done in some fancy colored wood, go figure...

nice tip about tinting the varnsih... up until now i´ve only used pale/blonde shellac - do you think raw buttonlac over maple would work or i should add a dye and double my pain? but i digress, i´ll probably just resaw some Brazilian tulipwood fingerboards into small backs and sides, it should provide the desired kick to both of us.

thanks all.
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

pink ivory: http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-ide ... ink-ivory/

The problem with red/ruby/garnet shellac is that it is dichroic. It is yellow/amber when thin, and goes red as it gets thicker. Unfortunately I think the end result would look more like an old red violin than 'pink'.

So yeah, double your pain and use some dye... If you want to keep it organic, you could tint your glaze coats with rose madder. IIRC it is alcohol soluble.