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Tom Jr. - Posted - 07/29/2008: 07:25:50
I am building a dobro (sorry Gibson, it sounds better than reso) with some local woods. The primary wood is black locust which has very dense properties. Any thoughts on different sounds from different woods. I have seen sycamore, hickory, old submerged swamp wood, and the usuals but never one of black locust.
Don''t squat with your spurs on.
El Dobro - Posted - 07/29/2008: 07:36:40
That's a new one on me. I have four resonator guitars, all constructed the same, but of different woods and each has a slightly different sound to it.
BDC1 - Posted - 07/30/2008: 20:53:48
Yeah different tones for sure, black locust? hmm might be bright like maple
Dobro Dale - Posted - 07/31/2008: 19:21:20
If black locust is anything like honey locust that will be a beautiful guitar. I've never heard of it as an instrument wood and will be really curious to see how it turns out. I have a few honey locust boards in the barn that have been drying out for three years now. So, you got me thinking???
Dale
Tom Jr. - Posted - 08/04/2008: 10:18:59
Black locust wood is very dissimiliar to honey locust. Honey locust is an evil tree with 10" thorns that plays hell with tractor tires and the wood seems to rot on the ground fairly quickly. Black locust grows like weeds for a few years, then slows down and gets very dense. Great for fence posts (fifty years or better) and the wood is a neat green color. Pretty grain too. One more b**ch to bend into a guitar shape. It really likes to stay straight the way God made it.
Don''t squat with your spurs on.
norm bowser - Posted - 08/07/2008: 05:15:28
Has anybody tried a strap button at the neck heel rather than attatching the strap to the headstock? There's obviously a lot ot of stress/pull on the neck with the headstock thing. I already had to re-attatch the neck once..Seems OK now, but maybe a strap button might help? If you have tried this, how did it affect your playing?
norm bowser
hound-doger - Posted - 08/19/2008: 19:19:18
Black Locust is a beautifully grained wood,but like the other fellow mentioned it is a very dense wood that is profoundly straight! I suggest Sassifras if you can find an older one...I have made gun stocks,cabinets and a pal made a Mandolin back and neck from one .It was beautiful and strong and very ,very loud...Other options are old growth apple or pear as they also make beautiful sides and backs on instruments.They too are very hard yet pliable...
Good luck ...
Hound-doger
Hound-doger
Tom Jr. - Posted - 08/21/2008: 06:07:17
I have a bunch of 1" thick sassafrass lining the inside of a small barn. I liked the smell of it as I was cutting it. Another "exotic" I was considering was osage orange-hedge apple. It is used for fence posts much like black locust. When osage orange is burned, it pops and cracks like the 4th of July and you need a good fireplace screen to keep the embers from burning small holes everywhere. The problem is that they rarely grow straight for more than three inches at a stretch. I have my eye on a couple of trees though.
Don''t squat with your spurs on.
Tom Jr. - Posted - 08/21/2008: 06:12:42
I was drilling holes to bolt the neck on last night. The neck block inside the body is walnut, a fairly hard wood and the neck is black locust. As I was drilling through the walnut first and then into the locust, it was like hitting a brick wall. Shavings went from walnut curls to fine locust dust. This stuff is by far the hardest wood I have ever worked with.
On the fine sanding, once you get there the final surface is very smooth.
Don''t squat with your spurs on.
D.L.Huskey - Posted - 08/21/2008: 09:21:23
Tom,
Was the black locust big enough for a 2 piece back or did you have to go with a multi-piece back?
D.L.Huskey
Lookout Mountain, Ga.
Tom Jr. - Posted - 08/21/2008: 13:30:27
Actually, the front is locust, not the back and because of equipment availability and making the wood myself, I used a four piece front with matching knotholes on either side of the coverplate. I just couldn't cut a wide enough piece to do a two piece front.
The back will hopefully be the soundboard for me. My Dad has used this trick with great success in the past. I am using part of a hundred year old Steinway piano soundboard thinned down to guitar proportions (by hand, I would give my left big toe for a thickness sander). The bracing will probably be between a typical guitar back and a soundboard top. The wood is very soft and flexible and needs some support but has a nice tap tone to it. The contrast between an ultra-soft soundboard and ultra-hard sides/top/neck should be interesting. Everything is held together with a piece of birch plywood that has had as much cut away as possible and still be solid.
Don''t squat with your spurs on.
Tom Jr. - Posted - 09/03/2008: 13:29:02
New fingerboard material surfaced over the weekend. I had a nice curly maple fingerboard blank but it was too narrow. I made another maple fretboardof the right dimensions and cut the fret slots and it just didn't have any pizzazz. Took a walk through the barn looking through piles of walnut, maple, cherry, ash, hickory, beech and was wishing I had a chunk of hedge apple (osage orange) and knowing I didn't. There in the back corner leaned a five foot long chunk I had cut three years before for legs for a rustic chair. Chair's loss. I took her down and hacked off the parts that didn't belong and got a bright glowing orange fretboard. Very cool looking! Had to order some black mother-of-pearl for position markers because everything else got lost in all the color.
Don''t squat with your spurs on.
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