bris48 - Posted - 03/09/2009:  16:44:36

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OK
I need some info about Sycamore as a tone wood for a reso
Any takers.............
It really has unique grain very neat looking


RedLine Resohead

Tom Jr. - Posted - 03/09/2009:  17:19:32

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I have played a couple sycamore dobros and guitars and they sound surpisingly good. Carol Benoit down Louisiana way brought some up to IBMA a couple times and he makes a beautiful dobro. My long held feeling is that the denser the wood, the heavier it is, the better it is. Sycamore is very light, sort of porous-pithy water loving tree, nearly impossible to split for firewood and I used to think it was generally worthless. A few years ago, I bought some roughsawn miscellaneous lumber 8-12" wide to line my office and there was a lot of sycamore. It is does have a beautiful grain, holds together well, seems hard to the touch in comparison to the soft poplar and hard maple in the same wall.
I don't think you will get a warm tone like walnut, and I don't think you can expect a bright tone like maple but sycamore will give you a unique sound that just may be right up your alley. I don't know how to describe the tone but it can work out well as a tonewood.

Don''t squat with your spurs on.

axeslingincowboy - Posted - 03/10/2009:  08:05:40

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All I know is that I'm sick of raking all the sycamore leaves out of my yard every winter. Feel free to come to Florida and cut 'em down. And bring a rambler with you!

Dobro playin'' mofo.

Steevarino - Posted - 03/10/2009:  09:14:47

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Hi Bobby B. --

I was just sent some Carpathian spruce to make a guitar top out of, and the supplier protected it during shipping with some nice looking sycamore. I am keeping real busy these days making flat, Army/Navy style mandolins. In fact, I am currently in the middle of an "experiment" where I am using several wood species for backs and sides, and a few different types of spruce for the tops. I was thinking of taking this sycamore "packing material" and making a flat mandolin out of it. Not enough there to make a reso. guitar out of, or I would go that way, you know....

Steevarino
RedLIneResophonics.com
CumberlandAcoustic.com

Philsweep - Posted - 03/10/2009:  13:10:52

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Ibanez makes or made a guitar with a sycamore top AEG20E on the low end and on the high end I believe Santa Cruz had made a guitar using sycamore.
Phil

Square Neck - Posted - 03/10/2009:  14:24:43

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FWIW.....

Anyone that is going to work with Sycamore should beware.

The dust resulting from working it plays hell with your lungs.

I have cut down and chipped up more than a few. I have seen guys coughing so much that they pucked. It produces very fine filaments that get tangled in your bronchials. It is the only type of tree that I have seen that does this from a wood chipper. I could only imagine what a belt sander would do.

bris48 - Posted - 03/10/2009:  16:22:55

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Thanks All of you
for the info
Hey Steve - where did the Green Rambler you had at SPBGMA
go it was a KILLER..
Thanks again for all the input

RedLine Resohead

Steevarino - Posted - 03/29/2009:  21:27:32

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Hey Bobby --

I'm not sure where that Green-to-Black Burst Beauty went, because I got some help selling this one, but I think it wound up somewhere down in Alabama. Maybe Georgia. It will turn some heads, wherever it went, that is for sure....

Steevarino
RedLIneResophonics.com
CumberlandAcoustic.com

dobrocop1 - Posted - 01/29/2010:  08:03:54

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i have an irish Sycamore 7 string custom, built by a good friend guitar builder,.i think it sounds great , i have recorded a lot with this Howard resonator,.dobrocop.

bris48 - Posted - 01/29/2010:  15:47:40

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you got any pictures or sound bites?

Grizz - Posted - 01/29/2010:  16:45:13

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Hey Bobby, quit stutterin, quit stutterin, quit stutterin Mike

bris48 - Posted - 01/29/2010:  16:54:52

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Hey Grizz,
Sorry
It is cold here and about 5 inches of snow....
Been snowing all day since 1

Dean Upson - Posted - 01/29/2010:  17:03:25

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I've played a mountain dulcimer made from sycamore and it had a pleasing sound to it. Snowed about 5" yesterday in about 2 hours and then the bottom fell out of the thermometer. I am just loving the global warming.
Dean

Grizz - Posted - 01/29/2010:  19:29:07

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You guys can both keep the snow there. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT send it here.
Bobby, I hope you know i was only kidding. I always have been a clown. I have been wondering where the global warming is myself and just when the hell it's going to get here. You both take care and have a great weekend. Mike

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Edited by - Grizz on 01/29/2010 19:34:45

dobrocop1 - Posted - 01/30/2010:  08:43:51

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quote:

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Originally posted by bris48

you got any pictures or sound bites?

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Hi Bris48 ,. this is something i have to get to grips with ,its prob quite simple but i will check out how to set up photos and video, and my digital camcorder is very bad quality,. but will soon be getting a new and hopefully better camcorder soom,.so will do then.cheers.

eastmountain - Posted - 02/04/2010:  15:45:29

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From the Heretics Guide to Alternative Lutherie Woods, by John Caulkin:
"Sycamore. A sycamore 34" across the butt fell over outside my New Jersey shop. I had it milled up, and for a while I had sycamore lumber up the wazoo, with enough quartered stock for a boatload of instruments. Quartered sycamore displays a prominent lace pattern of pink on cream, or, most commonly, light brown on cream. The wood is soft enough that a tree can be ripped up for resawing with a chain saw, a task that would be unbearable with oak or walnut. The wood has no pores, but somehow encourages a rough finish, more like spruce than a hardwood. It feels and handles like the softest varieties of mahogany and makes into a very light guitar. Don't confuse American sycamore with English sycamore, which is a true maple. Quartered American sycamore is cherished as a cabinetwood in Europe, where it is called plane lacewood, but it gets no respect for anything in America. Sycamore splits readily, and the infested wood makes wild looking instruments. If this soft and floppy American cardboard makes into a fine guitar--and it does--any wood will."

Dean Upson - Posted - 02/04/2010:  16:32:28

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Thanks for that information. I did a search and found the article and found it fascinating here is the link for anyone interested: guitarnation.com/articles/calkin.htm

Dean

eastmountain - Posted - 02/05/2010:  11:50:21

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Grizz - Posted - 02/05/2010:  11:59:37

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WOW!!!! The most unique wood I have ever seen. I like it! The neck looks really cool. Kind of reminds me of a leopard or cheetah skin look.
Mike

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Edited by - Grizz on 02/05/2010 12:03:40

benspinks - Posted - 02/05/2010:  12:11:49

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Looks great!

They just forgot to make the neck square

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Edited by - benspinks on 02/05/2010 12:12:07

bris48 - Posted - 02/05/2010:  12:12:29

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WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice picture, Awesome figuring
I might have to investigate the sound of this animal.
(any sound bites)
I already know where a good luthier is that has
worked with Sycamor and actually built a Flat top guitar..

Dean Upson - Posted - 02/05/2010:  12:27:55

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Awesome picture

Dean

Grizz - Posted - 02/05/2010:  12:51:04

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Ben, I didn't catch that. But then again I have never been that fast on the uptake.