Australian woods for tops

[Bob Connor]

I'm keen to see what some of our local woods will do for guitar tops.

In the last couple of years I've turned up quite a few examples of Australian hardwoods that are in the same ballpark as Spruce weight wise and exhibit similar stiffness characteristics.

I'm going to build these over the next 12 months just to see what sort of results I can get from them.

They'll all be OM's with Blackwood back and sides from the same tree.

I've got some pics below with the starting weights of these tops just so we've got some comparison.

I'll detail final thickness of the tops as they are braced.

There are probably a couple more tops that I need to do, eg Myrtle, King Billy and Blackwood but I've got 6 here and I think that'll keep me busy enough.

Tasmanian Oak from the East Coast of Tasmainia





Huon Pine






Australian Cedar





Bunyah Pine





Celery Top Pine





Sassafras





For reference here is a Carpathian Spruce top. It's slightly lighter but only by 30-40 grams.

[Kim]

Great effort Bob, I am sure we will all be watching the development with great interest and it will teach us all a lot. I understand that mahogany topped guitars can take a notoriously long time to open up, but when they do, they can be truly great sounding guitars. It would be interesting if you could maintain some feedback from these instruments as they continue to develop over the years to see what is the out come in say 5 years time.

Cheers

Kim

[Bob Connor]

I'd love to bring these instruments to Playmakers next year so a few people can have a bash on them.

Interestingly, all of these tops are lighter than the Adi I've been building with recently.

[DarwinStrings]

Any idea what the Tassie oak is Bob?

Jim

[Bob Connor]

Possibly Delegatensis, may be Regnans or Obliqua.

[sebastiaan56]

Kauri Pine? I grabbed a bit of Hancock's a while ago and it made a nice sounding instrument.

[DarwinStrings]

I sort of thought that's why you labeled it Tassie oak but had to ask the question anyway, just to be sure.

Jim

[ap404]

Wow ... a great project Bob - especially with the same backs and sides.

AP

[Steve]

I know that this thread is ancient history, but it's a bit like working your way through a great novel and discovering the last chapter ripped out. Did you ever finish these off Bob?

Steve

[Bob Connor]

They are all sitting there waiting for me to find time to finish them Steve.
The backs and sides have all been thicknessed but I always seem to get diverted into something else.

There are 3 dreads and a couple of O models that are also waiting in the shed in limbo as well. All of them just need a neck but as I change my building methods I sort of lose interest in what I've done in the past.

I do intend to finish those tops some day. I reckon they'd make an interesting comparison especially for guitar builders.

[btjjdb]

Hey Bob, interesting project. When I'd seen some specs on weight/strength info of sassafras I was wondering how it would go as a top. I'd look forward to your findings.

Another Aussie timber I'm curious about is eucalyptus muellerana or Yellow stringy bark. I gave some to TimS last year and he reckons it has a good tap tone. It's fairly light for a hardwood even though it's eastern states specs say it's a lot heavier. I think the WA plantation grown stuff is a bit different than over east. I'd love to have a crack at something like this, like an all Aussie Blackwood guitar.

I await your findings.

Regards

Brenden

[Steve]

No worries Bob, thanks for the update.

Steve

[matthew]

That's a veritable research project; have you thought of trying to get a research grant to finish it? Seriously.

[Bob Connor]

I've just received an Endeavour Award to conduct educational research in Vietnam later this year. Don't think I'd have the time to be applying for research grants for this sort of thing. but I agree that a lot of valuable information could be gleaned from this type of project. Pat Evans at Maton has shown interest.

I was hoping to eventually use them for a presentaion in conjunction with Tony O'Neill who is a handy guitarist here in Melbourne

[matthew]

perhaps you could take on an apprentice to finish them off "under the watchful eye" ...

[Mark McLean]

Hey Bob, congratulations on the award. That is really impressive!

[blazemite]

im sure that there would be lots of newbies willing to be slaves for your wealth of luthiery skills ....hahah if you lived closer to me i would have offered my helping hand and a couple of 6 packs to learn of you ...

[blazemite]

*learn off you, not of

[Kim]

*learn off you, not of

Either way tis sure to challenge ur liver.

Cheers

Kim

[kiwigeo]

perhaps you could take on an apprentice to finish them off "under the watchful eye" ...

(puts hand up)

Bob, I'm up for the job. Ill bring my own packed lunch and I dont mind sleeping in the workshop

[kiwigeo]

perhaps you could take on an apprentice to finish them off "under the watchful eye" ...

I managed to finish a top off on my drum sander a few weeks ago.....it started at 4mm and ended up so thin you could read the newspaper looking through it...

[ozwood]

Hi Bob,

How's this experiment going ?

I'm really keen to hear your findings !

Paul.

[Bob Connor]

Still a work in progress. I'm busy building for other people and as much as I 'd love to get back into this I just don't have time at the moment.

[joolstacho]

Blackwood may seem an unlikely choice as a top wood, but I recently finished a Blackwood top Jumbo -built more or less as an experiment.
Now I've got a customer desperate to buy it. But I don't want to sell it, -sounds too good!
It is a comparatively thin top (2.0 - 2.2mm from memory) and I used Blackwood for the bracing also, with fairly pronounced scalloping.
It's got quite a distinctive tone. Twangy, with lots of sustain.
Give it a try, I've got to do another one now.

-Jools

[Tod Gilding]

Great Project Bob, we must have a lot of species here in Australia that would make great sounboards and we just don't know about them.
I have often wondered about the humble old Norfolk Island Pine.