Official Luthiers Forum!

A question was asked in another topic, so I am answering it here.


Ken, yes, that's the place.

I was just down there on Monday (Took a load of wood down and showed them this guitar).

I talked specifically with John about doing tops for folks. Obviously doing one or two tops is kinda a PITA for them, but they can add small batches to a load. There obviously has to be some minimum fee, so I expect that anything under about 10 tops would cost the same total...there is a lot of handling. Right now, I think tops would run about $6 or so each. They do these in stacks of 5 or 6 sets with a "spoiler board" (can be a scrap top piece or something similar) on the top and bottom of the stack, so send something along. Stacks 2 to 3" thick work well. Another option would be to treat uncut billets. 2 to 3" thick billets treat well.

John put a small load of my stuff in yesterday, mostly brace wood, back billets, neck wood and some fingerboard and bridge blanks.







Also some stuff from one of the big companies and a couple of other builders.

I do understand that one of the sponsors here will be sending down a load of tops. I will let him fill in the details, but keep your eyes open.

Any questions, just ask. If I don't know the answer, I can ask John.

Grant

Well, just thought I would post a few photos and comments, since I drove down to Thermowood and picked up my wood this afternoon. One thing that happens during the process is that there is a weight loss, and different species respond differently. I weighed most of the pieces before I took then down, and reweighed some of them tonight.

White spruce brace wood lost an average of 10%

Cocobolo bridge and fingerboard blanks averaged about 12%

Ebony bridge and fingerboard blanks averaged 15%

Honduran rosewood was a bit under 10%

Sapele neck blanks lost almost 20%

Cocobolo really changes....the oils/resins get totally cooked out and much deposits on the surface as a dark colored "varnish-like" deposit. Here is a thermally modified coco bridge blank next to the untreated piece it was cut from


And after a clean-up sanding


And some treated coco fingerboards...the one on the right not sanded


I suspect that the treated wood should glue without a problem
All of the treated bridge blanks "klink" like they are made of glass when you handle a bunch of them.

Another thing that the treatment process does is really make figured woods "pop". Here are some flamed hard maple blanks for laminated necks. This should be wild with a finish.


Just thought I would share, since I am doing a bunch of "experimenting"

Grant