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The school I teach at offers a bench building class and there are always tons of European beech, some highly figured like flamed maple.
One day I decided to try some for bindings. I laminate a piece of maple and a dark Brazilian wood called Louro Preto for purflings. I was a bit concerned cause I decided to put these on a florentine cutaway. As you can see the results look good and the stuff bent like butter. I usually thin the stuff down around the cutaway areas but even with purflings strips glued to the bottom it bent easily.
This stuff will really pop once the finish goes on.

   

Man, that is one nice looking box Robbie!

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

HI ROBBIE,
WOW...THAT'S REALLY NICE. THE PURFLING GOES WELL WTH THE REST OF THE WOOD NICELY.
GOOD JOB BROTHER.
WHERE CAN WE GET SOME OF THE BEECHWOOD?

Thanks, Walter

I like the way you put a binding around the accidental hammer hole in the side. Very clever.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thanks for the compliments. I really liked working with the European beech and the purflings really dressed it up nicely...simple but elegant.
I am lucky to have a good source for the wood as the stuff I grab is the scraps from the bench building class. I think any good lumber supply place or even some of our sponsors might have some. If you slice it just right you really get the figured grain. If anyone can't find it let me know and next semester I will try and grab some more.

[QUOTE=Don Williams] I like the way you put a binding around the accidental hammer hole in the side. Very clever.[/QUOTE]

I think it would have just been easier to put a hammer through the side of it. Binding the soundport gave me a run for the money.

Robbie,
I agree--that really is a pretty guitar.
I like everything about it.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Robbie, did you bind it pre-bend or post-bend? I've done it both ways and find that if you bind it flat and then bend the whole thing, it's much easier. One word of warning if you do it this way is that the binding wants to pull away from the "sharper" ends of the oval when bending. So I've made a plug that goes in and hold it all tight while bending.

Paul, I actually bound the soundport after bending. I like your ideas on doing it pre-bend and plugging it. I might try that next time. Thanks for the idea.