Official Luthiers Forum!

Make no mistake, curly maple purfling is sexy.

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Pat

I've never liked backstrips on top of sapwood. The sapwood is already like a backstrip, but better because the edges aren't perfectly straight. Adding a straight line to it wastes the effect.

Here's curly Aus Blackwood binding on EIR.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

On my "contemporary" looking guitars, I usually like to use the "self" bindings that have been mentioned already (cutoffs from sides), separated by a single contrasting purfling line. On the more traditional ones I like to use celluloid, here's a coco dread with ivoroid bindings, and no purfling on the back or sides. I agree that you should skip the back strip if there is lighter sap wood in the center, too busy visually for my taste anyways.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I bought 20 or so pieces of the curly eucalyptus from Bob at RC Tonewoods. It was several years ago. I think the wood came from Australia. The Australian blackwood that Trevor posted or curly maple would be very close.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust