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I started a Black Limba acoustic just because it had a pretty grain pattern. After I had the blocks glued to the rim, I bumped it against the table while moving it. I split and splintered such that I won’t be repairing it. On closer inspection, it was apparent that this wood doesn’t have much strength in the thicknesses we build with. I started to worry about the longevity of the completed guitar. Does anyone have any experience building acoustics with this wood? Is it strong enough in a completed guitar? I can get more sides and continue, but I wonder if I should. I don’t want to set a guitar loose that will crumble if it’s handled roughly.

This one was going to be one of my named series. (“Korina, Korina”)

Taylor and Larivee, among others, have used black limba for acoustic guitars. Taylor has used it on multiple models. So maybe it was that particular piece of wood that was problematic.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I’ve made a dozen or so with it without issue. It is very soft and light, and easy to dent. You can even crush the faceplate by tightening the tuner grommets too much. Very much in the warn spectrum tonally…

Thank you. I will continue, then. First, I will get some more sides.

I've built two with Black Limba, an OM and a OO. The OM was my first build, now 2 years old, and has had zero issues. It's not perfect, but that's definitely not the wood's fault! I actually really like the way it sounds. My 8th, just finished last month, is a OO I built to give my daughter for graduating high school. I had it on my bench while I attached the neck, and a shall-not-be-named member of my family bumped it. It fell, and the bass side split from the neck to the tail. The split was easy to cleat and seal (I was actually pretty happy with the repair job...my first of that nature), and I feel certain my failure to add side reinforcing strips of cloth (as I normally do) contributed to the length of the crack, so again, probably not the wood's fault?

That was a long way of saying I, a newb, like it and would definitely use it again.

I've heard said it's a drop in replacement for Mahogany and can make a really nice good sounding guitar.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

That is a BEAUTIFUL back!

Neck was quite nice too.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Black limba is an excellent tonewood! I’ve used it in two instruments so far with great results and I plan on building many more with it. As Colin already noted, I’ve found it to be a drop in substitute for mahogany in both tonal qualities and workability. Pricewise, it’s on the lower end of the spectrum as well. I’m finding the price of a back and side set to be in the $100-150 range, but if you have resaw capability the lumber is available much cheaper - I bought a beautiful board for $100 last year that should yield 5 or 6 guitar sets.

The D-18 I built is about 4 years old now and has developed into a powerful flatpicking guitar with the same quick attack and decay you’ll get from a good mahogany dreadnought. The weissenborn is a little over 2 years old and has a warm, woody tone that just sounds so sweet when played with the steel slide.

When building my weissenborn, I didn’t have a side mold for my bending machine and attempted to bend by hand on the hot pipe. Under the advice of a friend, I soaked the sides for a few minutes before bending and developed deep rippling across the grain that rendered the sides unusable. I made a mold and bent my second set on the bender with a light spritz of water on the wood and the paper envelope and the results were perfect. Sample size of one, but it would seem that bending on the dryer side yields better results.







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Sorry for the repeat pics in the last post, not sure how that occurred!


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I got to hear / play the weissenborn a couple years ago. It sounded great!

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Zac, both of those are beautiful instruments! Well done!

I had a nightmare of a time bending my first set of Black Limba on my very first build, but had no trouble at all with the most recent. I went with a spritz of water on the side, (slat-aluminium foil-side-aluminium foil-blanket-slat) and they bent like a dream. My first guitar has a black limba neck and it's held up nicely.

I am glad to hear all of these positive statements about Black Limba. I’ve obtained another set—the new one looks even better than the side I broke. I think I have a plank coming from which I can cut new sides, so I’ll end up with two Black Limba guitars. StewMac had some neck planks for sale, so I’ll have matching neck wood as well. I look forward to continuing on this guitar. Thank you to all.

This is a Black Limba 28” Baritone Multi-scale

Nice one Michael, what scale length did you use?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

28” over 26-1/2”

That is beautiful! Did you use Wenge for the neck?

Thanks!

No, it’s ebonized sapele.

I've got a few 8/4 boards of Limba, but I haven't resawed any back and side sets yet. I bought these a few years ago on the recommendation of Tim McKnight. He's used it many times and says it's ideal replacement for Mahogany. Black Limba and White Limba come from the same tree, it's just cosmetic.

Yes, cosmetic, but seem to be spalting. In some places mine was very soft requiring CA to firm it up for finishing as it just kept soaking up the finish like a sponge.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.