Archive for the ‘Malasian Blackwood Cutaway (SP3)’ Category

Once the sides have been bent and placed into the mould, the tail and heal blocks are stuck in place and then they ( the sides) must be cut down to the desired hight. That hight is determined by your plan. I stress your plan, as it is at this stage of construction that you may want to make changes to the depth of your box, as I have done with the instrument in”PS3″, as I have made the box a little deeper, than found in the more traditional OM. I mark the desired hight on the sides... Read More

  The next phase is bending the sides of the Guitar.   The sides came as a part of the set and are generally book-matched from the same timber as the back. Traditionally the sides are bent on an Heated Iron and this method is still used to day by some Luthiers. I prefer to use the Fox Universal  Side Bending Machine, sold by LMI and found at p110 of their catalogue ( click on LMI and the link will take you directly to the page on the Web). This Machine was originally designed by... Read More

    I wanted a tasteful back-strip set into the back, to set off this lovely Blackwood back. Above is a picture of the back with the strip routed to depth, exactly down the centre of the back of the blackwood. The back would be Routed and the selected strip glued into place. The back with its “New” strip would be sanded to the same thickness. I decided that I wanted a Marquetry Back-strip and for me, the choice was between LMI’s”Chevron” (B16B) and one of LMI’s... Read More

  I have a number of sets of Premium Grade Malaysian Backwood.       The overall coloring of the Timber, is in my opinion very similar to Ziricote , with black and dark grey colors, highlighted by subtle reddish browns and or green Hues. Blackwood is denser tham most Rosewood, but that’s not suprising as Malyasian Blackwood is not a true Rosewood. Blackwood  has a sustaining ,glassy taptone not unlike African Blackwood (which is a true Rosewood). All in all, it is a Premium Tone wood... Read More