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Mud Flaps
10-03-2003, 08:09 PM
I've never seen a bass before with Teak in the ingredients. Which I find odd, because, to my understanding, it is an extremely hard and dense wood. Why isn't Teak used in luthiery?

schuyler
10-04-2003, 12:52 AM
i second this question, as i have an excellent supply of teak, but haven't built any instruments with it yet. knocking the wood seems to have a decent resonance... maybe the high cost is a deterrent? i'd really like to get opinions from those more edu-ma-cated on this. thanks!

JP Basses
10-04-2003, 02:24 AM
My very first bass was all made out of teak. Body, neck and fretboard.

Worked great IMO and I wouldn't mind to use more for bodies.

Peace, JP

FBB Custom
10-04-2003, 10:23 AM
I have a nice piece of curly teak that I can't seem to sell to people. I think probably people are too used to seeing it on boats, and for the price you can generally get a piece of cocobolo with wilder figure. I'm using a piece of the flame teak on a prototype that should be done pretty soon. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

Skorzen
10-04-2003, 12:18 PM
I saw on a site that was actually for flooring they had a rating system for the stability of wood. teak was given a rating of 1(options were 1-3) as the least stable. I don't know how accurate this was but I just thought I would throw it out there.

Mud Flaps
10-06-2003, 11:32 AM
So maybe we (not implying that I am a luthier) can use Teak as a laminate wood. But it's awfully heavy, no? It might not be worth it. But it's certainly beautiful!

FBB Custom
10-06-2003, 04:06 PM
If you like it, use it. Try to get FSC certified teak if you can. It's a heavily taxed species.

It's hard to glue and fairly heavy, but people use wenge and cocobolo, and those two are just as heavy if not more.

OldDawg
10-07-2003, 09:56 PM
I had a custom guitar made with a teak body, ebony fret board, all brass hardware. Boy I never heard a guitar with so much sustain and clarity. But heavy I couldn't believe how much it weighed.