Recent content by Zach Ehley

Howard's Feed-N-Wax

Any respectable non-mass-manufacturer (builder) will use bone for the nut and saddle on an acoustic, unless they use some exotic like fossilized Walrus ivory or ossik. The back in the day reference should be elephant ivory. Now on basses brass and very hard woods are common, but bone should...

I can't imagine doing that unless you had a lot of time on your hands and wanted to get some excersize. I did see a (to be unnamed) custom parts maker that stopped selling online due to his business to large manufacturers taking off make a acoustic neck from a from a block of wood with only a...

Well I had never heard of Ebonol before your post. You've helped me learn my new thing of the day. From what I can find its a paper base phenolic resin material...plastic. If it acts like normal phenolic it should buff out to a high gloss. Think old black phones. Just don't get it too hot...

Ive purchased Wenge, Coco, Ziricote and ABW for decent prices at a local hardwood dealer. Ive cut FBs, HPs and acoustic bridges out if it and ended up with choice parts for a fraction of what you get a blank for online. You do have to spend some time digging through the piles to find nice...

It kind of depends. How long is your truss rod? The ones I get from Allied are shorter than a 34" scale fb. I put the adjustment at the hs due to function over astetics. I don't really like the look of a cover on the hs, that's why I don't do it on acoustics, but do on basses. I don't...

Don't take this the wrong way, but if that is really true brazilian rosewood, I would never use it for a bass. I would cut it up for acoustic B&S sets and sell it for some obscene amount. If thats really BRW, its great wood. Sell it to some chump looking to make an overpriced acoustic BRW and...

Limba yes, black...barely. Quarter sawn yes, perfectly...hardly. Curly, barely. Super curly, not even close. Rare, not at all. Now I have an acoustic bs set that is super curly black Limba. Not too common, but rare is a stretch.

Looks great, but be warned that all that red in the top will go away pretty soon.

Ebony has high internal damping, rosewoods are very low damping. I'd put rosewoods at the bright end and ebony not so much. That's not to say ebony is a lesser wood. It's not a good or bad thing, but just different. African Blackwood is where it's at if you want black wood. Ebony on...

Do not put finish on it. Howard's feed n wax.