this is the purpleheart billet I was telling you about...
Moonshine
I seem to recall a discussion about a top laminate and center neck piece made of purple heart.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
New Moonshine Guitars custom bass!
- Thread starter chadhargis
- Start date
I seem to recall a discussion about a top laminate and center neck piece made of purple heart.
Well folks...we're sneaking up on the end of August and I'm still waiting my turn in line. Good things come to those who wait. In the meantime I have this cool Moonshine Custom Guitars shirt to remind me that I'll soon be in a small fraternity of players who have the privilege of owning a MCG bass. Well, I won't say own it. Rick is putting his sweat into making it and I'm purchasing the rights to keep, protect, and enjoy it. It will always have Rick's soul in it, crafted by his hands from chunks of dead tree.
I've put my wait time to good use and have been conducting a preamp and compressor comparison. I've bought and sold a ton of gear and settled on what I like. Here's my current board set up. The G-Lab BC-1 compressor is amazing (and quiet) and of course the Noble DI needs no introduction. The H9 handling effects duty. The Source Audio programmable EQ is really being used just to set levels for different basses. And of course, the micro Thumpinator ridding my signal of all that subsonic mush. The new bass will kill through this rig!
I've put my wait time to good use and have been conducting a preamp and compressor comparison. I've bought and sold a ton of gear and settled on what I like. Here's my current board set up. The G-Lab BC-1 compressor is amazing (and quiet) and of course the Noble DI needs no introduction. The H9 handling effects duty. The Source Audio programmable EQ is really being used just to set levels for different basses. And of course, the micro Thumpinator ridding my signal of all that subsonic mush. The new bass will kill through this rig!
- Jan 28, 2009
- 2,929
- 4,152
- Disclosures
- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
I did go on a wood buying spree today... No wenge (if anyone knows how to properly say "wenge" , please let me know...) or purpleheart but I did score a really nice piece of birdseye maple that would look great in your neck...
You need to come check out the wood I have acquired...
Moonshine
You need to come check out the wood I have acquired...
Moonshine
I found this explanation of how to pronounce wenge, (no guarantee it's correct) "This wood's name is neither "wenj", "wheng-ay", nor "when-gay". It is an African word (which certainly would not have an "ay" sound in it!) and is pronounced "weng-eh" with the emphasis on the first "e" and a soft "g", as in "singer", not a hard "g" as in "finger"."
Otherwise an anglicised pronunciation would probably be wenge as it's written, like the word henge. (as in Stone Henge)
Otherwise an anglicised pronunciation would probably be wenge as it's written, like the word henge. (as in Stone Henge)
You need to come check out the wood I have acquired...
Moonshine
What time does the shop open tomorrow? I’m so there!!
Wow, interesting question. Info is surprisingly scarce on the 'net about this one. Translating the International Phonetic Alphabet into analog,
1) English Wiktionary says "WEN-gae" ("n" as in "trippin' ", and no off-glide to "gae" - think a Scotsperson saying "name");
2) English Wikipedia says "WENG-gay" (accepting the off-glide, as in "gay" in most accents, but they're probably just documenting the least "incorrect" among the most common English pronunciations);
3) French Wikt and Wiki say "WENG-ehh" ("ng" as in "singer" = no hard "g", second vowel being a short "e" like the first and rhyming with "meh").
My own best shot at it would be positing the typical Bantu prenasalised stop, in other words: "WEH-nggeh" (both "e" as in "meh", "ngg" as in "finger"/"stronger" but somehow entirely belonging to the second syllable; in normally-paced utterance it shouldn't sound substantially different from "WENG-gheh" though).
I'm afraid I have nothing to back it up, so make of the above what you will.
_____
EDIT -
At least two languages of the general area, Kimbundu and Invalid Link Removed, appear not to have, each within its subset of prenasalised stops, the expected Invalid Link Removed (*/ᵑɡ/ "ngg", roughly as in "finger") whilst having a phonemic (autonomous, not contextually-determined) velar nasal (/ŋ/ "ng" as in "singer") instead, likely a (modern) reflex of the (older) former sound i.e. the result of an historical sound change that has turned one into the other at some point. (There are other neighbouring languages that lack the latter sound while having the former, or have both.)
So, if "wenge" comes from either of those languages or a related one with the same gap in the consonant system, it is possible that @Durham52's source and the French are right - see (3) above - and my hypothesis (in bold above) is either only valid as an archaic pronunciation of the word, or completely incorrect. Just as it could be if the word comes from a language with both sounds but only one and the same way to represent them orthographically - ⟨ng⟩ - or, finally, one with /ŋ/ but no phonemic prenasalised stops at all.
Last edited:
Phonics lesson was much appreciated...but there have been exciting new happenings on the build!
I drove over to the shop today and spent a couple of hours with Rick. He's just a good dude ya'll. We picked out wood and ran over some ideas to change it up a bit cosmetically. We discussed doing maple blocks inlayed in the neck versus the pearloid. I've never seen that done before and it is going to look awesome! We chatted about the binding too, and will make it maple as well. So the dark wenge (see above for pronunciation) flanked by maple binding and inlayed maple blocks is going to look sweet.
Here's the selection of woods:
Top Wood - Heavy Burl Maple (bookmatched). You can also see the fingerboard wood underneath maple...it's the non-slotted piece of wenge.
Neck Wood - Birdseye Maple. There will also be wenge, mohogany, and purpleheart in the neck...more on that once the neck gets glued up.
The headstock and neck template have been created. Here's what the headstock will look like. You can see a bit of the fingerboard above the Bic pen:
I drove over to the shop today and spent a couple of hours with Rick. He's just a good dude ya'll. We picked out wood and ran over some ideas to change it up a bit cosmetically. We discussed doing maple blocks inlayed in the neck versus the pearloid. I've never seen that done before and it is going to look awesome! We chatted about the binding too, and will make it maple as well. So the dark wenge (see above for pronunciation) flanked by maple binding and inlayed maple blocks is going to look sweet.
Here's the selection of woods:
Top Wood - Heavy Burl Maple (bookmatched). You can also see the fingerboard wood underneath maple...it's the non-slotted piece of wenge.
Neck Wood - Birdseye Maple. There will also be wenge, mohogany, and purpleheart in the neck...more on that once the neck gets glued up.
The headstock and neck template have been created. Here's what the headstock will look like. You can see a bit of the fingerboard above the Bic pen:
Last edited:
Wenge (/ˈwɛŋɡeɪ/ WING-gay)I did go on a wood buying spree today... No wenge (if anyone knows how to properly say "wenge" , please let me know...) or purpleheart but I did score a really nice piece of birdseye maple that would look great in your neck...
You need to come check out the wood I have acquired...
Moonshine
Wenge | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood)
The Wikipedia suggested pronunciation was already noted upthread, is unsourced and also inaccurate depending on one's accent of English: for anyone to whom it makes a difference, first syllable is WENG- (even though it's not a word), not WING-, according to the IPA symbols they themselves give (between slash-ets).
Truth is, there's not a whole lot on the internet about the word, and all anecdotal and inconclusive anyway.
Say it however you like, folks.
Last edited:
I just call it beautiful. It’s really pretty dark wood.
According to Rick, neck will be started soon, so call it what you want....I’ll call it “fingerboard”.
According to Rick, neck will be started soon, so call it what you want....I’ll call it “fingerboard”.
We should probably ask a wood worker from Africa. Chances are we are all butchering the pronounciation. Even various wood worker forums don’t seem to know definitively. Just curious as to what your source is if any? The wood data bass link that I posted ‘upthread’ includes pronounciation(s).The Wikipedia suggested pronunciation was already noted upthread, is unsourced and also inaccurate depending on one's accent of English: for anyone to whom it makes a difference, first syllable is WENG- (even though it's not a word), not WING-, according to the IPA symbols they themselves give (between slash-ets).
Truth is, there's not a whole lot on the internet about the word, and all anecdotal and inconclusive anyway.
Say it however you like, folks.
@B-Mac: I feel I've more than overstayed my welcome in this thread, so I'll include my reply in spoilertags, and save some scrolling to the OP, the luthier and passers-by. 
However! that comment was preceded by the words "[ u]sually pronounced" which is helpful in at least splitting the question in two.
One, the problem of the "correct", African pronunciation, is at present unsolved and we'd better set it aside until some good source finally presents itself; zwei, concentrating on the hopefully easier task of finding out which is the most correct-ish among existing English variants, I have finally found a somewhat authoritative online source that bothers listing one:
Invalid Link Removed
Until something else (not open-source but a dictionary, an encyclopedia and such), in my opinion this one has the most credentials.
...You will notice that it, i.e. /ˈwɛnɡeɪ/, is exactly like the Wikipedia one you provided! (Well, almost: the "n" is the "-n' " of g-dropped gerunds, for some reason.)
Which goes to show I actually have zero problems with it (as English variants go - it's safe to say the African original differs in a couple details - but as I said finding a go-to English way of saying would be just as worthwhile as digging out the original): my point is, now at least we found said variant listed on the website of a published dictionary not a random Wiki contributor, and it without a contradictory key to the phonetic symbols (no "wings").
Exactly my point. We don't even know, or at least I wasn't able to find anywhere, which specific African language it comes from. That's info that usually comes up for other words, hence my comment on the scarcity of info online.
Re-read my post: sources are clearly linked to where existing, and so is lack thereof. I'm not trying to promote my personal speculative pronunciation above all other alternatives anyhow, and in fact provided a counterargument to it (and a defense of poster Durham52's competing suggestion, to boot) right away. I was rambling aloud, not striving to prove me right, by any means.
It does mention not one but two, different from the Wikipedia one (and each other), and provided by...somebody, in the comments. Again, anecdotes.
However! that comment was preceded by the words "[ u]sually pronounced" which is helpful in at least splitting the question in two.
One, the problem of the "correct", African pronunciation, is at present unsolved and we'd better set it aside until some good source finally presents itself; zwei, concentrating on the hopefully easier task of finding out which is the most correct-ish among existing English variants, I have finally found a somewhat authoritative online source that bothers listing one:
Invalid Link Removed
Until something else (not open-source but a dictionary, an encyclopedia and such), in my opinion this one has the most credentials.
...You will notice that it, i.e. /ˈwɛnɡeɪ/, is exactly like the Wikipedia one you provided! (Well, almost: the "n" is the "-n' " of g-dropped gerunds, for some reason.)
Which goes to show I actually have zero problems with it (as English variants go - it's safe to say the African original differs in a couple details - but as I said finding a go-to English way of saying would be just as worthwhile as digging out the original): my point is, now at least we found said variant listed on the website of a published dictionary not a random Wiki contributor, and it without a contradictory key to the phonetic symbols (no "wings").
- Jan 28, 2009
- 2,929
- 4,152
- Disclosures
- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
I just call it beautiful. It’s really pretty dark wood.
According to Rick, neck will be started soon, so call it what you want....I’ll call it “fingerboard”.
I feel that I opened a can of worms... not my intention.
I am in process of getting several necks ready; cutting/sanding wood and gluing up blanks. I do these in batches.
Moonshine
I am in process of getting several necks ready; cutting/sanding wood and gluing up blanks. I do these in batches.
Moonshine
It's all good. No worms. Americans are known for mispronouncing all kinds of words especially words originating from other countries. Heck, I recall when 'Renault' motors was introduced in the states and most people were pronouncing the 'T'.I feel that I opened a can of worms... not my intention.
I am in process of getting several necks ready; cutting/sanding wood and gluing up blanks. I do these in batches.
Moonshine
Definitely beautiful wood regardless how it is pronounced.I just call it beautiful. It’s really pretty dark wood.
According to Rick, neck will be started soon, so call it what you want....I’ll call it “fingerboard”.
Can't wait to see these build pictures.
I'm Italian and believe me, when it comes to foreign words we say the darndest things...
- Jan 28, 2009
- 2,929
- 4,152
- Disclosures
- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
The neck laminates are Honduran and I'm fairly sure that the Body wood is as well.
Moonshine
