"wenge sounding" us woods?

[Larry Davis]

I think the most expensive wood part will be ther acrylized fingerboard from Larry...

oh my!!! Will it need to sound like wenge???

 

[THSL]

Absolutely not!

 

[FBB Custom]

I hear Larry is working on a scientific formula that will allow him to acrylize to specific tones. You give him the ambiguous metaphorical description and he will tune the fingerboard with his machines and chemicals. At least that's what the voices in my head just told me.

 

[budman]

Maybe some reinforced pecan or elm. Both are hard and heavy, though they both can twist.

 

[SDB Guitars]

Erik - I keep reading these things at work, and my co-workers wonder why I go from completely quiet to laughing out loud with no warning...

 

[THSL]

I would like the fingerboard to sound like "organic" european style full cream unsalted butter... Is this possible Larry?

 

[SoComSurfing]

I got an email from Mike Tobias and he seems to feel like he has not found a good substitute for wenge, tone-wise at least. So I am thinking his reasons for using more ash do not have to do with its wenge-esque resonance.

Interesting guitar, Adron. I can't imagine it was fun bending the sides for that sucker. I will drop them an email and see if they have any insight.

Black locust sounds interesting but I imagine finding any examples in instrumentbuilding will be hard to come by.

If you ever heard back from anyone at McPherson, I'd be very interested to hear what they had to say about that one's tone and a possible close-sounding alternative. An email or PM would be cool if you do't want to derail this thread.

 

[Jonsbasses]

I would like the fingerboard to sound like "organic" european style full cream unsalted butter... Is this possible Larry?

Unsalted? That's asking entirely too much.

 

[THSL]

Ok, lightly salted with a dash of freshly cracked pepper... How's that?

 

[pilotjones]

I hear Larry is working on a scientific formula that will allow him to acrylize to specific tones. You give him the ambiguous metaphorical description and he will tune the fingerboard with his machines and chemicals. At least that's what the voices in my head just told me.

Then he could call his casting resin "Resin8".

[ edit ] too bad it's already taken by a surfboard company. What a waste of a trademark.

 

[OldogNewTrick]

A good friend of mine spent over 2 years in South Africa and I asked him to check locally for some standard stuff like Zebrano and Wenge. He asked around and there is virtually no locally idigenous woods available. Around that area apparently they only grow a new pine strain that grows fast and tall, it's taken over all the domestic forests. I understand the need for cheap woods for building but that could explain another reason for the lack of our favored woods.

Dirk

Oh man, even though this post is ancient, it soooooooooo wrong I just could let it go.

There were never any indigenous hardwood forests in South Africa, other than Accacias in the grasslands. The leafy hardwood belts runs out at the Limpopo. Even there is very little Wenge. Actually no Wenge (Millettia laurentii) at all, as it's from tropical rain forest (Cameroon, Congo, Gabun). There is however a similiar species in Southern Africa (Zambia, Mozambique) which is Panga Panga (Millettia stuhlmannii).
A map of Africa is highly recommended.

Sorry about that