Huon

[WRB]

Look, I know this is none of my business but, Houn is not a tone wood, far too oily. To quote Leo Kottke (he was talking about his singing) a guitar built from Huon would sound like duck farts on a muggy day. I have played one and it was quite franlky, horrible. Stick with King Billy if you want Tasmanian tops.....

[Ball Peen]

You are right, Huon isn't highly reguarded as a tone wood. However, this bloke seems to do alright with Huon. A lot depends on experience and skill. The beauty of the timber encourages taking a punt.


Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum • View topic - Huon Pine Weissenborn
Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum • View topic - A Couple of New Weissenborns

[WRB]

This is a magnificent piece. Love the headstock vaneer. If I were a luthier (I am a boatbuilder), I would probabbly use king billy for the body with highly figured huon for the bindings, headstock and soundhole rosette - thanks for the link

[woodturner777]

Huon Pine makes an excellant soundboard, is it because that you are a boat builder you are worried that all the worlds luthiers are going to start using Huon Pine as a soundboard and there will be none left for boat builders.? You need not worry about that as there is no shortage of Huon, For a start many of my customers ask for Huon tops in fact I have one customer that cooks the tops to remove the oil. King billy also has lot's of oil, so this is not a problem. regards Bob

[WRB]

Hi Bob,
No, I am not worried that Luthiers are going to take all of the huon as, the sizes I use are obviously much longer.
I am a professional 12 player though (note stunning martin 12 built to my specs in profile picture), and have played a few huon topped guitars only to be disspointed by the sound. I had no idea that you could remove the oil from these timbers as you mention with the King Billy and, if this can be done with Huon then, I agree that it should make a good tonewood (better than spruce given the fine grain)

cheers

Warren

[Ball Peen]

WRB,
Could you post some pics of your guitar and the specs? I'm always keen to see something from the Martin custom shop.

[WRB]

Hi Bob,
It is based on a D12-20 slope shouldered 12 fret that I used to own and should never have sold. I had it made for my 50th birthday. The original D12-20 was a very plain guitar and production finished in 1974 so I thought I may as well make it special while I had the chance. The body is quilted Mahogany (one of the plainer sets from "The Tree") a grade spruce over adirondak bracing (D12-20 pattern). Tortoise shell bindings with D45 black and white purfling. The fretboard has D45 pre-war inlays as does the headstock. All inlays are blue pearl - in some places on the headstock inlay it looks a lot like opal.. The only thing I would change if I had it done again would be a request that the soundboard be planed to the same thickness as the 1964 (first year of manufacture and the year model I owned) as they were thinner and sounded incredible. The reason that they made them thicker the following years is that all of the 64 models went back to the factory for a neck reset due to the soundboard bellying up. I would quite happily sign a waver for this on my original contract if I had known that the were not going to stick to 1964 specs. It sounds great anyway... The other things I hate are the gold tuners. With the Martin custom shop, you have to specify everything or they just do what they think is best. I will change these to open tuners at some stage.
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Cheers

Warren

[woodturner777]

Beautiful looking instrument.

[Malibu]

I have one customer that cooks the tops to remove the oil

Now, that's got my interest tweaked... - Cooks the tops?
In what way?... Bakes them in an oven?

[Ball Peen]

Lovely guitar Warren, I think I could live with the gold tuners.

[floody_85]

Beautiful guitar Warren. That mahogany is stunning!

[jeffhigh]

Beautiful 12 string Warren
I'll have to agree with you on the Huon soundboards
For MY objectives in building, which are to produce a good sounding loud and responsive instument, I need a low density, high stiffness soundboard, and spruce fits the bill
The higher density, lower stiffness and oil content disqualify Houn for me.
Sure you can make a reasonable instrument from it and make allowances for it's density and lack of stiffness, but why bother.

[Baz1000]

Look, I know this is none of my business but, Houn is not a tone wood, far too oily. To quote Leo Kottke (he was talking about his singing) a guitar built from Huon would sound like duck farts on a muggy day. I have played one and it was quite franlky, horrible. Stick with King Billy if you want Tasmanian tops.....

With great respect, my violins beg to differ. One of my customers (who by the way is a Phd in Musical Performance {violin}) gave me a testimonial on a Huon top violin and said this..... "warm, great intensity and amazing projection" ...and... "Interestingly, I found the Baroque style of playing suited your violin too, perhaps it is in the timbers? (The other members of this ensemble) were also unanimous in hearing a brilliant violin, when played as one, and are now very curious about your mandolins!" .....

If that's a duck fart, then line up my ducks please!!!!

[WRB]

The Mahogany came from the same tree that produced this. R. Taylor has some sets left but, Martin only bought the cheaper stuff.
the tree.jpg

Beautiful guitar Warren. That mahogany is stunning!

[WRB]

Just an aside, What do Huon guitar sets sell for. I am going to be selling all of my Huon shortly and, being boat boards, they are all clear and some of them are 12" wide (x 16' long!!). Maybe I could keep one to cut up and sell to Luthiers (and retire to the Bahamas...)

Warren