Thread: jarrah for body

I agree. Laminates are a very stable construction be if for guitar, banjo whatever.
As far as the wood combination goes, I have no idea.
Try the Jarrah + Qld Maple. Nothing to lose. I doubt it would be awful or anything and it may be really good.

thanks guys, i think ill try it, i ws going to do a neck through but im not sure now, either way i think ill give it a try. ive just purchased enough coiling wire to make 20 singlecoils so ill need a guitar to put them on(maybe not all 20

I guess the proof is in the pudding. And no matter how much talk gets bandied around, no one person can really know ,one way or the other, what the tonal effects are with 'non-tonewoods' until they've experimented with them themselves.
My good mate Jon built an electric guitar with a blackwood body,
with a carve top cap in Jarrah, and that thing knocks my socks off !!

Needless to say, I'm doing one with a jarrah burl 8mm bookmatched cap.
I'm looking forward to see how it ends up, and either way, whether it ends up a fizzer or a real ripsnorter, it's all in the interests of learning and education.
It's not too far removed from the whole parenting thing,
where your parents told you something you shouldn't do but you had to go and do it anyway. Just to see what they were going on about.

cheers, Stu

Originally Posted by oz tradie

It's not too far removed from the whole parenting thing,
where your parents told you something you shouldn't do but you had to go and do it anyway. Just to see what they were going on about.

cheers, Stu

I often take that approach but before doing so I first look back and see how the master luthiers approached the same problem in the past.

Hi Martin

Therein lies the problem. Usually it's only the Americans who are pretentious enough to call themselves "master luthiers", and most Aussie makers who would possibly be up to the title tend to stick with "traditional" North American and European timbers, leaving just a few who are willing to experiment with local timber.

If Orville Gibson had been born in Victoria we'd consider blackwood and King Billy Pine to be traditional tonewoods. If C.F.Martin had been born in Queensland we'd consider Queensland maple and Bunya Pine to be traditional tonewoods.

There was a discussion on the MIMF a while back about what makes someone a master luthier. I think the consensus was handmaking 300 complete quality instruments... a lifetime of building! I'd rate people like the late Charlie Derrington or maybe Mario Proulx as Masters, but in every YouTube video you see on making a copy of someone famous' favourite solidbody there's some thirty-five year old guitarmaker being described as "Fred Smith, Master Luthier".

At the end of the day it's a collection of sticks that you glue or screw together, add some metal bits to, and if things go well it can be played and makes a pleasant sound. ;-)

All good points Rob,

For the record I have a workshop full of traditional and Australian woods. My approach has been to start with a learning phase where I build mainly using traditional woods and following the designs and techniques of other makers. I also want to become more aware of the controls on the sound of an acoustic guitar and how to manipulate same. The field of plate tuning intrigues me and I'd like to get into same.....I guess its the scientist coming out in me. Ever since I started classical lessons at the age of 14, everytime Ive picked up a guitar theres always been a strong urge to see how the thing is made and poke around inside the soundhole with my fingers feeling the bracing etc.

Re Master Luthiers.....my own definition would be a person who has mastered the craft of building guitars. One could argue that even after a lifetime of building guitars many have often not fully "mastered" the craft. I guess in the context of my previous post a master luthier is anyone who knows a sh*t load more than me about building guitars! That would put you and many others in this forum with more experience than me in the category of master luthiers.

My sister is a professional cellist and owns some very high quality instruments (her cello is worth around $25,000). I asked her once what made a good cello maker and her reply is someone that can make an instrument that sounds fantastic...and then do it again and again.

I'd class a master luthier the same. someone that can make what many knowledgeable people would class a great guitar and then do it again and again.

Good point Wood Butcher.... I remember reading where someone (I think it may have been James Morrison but I can't be sure) said that an amateur is someone who practices until they get it right; a professional is someone who practices until they never get it wrong.

For my money a luthier is someone who has the knowledge and skills to make an acoustic instrument in the guitar/lute family. A master luthier is someone who has made vast numbers of high grade instruments and successfully passed the basics on to others. I guess I look at is as the old European apprentice/master relationship, but sometimes I think our US cousins just like adding an impressive adjective to the noun to gild the lily.

I mainly make small solidbody electric instruments, so I just call myself a maker of funny little guitars, but when the bank asked what my vocation was I said I was a guitarmaker, so I guess I gave myself an upgrade!