Sycamore

[Will Reyer]

Sycamore for guitar bodies:

Went down to the Last Saturday Open Mic last night run by local duo, JimJam. Cold night, crowded restaurant. Good, rowdy crowd. JimJam did an excellent hour-long set, then the open mic. I was last on the list, suits me fine as I can hear better with the crowd thinned out.

After the JimJam set, one of the two Jims (and he's a Martin guy) comes up to tell me he's looking hard at a Santa Cruz OO that Elderly Instrument has for sale up in Lansing. I've got a SC OM myself, so I'm encouraging him to buy it as I'd be the first one over at his house to hear it.

That prompted me this morning to google the Santa Cruz site, where I discovered that one of the wood options is sycamore. At the SC site, on the left side, pick Custom Options, then Body Wood. Pick the photo of the sycamore back for an extended description.

Good on Richard Hoover for utilizing ecologically sustainable native materials. Maybe y'all already knew this was a tone wood, but I'm old and dense, and just accidentally vindicated in my selection for my #6 build. And, hey, the guys over at the Figures of Wood sawmill in Kalamazoo tell me they quarter-saw all their sycamore, because it goes squirrelly if plain-sawn.

[Will Reyer]

#6, quarter-sawn sycamore

[Dave Bagwill]

Mighty fine. And it's good to add another tonewood to the possiblilities.