Ebony sides

[Rick_A]

Any gain from adding a couple ounces of ammonia to Windex or a Windex competitor? I think there's nothing sacred about unaltered Windex.

Hi Pete - I'm also from CT. Albeit way down in New Haven. Pretty sure I have some ammonia in the house. Give the sides a nice lemon scent

[Herman]

My latest guitar has ebony B/S.
The bending was tough, comparable to Cocobolo. With the use of SuperSoft it went right.

Here are some pics and sounds

[Rick_A]

My latest guitar has ebony B/S.
The bending was tough, comparable to Cocobolo. With the use of SuperSoft it went right.

Here are some pics and sounds

Wow! Looks and sounds fantastic. Life goals Herman. Maybe someday I'll get to half your level.

Good to know about SuperSoft. I imagine ebony is not the easiest to bend. What thickness did you make the sides? From what I've read, some builders will go thinner in the waist to lessen to possibility of cracks. Do you make the sides a uniform thickness throughout?

thx,
-rick

[Herman]

Thanks Rick,

The sides I took down to 0.070". Quite thin. But that works best. One advise: If you can choose, look for the most even/boring/quartered sides you can find. Those are the easiest to bend.
In this case I use a uniform thickness all over. But in the tightest bend of a Gypsy guitar I went down to 0.060" in that section.

Herman

[Rick_A]

Many thanks for the valuable info Herman. I did by some relatively boring, straightish grained "African Mahogany" sides and thinned them down to 0.075 - 0.080. They have a community wood shop in town and I used the drum sander there. I also found a piece of poplar at the local store and plan on using that as the test mule. Gotta say, when I got to around 0.080 I thought I might be measuring wrong because it seemed so thin!

[Herman]

Yes Rick,
0.080" is very thin to the eye. But I never had problems with it.