Acoustic Guitar Construction

+1

Well I love that guitar pictured there. I bought a set of Bubinga back and sides. Not real highly figured so hopefully it will bend ok. Crossing my fingers anyway

Bubinga is a terrific tonewood and can be anything from plain Jane to stunning visually. Tonally it is excellent. I have had no serious problem bending the sides thinned to .080 or a little less and some Supersoft II. The only issue is that the highly figured pommele set I used as well as some of the plain grain has a tendency to crack if the humidity is even slightly less than 40%. I have 4 cracks in the back of the one pictured here to deal with. All in the lower bout right near the bottom. Difficult to get to.

I really like the look of figured bubinga. The plain stuff is nice too. I bent a set once and it went well. Supersoft II and the sides were at .075" thick. The biggest problem I had with it was sanding it to thickness. That stuff is really hard! I have 60 grit paper in my drum sander and the bubinga was laughing at it! It took quite a while to get the set sanded down. It was like sanding concrete with diamonds in it. Well...maybe not that hard, but you get the point.

TonyinNYC wrote:I really like the look of figured bubinga. The plain stuff is nice too. I bent a set once and it went well. Supersoft II and the sides were at .075" thick. The biggest problem I had with it was sanding it to thickness. That stuff is really hard! I have 60 grit paper in my drum sander and the bubinga was laughing at it! It took quite a while to get the set sanded down. It was like sanding concrete with diamonds in it. Well...maybe not that hard, but you get the point.

Good information Tony, thanks!

Ray

No problem Ray! Sometimes I forego the jokes and post useful info.

Yeah well, I MISS the jokes around here...you no come enough Brother Tony... I understand but I can still complain!! :>)