Official Luthiers Forum!

I have read posts here stating that Mad Rosewood is somewhat hard to bend.
I am making 000 for my daughter and wondered if you could give me a 'heads up' re: problems bending and any suggestions would be very welcome.
I use Universal w/blanket

Plan to use either addi or Alpine Italian for top.
What is the final thickness of the B/S and top.
Thanks so much guys,

Hard .. not IMO .. couple sets bent fine, normal temp. 000 shape is not that tight so should be fine. Bend around .085, back rough to .100.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I have just finished a Madagascar Rosewood/Sitka Spruce guitar for my wife - I love the sound of this Rosewood! I sanded the sides down to .085 and spritzed the sides heavily just before inserting them in my bending jig that consists of three 150 watt bulbs. I CAREFULLY (meaning slower than normal) bent each side taking about 20 minutes per side. The sides came out beautifully!

I did not have any trouble bending my first Mad Rose sides using a Fox-style bender with blankets - normal temps.

I had a horrible time with mad rosewood. The first set I tried to bend with Fox/blanket I had a fair amount of springback. I touched up the waist on my hot pipe and thought all was well until I tried to scrape out what I thought was a minor scorch mark and discovered that the discolored area went completely through the side. It was very noticable and I could not live with it (besides, I thinned it down to fat veneer trying to deal with it).
My second attempt was worse. The first side did well in the bender with some minor edge cracking. The second side seemed to do well during the bending process but broke in half at the waist when I removed it and put in the form. Both of these sets were killer Allied stuff and not at all cheap.
I could not rationalize spending another $300 for something that I might again destroy- but while browsing through Gilmer's site (my wife thinks I'm looking at porn, but that is another story) I found a mad rosewood bass fingerboard, 4" wide which matched one of my backs nicely. I took a chance and when it came I was able to resaw and thickness it. I bent it the same way as the others(spritz, kraft paper, blanket on top,spring-steel slats)and other than some mild springback and one small area of edge cracking along the upper bout all went well
.
Sorry for the blog. You will probably do fine with your wood.

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It's not the miles ahead, it's the stone in your shoe


In Markham,Virginia

Glad to hear these responses as I'm getting ready to build with it too, also using bulbs.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I have never had any problems bending madrose. I just bend it like I would any other rosewood.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I`m gonna try and bend a 000 cut-away with mad rose with a blanket and forms per O`Brien vid. any suggestions?
                        James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Greaat responses, Thanks,