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I'm getting into my first attempt at a flamenco guitar, using yellow cedar (Alaskan cypress??) for back and sides.
I'm wondering how this wood is to bend. Any nasty surprises awaiting?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I dunno, Jim. I keep hounding Shane to get/offer some, and he always has some excellent excuse why he doesn't have/can't get it. C'mon Shane!   

But gander at this picture of a Bruce Petros Yellow Cedar guitar. It looks, certainly, worth trying.



Everything is Yellow Cedar. Well, the top, back, sides and neck are.

Here's another shot:




I really love this guitar. You can almost smell it from here, can't you? I think you should try the Yellow Cedar and report back.

SteveSteve Kinnaird38896.9695486111

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I just built two maple flamenco bodies, I'm am using a dovetail neck for the heck of it. Haven't worked with cypress but I hear it bends well.







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I have a guitar built by someone else that is cedar top and back and cypress sides. It has flamenco pegs. I used it as my stage guitar for 6 years and it held up well and sounds great. The friction pegs took some getting used to but hold tune well and are easy to tune with now.Tomas38897.4231365741

Wow, the all-yellow-cedar guitar by Bruce Petros is gorgeous! inspirational! odiferous, for sure!   

I did get some extra cedar top sets along with my pile of backs and sides, with all-cedar boxes in mind at some point. Just need a neck billet to do something similar. My yellow cedar came from Kevin Hall, and is very nice. He suggested trying a classical/flamenco with yellow cedar top, back and sides.

At any rate, the yellow cedar is going to get bent soon. The backs are joined and thicknessed, neck scarf joints and basic head shaping getting finished up this weekend. (Two guitars are being built in parallel - one with an Englemann top and one Sitka.)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim,
i m currently building a flameco guitar using yellow cedar for B/S.
the wood bent easily.
one thing ill pay attention to is not to scorch it.
here are some pics:





Udi.

The archtop I built has a yellow cedar top. One thing I noticed is the somewhat funky odor my hands would pick up from it - not unpleasant, but pungent and weird. Anyone else find this?

Udi - no fair, you stole my trim scheme in advance! I'll watch out for scorching. Basically same deal as maple?

Kevin - I didn't notice the odor on my hands so much, but that may be because it was everywhere. The garage is still fully smelled up two days after thickness sanding. I love the smell, though - one of my favorites so far.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

The Spanish cedar necks sure have that odor. Sometimes I inadvertantly taste it too, taste wierd.

I like that guitar Vachterm. Clean work. Are you using friction pegs or tuners?

I have built alot with Alaskan Yellow Cedar (not really a cypress or cedar) and it bends very easily but as was mentioned before can burn easily. I have built both flamenco and classical (blanco) guitars with it.

As a top it is stiff enough that it can be taken quite thin but still cant come close to a good euro top. The combination I have not yet tried is YC sides and back with a Lutz spruce top. It is on my list to make but do not have an order for one yet.

People either really like the smell or they dont. It is really unique and persists for many years.

Wow...I have not seen a steel string YC but it looks really cool.

I started using it several years ago as the quality and consistency is much better than spanish cypress and is MUCH less expensive. What I like about it is that it is very dimensionally stable. I have never had a crack in the sides or backs of my YC guitars, some of which are 30 years old.

What I like about it as as wood for necks is that the grain is very fine so it has a very finished look without having to fill pores as with Mahogany or Cedro.

I build more flamenco these days with tuners as that is what alot of players are looking for but love the look of pegs.

I have turned my own pegs but have switched in the last year to a new type of pegs that is really nice. Check out http://www.pegheds.com. It is a peg for violin family and flamenco that has an internal 4:1 gear that gives the tuning control of a tuner with the look of a peg. The hole is tapered with a reamer the same as other pegs. David Schramm and a few other builders are starting to use them for their flamencos as is holds pitch better than straight pegs.

Good luck...Flamenco guitar is very addicting and flamenco players are much more fun to hang with than classical players. I build 7 classicals for every 3 flamenco but I study flamenco...its is the "rocker" of classical music

Yeah Shawn,

I have been meaning to try those pegs. Every once in a while my flamenco pegs get real tight and are really hard to move. I imagine it's humidity.

When the humidity is higher the pegs swell but the swelling is greater across the grain so they become oval not round and bind

What is nice about the peghed pegs is the tension is adjustable...by pushing in or pulling out while turning so it feels like pegs but holds pitch really well.

I am going to try them on my cello...the guy that created them sells them mostly to violin family instrument players with the main advantage is not having to have fine tuners on your strings...That says alot.

I have played flamenco for a full 2 hours with no string slip...a little string stretch especially the bass strings but no annoying peg slip or having to fuss to get it tuned just right.

They are not cheap, about $120 but that is what a good set of mid-range (non-Rodgers or Alessi) tuners cost so it all averages out the same as a classical.

Jim,
the binding scheme is pretty staright forward - dark madagascar rosewood(to go along with the mad.rosewood bridge and heaplate). and three layers of B/W/B purflings around the top.
the guitar looked a bit too bright to me and i had to break the white-ness in some way.
as for the yellow cedar, not only does it scroch easily it is also pretty soft, so take care when sanding the sides and when cutting binding ledges.

Tomas,
i will be using friction pegs, the good ol' ones.

Shawn,
everything you said about flamenco music and guitars - i fully agree!

Udi.