Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello All,

I was wondering if those of you who have worked with african blackwood could offer some info about it. I am interested in it for steel string guitar building:

a) in terms of tone: how does it compare to braz rosewood or indian rosewood or other tonewoods?

b) how is its stability during drying - and also after building?

c) workability? gluing?

d) really tough on tools??

Any info is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Vivian

a) People always repeat Jeff Elliot's analogy: African blackwood is to Brazilian as Brazilian is to East Indian. It is harder, stiffer, and heavier than BR, and even more (a little more, anyway) than BR tends to a deep bass and glassy trebles.

b) more stable in my experience. It is so dense, it has relatively little water content. But it also takes a long time to dry fully.

c) love working it. A carver's dream; holds fine detail. Polishes to a high finish. Glues like other oily woods, such as BR.

d) Some report it dulls tools, but I haven't noticed anything striking in that regard.

Can you tell I like this stuff?

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Hi Vivian, I really enjoyed using this wood as well on the one guitar I've made with it and will do another one soon. The tone was very nice and round on the botton end and full without being boomy but it had that glassiness in spades that BRW is known for.
As for working it, I enjoyed that as well, I thinned the sides to .070" before bending and the back ended up about .075" for my needs. It's a little heavier I think than most BRW so I builtt lighter. I think it would play well with just about any top wood you might care to try.
Have fun on your new project.

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Vivian, what these fine gents said.
I love how it finishes, how it sounds, and what it does for a guitar.
I don't care much for bending it, and I dread having to pay for it.
That said, choose it for your next "head-turning" guitar.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Howard, John, and Steve,

Thanks so much for your informative replies! I'm printing them out to show to my spouse before the credit card bill comes!

It may be some time before I feel ready to subject such great wood to my hand. But with what you all have said, I can't wait!

Thanks again
Viv

John,

What a gorgeous guitar!! It's absolutely beautiful!!!

Thanks again,
Viv

I bought some turning blanks that I sliced up for bridge plates, so my experience is limited. I had no problems working it, it was not especially hard on tools, but it sure is dense. Makes wonderful bridge plates...

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Vivian,

I've made two 13 frets clear guitars using Euro spruce/African blackwood. I would second what Howard, John and Steve have said. To me it has a very complex and etherial tone. One of the guitars I made as my personal 50th birthday guitar and the tone/overtones sometimes is so captivating that I actualy play it in the dark sometimes and get lost in the sound for hours. Here's a soundclip of me playing the guitar Calypso Medley

Gluing , bendability and workability was fine. If you put it through a thickness sander it clogs it up real good though It is a heavy wood and if I were building with it again I would go thinner than usual for the back and sides.

As to stability - that is an interesting issue. It is quite rare to find this wood in 2 piece back sets and my supplier had about 5 or 6 sets. I bought 2 that in terms of looks feel and weight were similar - I don't have a moisture meter. Mine has remained perfectly stable for the last 3 or so years. The other guitar cracked on the back quite badly after about a year or so, and it took me a long time to get it fully stabilised and repaired. Howard may be right and this set may well not have been fully dry when I built with it or some may be less stable and a careful experienced eye in wood selection might help.

I just couldn't pass up the butterfly figure of my back set though:

Dave White39113.7493518519

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave...the sound is terrific. Your playing was also impressive. Thanks for posting!

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Sweet! That guitar has a very cedar-esque sound to it. Nice playing too! I can't imagine how good a redwood top with AB would sound. Wowza!

Don Williams39113.8303356481

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Send it to Howard and have him dovetail it together for you. Then you can resaw it and make dovetail madness guitars.

_________________
Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

That sounded wonderful Dave! What a sweet tonewood!
Great pickin' too!

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Dave,
I'm on dial up which is terminally slow, so I've no clue how nice your guitar sounds.
But, stand back! It looks fabulous.
I can see why you were willing to sleep a few nights on the sofa for that set.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Dave, and i'm not kidding here, this is probably the best music piece i've ever heard, it felt like i was in a transe, i really was transported throughout the whole piece. I would love to see you play that Live one day.

Thanks Dave!

Serge

Oh and surely the nices back of a guitar too!

What a pretty song Dave.

We don't get enough sound clips around here. And even if we did, that one would be exceptional.

African Blackwood is now making my WAS flare up.

_________________
D..