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I have used just about every combination of purfling that I know of when it comes to b/w/b, w/b/w, b/w/b/w, etc. I have also used herringbone for several of my guitars.

I am looking for something different...

By the way, most of the web sites I have looked at have tiny pictures of their purfling (or no pictures at all), so this makes it difficult to choose.

Any of our suppliers have something different or does anyone know where to look for something new and unique?

 

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Reguards,

Ken H

Ken I just tried Mahog-O-Lam from Uncle Bob at RC Tonewoods and I love the stuff.  He has Maple-O-Lam too.

It bends easily in the bender and is still flexible so I didn't get a single gap after installing it.

try some colour ... or color for you south of the 49th'ers.

I use red orange blue green or purple dyed veneers in my purf lines all the time .. also lots of naturals out there - maple, rosewood, koa, walnut, anigre, padauk, bloodwood

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

Take a look at Grizzly they have some really nice Half chevron this super and also talk to BobC and he can make you up some custom wood purfling like Hesh recently showed. I believe it was .02 maple/.06 bloodwood or maybe it was walnut I forget/.02 maple. Anyway it was way cool.

Daa there it is and I was wrong on all counts

Ken, first you must understand that I come from the British tradition, where we tend to be more restrained in our choices. That said, I never use B/W/B or its variations, I find them just too in your face. Same of course for the shell variations. So what do I like, well I like to use natural wood where possible, usually the same wood as the sides. where I do use laminated purflings they tend to be B/fruit wood/B, which is more muted and if carefully chosen compliments the colour of the B&S.

This recent one brings it all together, the rosette is also matched, using the same wood as the B&S and purfling with ebony/pear/ebony. I like the whole guitar to come from the same colour pallete.



Bob C has some nice wood purflings that may interest you.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Ken,

Making your own purflings is really very easy. I made these satinwood ones in no time.



Bob C sells the black fiber and LMI sells many colored veneers. I thickness the wood section and do a glue up of all the parts (the veneer and fiber come in .01 increments in sheets) then slice the purfling off with a 1/16 freud blade on the table saw. If you use titebond 2 or 3 for the glue up the purfs can be bent with no delamination. It really takes very little time to do and then you have something no one else has. The possibilities are endless!

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Jeff Traugott did some beautiful koa and ebony purfling on a guitar once, and the client complained that the brown wasn't perfectly even in color around the guitar!   He'd have been better off with brown CanPlast:

http://www.canplast.com/Edgebanding-Designs.1133.0.html

Which stuff is not a bad choice if you don't mind plastic...

Ken,

Start looking at the classical guitars.  There's a couple hundred years of tradition, so you might find something interesting.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Thanks for all of the good tips! I have e-mailed uncle Bob and maybe he will respond soon. I may even try my hand at making some, just to get me started. Grizzly does have some interesting looking purfling as well, but no sizes posted on it.

I had actually planned on using abalone for my purfling on the show guitars, then out of the clear blue I had 4 customers in a row tell me how much they dislike it.....go figure...I guess now is as good of time as any to stock up on something else.

 

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Reguards,

Ken H

Yeah, dude, abalone is just so 20th Century...it's so over and done...time for chrome, dude...

I think I saw Todd using short grained sections of the top once. It looked great to me. I can't find the thread.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Ken,

There's some interesting stuff here at Karin Rost.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Also Michael Gurian.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Ken, Sounds to me like you are ready to start making your own purflings as well as marquetry. Making your own will free you from relying on what (not much.....) is available from various supply sources.

Here are some that I sliced up the other night. This one is really simple, a veneer sandwich (use fish glue to glue up....you'll need the extra open time) consisting of East Indian Rosewood, Maple, Brazilian Rosewood, Ebony and Bloodwood in 1mm, .6mm and .3mm thicknesses. Slice and rearrange the slices longitudinally and glue to a backing veneer then cut into strips.

To use, prebend with heat  and use a single purfling strip of matching veneer on the other side of the strip when you put them on the guitar for symmetry.     

 

Nice, David. Given how much beautiful back and side wood gets turned into scrap here, this would be a much nicer use for the stuff.   Thanks for kicking my head in this direction.   

Thanks burbank! I checked them out and also e-mailed with an order request. If their price isnt too far off, I''ll have enough purflings to do about 40 guitars.

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Reguards,

Ken H

[QUOTE=Colin S]

[/QUOTE]

That looks great Colin.

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

[QUOTE=ToddStock] Seems like the .047 Abalam from Allen and others makes for a more understated guitar...combined with a colored prufling (green? red?), the greens, blues and purples of paua or green ab can be both interesting and not over the top.[/QUOTE]

I agree, I think if you are going to use shell the .047" stuff is the way to go.

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

A bloodwood line can look nice in some combos.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Nothing to show, but I did want to say I love posts like this. Very inspiring. Thanks for the pics, guys!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I like to take things apart and change or add colored strips. Sometimes I'll split a herringbone and insert colored strips or recently I split a bold HB and added a couple colored strips using only half of the HB, making a sort of colorful rope style.

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

Ken,

The coral snake I have is pretty neat as well.  I tried to attach a link but I suck at this computer stuff!  Anyway look at my pricing page and scroll down to the purfs.  It is in the middle of the page.

Shane

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Canada

Colin, depends on the style of guitar dude!

Beautiful AZ!!!