Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Archive: Guitar No. 17, Classical

This is a special Chilean alerce top and Virginia white oak guitar.  I made this for myself, since I had no idea how it would sound, being it the first time I build a guitar with this top wood.  The guitar sounds amazing!  Harmonics are very active, sound is very sweet, bright and vintage like.  Those of you who know wood might observe that the top wood is not even radially cut, it is actually flat-sawn on the perimeter.  Alerce or fitzroya cuppresoides has been banned for some time now and it is on the same CITES category as dalberghia nigra.  This particular set I got on a trip to Buenos Aires in 2003, and the seller said it was re-sawn from a massive wooden pillar that was salvaged from an old house they demolished on the Chilean coast. They re-sawed it and therefore could not get quarter-sawn sets.  This makes the wood decades old, maybe even 100 years old. The back and sides are made from Virginia white oak, a heavy and quite aromatic wood that gives bourbon its unique flavor. It is not used much on guitars, but is quite workable, although not easy to finish if you like that flat look, the pores are deep









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