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I've searched the archives and the net for comments on Leopardwood and can't find much banter one way or another... other than that it looks stunning.

Can someone please comment on the tonal characteristics?

Thanks

Dave

I havent built with it yet, but I picked up a set from the last swap meet for very little. I was amazed at the tap compared to some of the other very nice and many times more expensive woods I have in the pile. Its spots are very fine meaning its not that well quartered. Hope it bends well.

Its up next in OM form after the Black Limba. Now I just have to get back in the shop.

Allied Luthier had set in a recent special and I got a set. It looks very nice but I haven't built with it. Please pass on any tips on bending temp etc.

I used leopardwood as a binding on one guitar that I built, and Loved the look of it.

Bending the binding was next to impossible. What I finally did was to soak the wood in the tub overnight, then slowly....v_e_r_y_ s-l-o-w-l-y bent it in the fox style bender to get it into shape. I broke several pieces before I finally got 4 of them good enough to use for bindings.

I couldnt immagine trying to bend a set for use as the sides of a guitar. It has a consistancy that closely resembles particle board.

If you ever did get it to bend without breaking, it would make one heck of a nice guitar though!

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Reguards,

Ken H

remember the granadillo giveaway that Hibdon did a year and a bit ago?

I got some granadillo but couldn't take it wothout buying something too, so I got a set of leopard wood.

yup, it's brittle, but I could have planed it thinner I guess......

very hard brittle tap tone, metalic almost. I teamed it with a cedar top on a 00 sized steel string and it's my main player.

I've used the offcuts for the rosettes on about 5 other guitars!!

I'd DEFINITELY use it again

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Thanks Martin.

So, you LIKE the tone, but you still haven't told me what it IS like. How would you compare the tone once it was on the instrument? Where does it fit into the Rosewood-Mahogany continuum?

Dave

Oh I dunno, it sounds like a cedar topped 00 made by a talentless amateur guitar builder!!

I'd put it nearer maple I guess as its so hard.

but there are folks a LOT more experienced than me who'll hopefully chime in!

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Todd,
Thanks for the reminder on that one.

I'd read that a while ago. The quote that sticks with me is; "No one at the blind listening sessions I've attended could reliably distinguish between mahogany and rosewood guitars, or maple and koa guitars for that matter."

And yet I don't know if I buy the whole thing or not.

I recently played two instruments that were identical in virtually all aspects except that one was rosewood, one mahogany.
They did not sound the same. Surely John Calkin (and many others) wood (sp.) maintain that if one wanted the instruments to sound the same or similar, then they shouldn't have been built the same.

Yet as we think about standardizing the way we build it is hard to consider which changes need to be made so that the rosewood, mahogany, oak, maple, rosewood, sycamore, ash, and box elder guitars all have identical tonal properties.

I read it, I like it, I don't know if I totally buy it.

So, what does leopardwood sound like again?

Dave



PS, on a side note, I read the Calkin article long before finding OLF. Somehow in my mind I had attributed it to Dave White. I don't know why, but now my view of that fine luthier and poster is blown. So I have a new name for my heretical hero. Sorry Dave.