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Thoughts on this combo? Still debating binding options. It’s for a client who happens to be a long time friend, and I have carte blanche. It will be a 12 fret OO.






I cut the Osage Orange out of a log from a friend’s farm. It sounds fantastic. Rings longer, louder, and more sonorous than the Brazilian Rosewood sets I have on hand. And the ray flecks are spectacular. Wish I had a dozen more like it.


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Aaron Craig

Both the top and back are kinda streaky and look like they go together. I don't see why they wouldn't sound good together. EIR might be a good binding option... Aren't you kinda close on the neck end of that osage? You must be trying to avoid that dark spot at the bottom...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Nice! Reminds me of a uke I'm finishing up with sinker honduran b/s and sinker redwood top. We went with simple ebony binding and no purfling. Seems to frame everything nicely.

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

That OO is really dark looking. The stuff I have in stock is like bright lemon-orange and would not look good with that top me things. That however does.

All the osage orange I see in my area is school bus yellow when cut and goes orange then cinnamon over time. I see lots of pics online of the color shown here. I wonder if it is a regional/soil/water thing?

I agree that this top and back look great together. They seem to "fit" in their mojo. Go for it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Do it! That's an awesome top, and the stripes and ray fleck match the osage.


Aaron was kind enough to sell me a set from this tree a few years ago, and it is indeed darker than my other osage set. It can also be darkened much further by UV exposure:

I built a harp guitar with it (http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=554909#p554909) which has hung on the wall in my fairly sunny room for the past few years, and has darkened up quite a bit. But still not as much as that test piece, which sat in a west facing window for a few weeks. I should do another photo shoot of the harp guitar to show the difference.

Osage is translucent like spruce, so the darkening penetrates all the way through thin pieces.

I have a WRC osage orange combo that I have just pore filled. I am not happy with the color match. I do think it will look better as the osage orange darkens. I been considering adding some color to the osage orange to help tie help the color match. Without my bright natural light it looks a little better, second picture.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Hi Aaron,
As Steve mentioned your outline is very close to the edge. Sometimes there are small drying checks and cracks that are not visible to the naked eye at the ends of the board. I try to stay about an inch off each end with the outline if possible.

Hi John P.
You could add toner to the finish to put some red into the Osage and get it closer to the top wood. When I have a side set that doesn't match the back I will tone one or the other to pull them together. After I get a good match I bury it under several coats of clear, so I don't have to worry about sanding through when I level and buff the finish.

No end checks here. This set dried as a much longe piece and was only recent cut down to size. There is, however, a hairline crack that runs diagonally on the right piece at the bottom where the dark spot shows. Unfortunately, that didn’t stick out until the piece was cut down and thicknessed. No worries though. There’s plenty of wood at the top, even before factoring in binding depth. I’ve worked with less. The joys of working with rare wood.


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Aaron Craig

My 2 cents worth . For that OO , lutz or euro spruce. Redwood IMHo is a PITA to work with too brittle for SS , especially when the humidity drops like a rock in winter here in the KC metroplex. WRC is way more stable here

Wait until the humidity drops like a rock and then brace it, and it will be humidity-proof forever.

I brace at 35% RH and regulate the shop closely year round, keeping it at 40% generally. I like working with Redwood. It has a lower dimensional change coefficient than Sitka and many other spruce varieties. Sinker Redwood can certainly be brittle though.


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Aaron Craig

Gud luck with your project!

I used potassium permanganate to darken EIR for color matching, with a natural looking result. I haven't had it work on padouk, but maybe it would have an effect on OO.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com