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Anyone who's successfully used Macassar Ebony for B & S- what sort of thickness did/would you use?
If I target a similar weight as my "normal" EIR back thickness it would be ~ 1.975 mm or 0.78".
Too thin? OK?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I did an om with macassar ebony and I think the back ended up at close to .07. It just felt too heavy when it was thicker. Still plenty stiff.

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Pat

Personally I would leave the back thicker and go for a "reflective" back rather than a "responsive" one. I think the dense less oily woods (ebonys, ziricote, etc) are more brittle and crack prone when worked too thin. That is my impression,from the limited amount I have worked with them, others may know better.

I have a macassar guitar going right now. I got several back sets 5 or 6 years ago and they were all on the thin side and this one was the worst with an area around 0.07" that I massaged into the waist as best I could. Sanded thickness was around 0.075, with one small area near a waist that had to be hand sanded to almost 0.065. A bit thinner than I would have preferred. But I really wanted to build with the macassar so figured the worst back set I had was a good place to start. This being only my 6th guitar and one of a group of 3 I'm working on at the same time. This one has been a closed box for a year now and seems plenty solid and I'm not worried about back strength.

My experience with macassar is that it is pretty tough stuff and seems less likely to split than most other guitar wood. I would probably shoot for back thickness of 0.08 to 0.085 but at 0.075 it seems quite OK. I really like macassar to work with.



Brian R

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Nice looking build Brian!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I would go with 0.075".

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John