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I need your support Please I have a question about wood and specially (Cypress wood) , i am now in the process of having a new blanca guitar and the guitar is under construction and finally everything in its place and all same like i have chosen from wood ,but something suddenly happened specially in the back that the wood got flamed and that was very clear after the first stage of french polishing annd the constructor told me that this is the first time it happened for a guitar he works in..My question is it something good or bad ?does it have any impact on sound or even in its resale value? specially that he offered me if i dont like it he can make me another guitar.. i found a guitar picture with same case but bare in mind that it is not the same guitar ... so i will appreciate if anyone had experienced something like this and can tell me about it? thank yo all and have a nice weekend.. http://www.berkeleymusic.com/Hausercyp.html
i know but mine is up side down Christmas tree .. it looks very unique but i want and accurate info about that ..thank you Ramzi for your replay anyways
hi doublek, What species of cypress is it? I've seen a tiny bit of flame figure in some sets of Monterrey Cypress like the one I just built with (only around the end block though, not on the back). As far as impact on sound it's not an issue. Resale..I don't know, the only problem I see is that you'll have to explain to everybody that it's not maple. But some people might find it cool.
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i woudlnt worry about it, people build with flamed woods all the time, in most cases it is actually desired visually. The only noticable difference it would make it how the wood works, flamed and figured woods can be slightly more difficult to work.
the reason some wood show flame of figure is because of the way the tree grows, some tree's grow straight up, where other sortof curl when they grow.
theres a clip on youtube where Mr. Taylor explians how flamed maple grows, ill try to find the vid for you and post it here
here is the video, the same thing can happend in alot of tree species example: walnut, myrtle, koa, mahogany, it even happens in rosewoods and ebonies
EDIT: one thing i find hard to imagine is that the builder didnt notice before the french polish stage, when figured wood is being planed it often shows that there is some figure present.
EDIT: one thing i find hard to imagine is that the builder didnt notice before the french polish stage, when figured wood is being planed it often shows that there is some figure present.
Yep, I noticed mine just looking at it. If the wood is cut even a degree off quarter you can see the grain undulating side to side.. and even if it's not it's still noticable, even if the guy just uses a thickness sander
What a nice and very informative video, I know people do build with flamed and quilted woods , and many times they are sought after for the effect , I have a guitar with a Curly maple top ( although this is not the same as it is an electric ) but still the effect is almost 3D. It looks great , I have never heard that it would change the sound of an acoustic ( better or worse) and I would think it doesn't ,
quote:
EDIT: one thing i find hard to imagine is that the builder didnt notice before the french polish stage, when figured wood is being planed it often shows that there is some figure present.
yeah I thought as well, how come . and in your first post you said
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,but something suddenly happened specially in the back that the wood got flamed
I dont think the wood suddenly got flamed ! it was there all the time by growth , I can only think that perhaps somehow the polishing process brought it out to be more noticable , I would go with the guitar you may have something more unique, as for price make sure you dont get charged MOre for it ....
the guitar has to be played really to see if its what you want or not .
Thank you all , @Deteresa1 i think i am going to leave it as it is may be its going to be something special .. you never know..but only the maple part which makes me worry.. @Gimar thank you for the video it was nice of you and it really helped @Rico thank you played the role of reality which i can not decide till it between my hands .. i like it man
Don't worry about it. Usually you see flame or figure ahead of time. Some makers even wipe the wood with alcohol or do as small sample of shellac on a scrap to see how the finish will look.
His blunder, I think he really should have known it was there prior to any finish. You deserve some kind of discount, as you mentioned it is upside down from the norm this may have an effect future resale. I'm not suggesting you try to rip him off or anything but a little extra beer money never hurt either
There's no norm for figure direction....you can see it going up or down on many fine instruments. On thousands of very high quality violins the figure can move at an oblique angle to the center line on a one piece slab back. I've seen two piece backs where on half of the back was flipped to make oblique lines from the center.
I'd say more of a happy accident. Celebrate it, there are too few happy accidents in life.
This is mildly flamed cypress on a Navarro. I've seen other pictures of flamed back Navarro's so maybe it is not that uncommon. I don't think anyone would mistake it for maple. I think it looks fine.
hunter
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