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I've recently seen a guitar I quite fancy. It's a Mixta.
The sound board is the usual spruce affair but the sides are a mixture of cypress and rosewood. The cyrpess half joining to the (front) soundboard and the rosewood half joining to the back.
The back is again cypress with a rosewood strip down the middle in line with the neck.
From what I understand it could be described as a 'snappy sounding negra' or a slightly more resonant blanca.
Does anyone have any experience of such a combination and if so what are your thoughts on this design.
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
sounds like it would be difficult for the sides not to expand and contract at different rates. are there (for lack of a better word) side strips between the pieces?
I wonder if the reason we don't see more of these is the expansion contraction issue. perhaps ?
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
quote:
are there (for lack of a better word) side strips between the pieces?
Good question, not sure. I'll take a closer look. The way the different woods behave over time is what concerns me. Instead of maturing gracefully they might conflict with each other. Maybe not, but I do wonder why you don't see this design often.
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
quote:
ORIGINAL: sean65
Hi guys,
I've recently seen a guitar I quite fancy. It's a Mixta.
The sound board is the usual spruce affair but the sides are a mixture of cypress and rosewood. The cyrpess half joining to the (front) soundboard and the rosewood half joining to the back.
The back is again cypress with a rosewood strip down the middle in line with the neck.
From what I understand it could be described as a 'snappy sounding negra' or a slightly more resonant blanca.
Does anyone have any experience of such a combination and if so what are your thoughts on this design.
I got one of these from Jeff Sigurdsonn some years back. Nice sounding guitar - more like a negra than a blanca. No problem with the wood cracking so far - and I live in a very dry region, especially if I forget to use a humidifier.
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
i suppose if you take a look at the backs of baroque guitars and lutes you see the interleaved staves of different woods. but even them theres some sort of purfling between the staves typically.
someone told me it was pear and boxwood, but i suspect that those two are more similar than cypress and rosewood!
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
I think the reason you don't see more blanca/negra hybrids is just plain old tradition. The only exceptions I can see being made is if the new idea is from someone famous, ie PdL and the negra.
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
I have made a few guitars with the backs in cypress and rio rosewood strips but cypress sides. It always seems a bit fragile to join the sides although in baroque guitars this was common. The sound was darker that a blanca and looked great although not in tradition
Posts: 22
Joined: Oct. 24 2009
From: Mendocino, Ca.
RE: Mixing woods Blanca/Negra (in reply to sean65)
I'd like to try building a blanca with black stained cypress back and sides, and a negra with bleached rosewood back and sides to try in a blind test to see if players could tell which was which.
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