Official Luthiers Forum!

I often like to bind my guitars in the same wood as the sides and call this "stealth bindings."

Here is a BRW guitar bound in BRW.



This guitar is EIRW and bound in BRW.



And this one is Tasmainian Tiger Myrtle bound in Tiger Myrtle on the back and ebony on the top side to match the black top. The ebony is not painted.

Curly koa with EIR:



Lutz spruce with English walnut:



Curly eucalyptus with khaya:

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Is that first one yours, Dave? Don't recall seeing it before. Nice! And unique!

Admit I've never seen spruce binding either. Isn't it kinda soft? Looks great, though!

_________________
Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Wes,

Yes the first one is mine. I posted about it here. The Lutz binding is on my first Weissenborn. I was struggling to find long enough bindings and remebered Mario saying how he used spruce bindings when he wanted an old time ivory look. Shane was able to make me up some Lutz bindings long enough and they worked great. The only problem was taping them on for glueing - I forgot about the tearout from the tape but once I got used to this it was fine. Under finish they have worked great on the instrument for the last year and a half or so and pick up no more dents under daily use than other hardwood bindings. Any binding will dent if you hit it hard enough.

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Howard, thanks for the extra shots.
I'm encouraged how much alike the Yellowheart and Satinwood look.
Plus, the YH looks great against mahogany. Good stuff.

Dave, you get one vote here for "Most Adventurous Builder".
You always seem to pull out combinations that have never been seen or heard of. (And they look good to boot.)

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Here's a view of Oregon Myrtle trimmed out in Bocote.
Yes, I've been on a Bocote kick of late.



Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Steve, mixing the yellowheart and Ceylon satinwood has worked out well for me. But the yellowheart is definitely a more intense, chromium kind of yellow, while the satinwood is more like French vanilla ice cream. I just want to cover my butt here in case you find the yellowheart binding to be a bit on the strong side. Maybe a test piece with the body woods under a bit of finish would be a good idea.

Kudos to all the OLFers showing their work on this thread. Great stuff!

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Sage advice, especially w/ untried combinations!
Things usually "look" better in one's head than in real life.

Butt covered and thanks,
Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Ebony on Macassar Ebony:

_________________
Kent

Facebook Page

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

That is really some nice work Howard!

What is that John? Looks nice.

Snake-o-lam or Hog-o-lam?

I cut up some curly mahogany mahogany and used it between the stuff.

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

_________________

------------------------------------------------------
Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

This is the Flamenco I am building. I still have a few coats of nitro to add and buffing out, but you get the idea.....

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

I don't have pictures of my third, which I feel is my best one so far, but here some pictures of my second. Flamed koa on EIR.

_________________
I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Not even close to what's been posted, but I know it'll get better in a decade or so. Here's an archtop uke I did with purpleheart binding on maple.

So did this thing just die? Lance, Brock, I thought we were making it a permanent fixture?

_________________
Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

WOW! Some beautiful pictures. I don't feel worthy to post, but I'll give it a go.

Bubinga on EI rosewood.


Ziricote on myrtle/Adi.


Koa on walnut.


Bloodwood on EI rosewood.


Maple on bubinga.


Manzanita on oak.


Bloodwood on koa.

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Katalox (with B.E. Maple/Walnut/B.E. Maple purfling) on Bubinga:



-Dennis

_________________
Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Brazilian Rosewood with Zebrawood Back and Sides.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Still one of my all time favorite combos

Narra bound with Snakewood

That's beautiful work there, Michael. Total class. The snakewood binding running into the end wedge looks absolutely seamless.

Nice treatment of the cutaway, Dennis.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.