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Bamboo bracing
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Author:  Aerith [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Bamboo bracing
A while back when I used to have a corean flatmate, who was asking some questions about lutherie, he suddenly asked me if Bamboo could be used in guitar making.

The very idea of using bamboo first sounded quite "weird", so we looked on the internet and found that some guitars had indeed been made out of bamboo.

Personnally, making the whole guitar out of bamboo sounds a bit too extreme, and I have never had the chance to hear one in real so I wouldn't go for it. But since then I've been thinking about using bamboo for the bracing.

Think about it one minute, Bamboo is known to be very solid, yet light and flexible, and the grain is as far as I know very straight. So before I go testing and comparing flexibility/solidity/densty etc etc with more traditionnal bracewood to make up my mind if I should give it a try, here is the question:

Has anyone ever heard, or tried, or even thought about using bamboo exclusively for bracing, and what is your opinion about such an idea?

my second question directed to the most experimented of us: Do you feel that using a different wood for bracing made an actual noticable difference? and which would be the best in your opinion?

Cheers
Author:  Rick Davis [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
Question #1: No, don't know, who knows? and bad.
Question #2: Yes, the one with the best stiffness to weight ratio.

Bamboo is a cool structural material (for floors, some furniture, fly rods, etc.). The properties that make it good for those uses make it a less-than-wonderful material for guitars. It's quite flexible and fairly dense, it has high internal damping, regular and unavoidable nodes, and it's not wood -- it's grass! Taken together, that means it's a heavy noodle and, as a rule, that's the opposite of the qualities that make good instrument material.

Stick with spruce. Of the common woods, it has the best stiffness/weight ratio, it's tough, it glues well, damping is reasonably low ... there really are reasons woodworkers have selected certain woods for guitars over the four or five centuries they've been fooling around with them.
Author:  Aerith [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
Well... sounds like bambo's out [uncle]
Author:  Hesh [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
I always say if it pings well when tapped and it has all the other qualities that I want in bracewood/topwood such as no runout, stiffness, light weight, not environmentally irresponsible it's a possibility.

Have you ever tapped bamboo - might not get past the first of my own criteria.
Author:  Steve Davis [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
Im not so sure i would write it off so quick.
As a half pipe glued to a flat surface it would be quite stiff with a natural taper.
people spend alot of time carving "nodes" into braces
as to weight it would have to be really dry
and whether or not it would take glue?????
sounds like a very cheap fun experiment
Author:  Daniel Minard [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
I don't know about bamboo, but I want a chance to crew on Steve's trimaran!
With apologies to the less distractable among us.
Author:  Steve Davis [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
Daniel
If ever you come to the British Virgin Islands
that can be arranged [:Y:]
Author:  alan stassforth [ Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
mill up a piece of bamboo the same size as a piece of spruce, and flex em and see how they differ in strength.
then, if the bamboo is stronger, mill it until it's the same as the spruce. interesting.
i tried that with some white cedar.
test ended cuz it was way too weak.
let us know!
Author:  Rick Davis [ Thu Jul 29, 2010 3:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
Todd (et al.):
I did, even though I knew. Save it for fly rods.

Yes, a cored section would be stiffer than, e.g., a narrower or less tall piece, but that doesn't answer the basic questions -- what are the elastic modulus and density? Both are higher than spruce: bamboo is heavier and more flexible. It doesn't make sense to use it in an application where stiffness/weight is important.

Does it ring? Fly rod makers have long extolled bamboo's ability to "damp" vibration. Hmmm. Is that a virtue in a guitar?

Did you ever hear the bamboo guitar Yamaha made back in '98? They made one, then stopped.

The USDA Forest lab just published the centennial edition of the wood handbook. You can download it for free at:
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publi ... eader_id=p

It has loads of important info about many domestic and imported species.
Author:  Steve Saville [ Thu Jul 29, 2010 4:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
Aerith,
When contemplating ideas that are a change from tradition it is good to ask what problem are you trying to solve, how will this idea solves that problem, and what might be some unintended consequences of the change.

I can imagine changes in bracing to something like bamboo solving some perceived problems, but it will also create other changes. Maybe those changes are good for your purposes, maybe not. It is up to you to decide.
Author:  Greg [ Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bamboo bracing
I'd be interested to know if the bamboo bracing works out. I suspect that when luthiers began building they used what the had nearby.. spruce, maple...
Bamboo may not be a good choice compared to spruce but who knows, it may change the standards of building. Bamboo is a pretty dense wood.
It is making inroads into home construction, design and a whole host of uses never tried before. Go for it. The worst that happens is a good experiment.
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