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I'll be building a guitar for a young man who's parents want it to reflect his Brazilian, Canadian and Japanese heritage. I have some Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides and will get some Lutz from Shane for the top so the Brazilian and Canadian bits are covered. I'm having more of a challenge with the Japanese part. I was trying to fin a source for Paulownia (or Kiri) wood but have had no luck. I'm also not sure what part of a guitar it would be suitable for even if I did find it. Does anyone have any ideas where I could get some of this wood or, for that matter, any ideas about how I could include something Japanese into this guitar?

Thanks,
Pat

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Pat,

Can't help you with the wood, but how about an inlay with a bamboo motif? See my avatar.

Pat

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Use what ever woood you like and put a " Made in Japan " Sticker on the inside ! NO ONE would ever question it !

J/K

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Pat, I've been wanting to build a guitar with a Paulownia top for some time now. It grows all over the place here in Virginia. I've never actually looked for it yet but it's got to be out there somewhere. If you do go with that I'd love to see and hear the finished guitar. I got the idea from a dulcimer maker in North Carolina who swears by it for a top wood.

In fact now I am inspired. I'm gonna look around a bit and if I find any I'll let you know.

try lee valley tools . I know they use jap white and red oak on chiseltool handles, and a magnolia/poplar on their jap saw handles, japan has some similiar woods softwoods/hardwoods as canada

Check out this blog:

http://ngohguitars.blogspot.com/2007/01 ... maker.html

This luthier is in China.

And this link:

http://www.worldpaulownia.com/html/paul ... house.html

They are actually pretty close to me. You'd have to do some resewing though unless they offer that service. Could maybe call and request some quarter sawn stuff.

I don't think Kiri ( Paulownia) would be suitable for a sound board. It is too soft. In old Japan when a baby girl was born it was customary to plant a Kiri tree then when she married have it made into a Tansu chest. An excellent wood for a guitar top would be Hinoki Cypress. It may be difficult to find as it is highly prized in Japan. A very close alternative would be Port Orford cedar.

Port Orford cedar is prized by the Japanese for the construction of temples. I doubt it can be sourced from Japan.

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Cherry?

Without a doubt I'd use cherry for the neck. Not only is it one of the best neck woods available, but it is also the national flower of Japan (chrysanthemum is the Imperial flower). In Japanese Haiku if the word flower is used it always mean cherry blossom. Yep, can't be Japanese if it doesn't have cherry.

Colin

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This is because it is a very close substitute for Hinoki Cypress. It is available in the US for sound boards. http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproduc ... ford+Cedar

+1
Brazilian back/sides, Canadian top, Japanese neck. That's the 3 biggest sections of wood on the thing. I'd do a headstock inlay of cherry blossoms in cherry wood, with Brazilian rosewood branches. Not sure what to use for the background... preferably something Canadian and medium colored, to get all the countries in there. European maple might be light enough to differentiate from the cherry, but bigleaf is just too close I think. I guess western red cedar is a good color, but you'd need some inlays of rosewood or whatever around the tuners for durability.

Pearl such as you use for inlay is a typical japanese gem.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Some great ideas in there.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

You might look into Tamo. Figured Tamo is kind of maple colored but a very unusual figuring. Almost odd looking! I've seen the figuring in veneer quite often, to some degree lumber also.

Here's some small examples-

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(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

You might look into a wood called Sen. It is also called Japanese Ash, but isn't ash at all. I think you can find it quartersawn. It comes from Japan, China and other areas of the far east. Don't know if it would make a good top, but you might look into it.

Ken

Glow-in-the-dark side dots?

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Cheers
Pete

I once built a small parlor guitar (about the size of a Martin 0) for a friend that was Japanese and I used Keyaki (Japanese Zelkova) for the sides and back and Sugi (Japanese Cedar) for the top. Hinoki Cypress is used in Temple contruction and is a very nice wood. I used Sugi as it is closely related to Redwood and Sugi is the national tree of Japan. Sugi is sometimes called Sugi Pine but it is neither a Cedar or a Pine.

The Zelkova is very light weight and golden to light brown when aged but is open pored so it shows the grain well but would require filling. The Sugi is lighter than Redwood and worked and looked very much like lighter Western Red Cedar. The guitar sounded good and was built for fingerstyle playing.

I was not aware of Winkler Woods that Todd mentioned , but in checking out their link I see that they do stock Sugi at a very reasonable price. Because they sell Koa for Guitar sets they may have had Hawaiian luthiers that have tried Sugi as a top wood.

A couple years ago, there was a guy at the Colorado Luthier Show with Paulownia guitars. If I remember correctly he was using it for soundboards, and maybe experimenting with it for the whole instrument. He really liked the stuff. I can't think of who it was though. He was next to Tracy's table. Maybe he'll jump in here.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

How about using Port Orford Cedar for brace wood or a top? The Japanese love this wood and use it to build their sacred temples.

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this sen is rotary sliced, cant use it for guitars