Official Luthiers Forum!

Just got back from the mill . The owner says he will cut 1/4 sawn stock for me in 3 weeks.This locust is dark pink with red and white swirls. Just love the color .Have used it for bridges and necks but have not made a gtr yet out of locust. If you have , what is your opinion of this wood for B&S??

Ask Al Carruth.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Post pics when you receive it.......would love to see it.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Most of my guitars have been Brazilian rosewood, but one of the best ones I have made was black locust.
QS two-piece backs are tough to find because the larger trees tend to have heart defects.

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John

Thanks john.That/s what I noticed at the mill yesterday. About 3 years ago I found some locust on a power line right away, the best I could do was cut it up into 4-5 in chunks to get 1/4 sawn stock.The sawyer mostly cuts for furniture slash sawn stock. He offered me a 1/4 sawn piece yesterday with the heart in the middle , it was rotten. Will have to resaw to get 4in wide stock. Did you just glue up narrower pieces , to get your back ???? regards ernie

Black locust has been on my radar since the 1970's. One of my first guitars had a four-piece slab-cut locust back made from a 4X4. Over the years I have found a few logs that were large enough for quartered two-piece backs (17"+ diameter), but most have had rot or black ant colonies in the heart. In 1994, I was lucky enough to find a log that was large enough and clear enough to make quartered backs.
OTOH, this wood is so stable that I have no problem using slab or rift cut on the back.

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John

I've only made one black locust guitar myself, but it turned out very nice. The wood seems to be pretty close to IRW in properties; a bit less dense but otherwise comparable.

The locust we have here is very dense IMHO . Harder to carve than EIR. or osage Thanks for the tip abt the slab stuff. Have been reluctant to use it , as it is not perfectly quartered . I used a froe and a maul to split it up, and this wood is vy hard. and heavy.

I thought that stuff would be impossible to bend and work with. It is pretty stout wood!

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Have not bent any locust sides. Can use watlow heater, and classical alum overholtzer bending jig, so will try to bend some soon.

The only problem I had when bending BL was when it was too thick. These days, I tend to thickness the sides based on the feel. It is a very stiff wood on average, and 0.075" is usually about the right thickness for bending.

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John

Thanks john for the heads up. I was thinking more like .90 or about 2.3 mm for gtrs, guess I wil make a trial run to bend uke locust sides at .60, and see how that works . I could always strengthen it with .22 cypress veneer. for guitars as well.

I have been thinking about trying black locust. Any pictures out there of finished guitar with black locust B&S?

David my resaw bandaw needs repair. Otherwise would send you a pic . The BL around here is an intense pink/CREAM with lots of REDDISH BRWN swirls.