Official Luthiers Forum!

The management was kind enough to give me permission to post this here.

I happened into the middle of an old stash of Redwood that was just begging to be made into guitar tops. It seems that about 40-50 years ago, a man who worked in an Idaho sawmill stashed away a lot of 8" wide redwood boards just thick enough to re-saw into guitar sets. The original owner is ill and aging and needed to sell it. The folks who bought it did so under the request that it be put to a "good use". They thought, and I happen to agree, that guitars are a pretty good use. They brought it to Dake Traphagen to grade. He separated out all the quartered stock, marked the sets to avoid knots and other flaws and called me about re-sawing.

I re-sawed it and we ended up with over 100 sets and would like to offer them up here first.

This wood was well stored, is well aged and in great condition. There are a small number of sets that could carefully be made into 15-3/4" guitars but the vast majority will only work for 000/Classical size.

If you are interested, please read through the terms below and contact me by email. kent@chassonguitars.com

Shipping is not included and will be added as actual shipping cost.

There are a few sweet sets priced at $60. These sets show the traditionally sought after qualities of straight, even grain and even color with lots of silk.



There are also some nice $50 sets that have some attractive (to me anyway) figure or special interest. Maybe some light flame, interesting color, some dramatic silking or maybe they are just extra tight grain or extra stiff.




Most sets at $40. These are very nice sets! Grain lines may not be perfectly straight and lines per inch may vary more over the width of the board.




There are also a number of sets priced at $25. These have still more "character" and can be quite beautiful but in a less traditional way. Some of these are sets that look like higher grade but are 3 to 5 degrees off quarter.




And there are a few narrow parlor sets priced at $15.

Thin tops? Skins for double tops? There are still more potential sets that are thinner. With great care and a little luck on my end, these can be sawn and 90% of the saw marks sanded out at about .115". If there's enough interest, I could mill up some very nice sets for $25 apiece.

I need to require a minimum order of 5 sets. I just don't have the time to package and ship 100 individual sets. I'll look into it but I'm probably going to limit it to US shipping. Not sure I want to deal with customs.

There is quite a variety of all characteristics; lines per inch, color, density, etc. I am very willing to try to meet specific requests and would much rather spend time with that than have stuff returned. But I can't take photos of every piece.

Also note that I would like to get the bulk of the orders squared away. then ship them all in late July. I may be able to accommodate a few people that need stuff sooner but most will have to wait.

Thanks for looking!

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Kent, I'm a sucker for a deal. I'll take 5 of the $60 sets, even though I'm a Spruce person. Someone may ask for a Redwood top some day! No rush for me, at all.

If you don't have 5 of those, split it up with the $50 sets. Or if someone is dying to have some. I don't want to be a hog (no pun intended)! Just want to make sure I have a few sets of the good ones.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks Waddy. Please send me an email with any specific preferences and I'll get back to you with details.

And thanks to whoever stuck this at the top!

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

I will take one of the $60.00 sets and 4 of the parlor size.
Steve

Nice lookin' redwood!!! Although I do see the colors, maybe a swipe o' naphta or something to expose that beautiful grain! Been buildin' a few r'woods lately and enjoying the warm tone of the wood.....amazing where that ole growth turns up.....

Thanks for all the orders. Looks like this stuff won't get turned into birdhouses after all!

The $60 sets are all gone.

Please do remember to contact me by email. kent@chassonguitars.com

That way, I'll have your email address and I can have all the orders in one place.

Also, note that I said most sets are OOO or classic sized. There are many that are 8" wide or close that can work for dreads if you are careful in joining and particularly if you are willing for them to be narrow by the width of your binding. But mostly, count on netting a 14.5" to 15.25" top.

And one thing I forgot to mention, I am involved mainly to help this wood find a good home. Checks will be made to the owner in Idaho and Idaho residents will have to pay sales tax.

Thanks again.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

I'll take three parlor size sets and two $50 sets.
I'll follow up with an email.
Dan

Thanks for all the orders. We are now out of parlor sets as well as the $60 sets.

Everything else is still available.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Can you post pics of the more interesting colored sets ? any stripes ?

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

I'll try to get some up tomorrow.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

OK, here were the first 3 tops off the $25 pile. Again, there is a broad variety. These pics have added contrast to show the colors better, more what they would look like wet.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

got any 36" long ones for a weiss?

I've got several longer pieces that haven't been resawn but most were avoided due to some kind of flaw. I'll take a look.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Hey Kent, I've got another special request for you... are there any boards about the right size for violin tops?
I'd like to try a redwood/walnut fiddle sometime, and this stash you've stumbled across sounds like a prime place to find such things.

Length is 14 inches, top of the arch is 17mm, (about .66 inch), lower bout width is 8 inches. I'd be fine with either one-piece or bookmatched, or maybe even non-bookmatched 2 piece if that's all you've got. Hopefully there are some scraps from the guitar tops that weren't quite long enough, that I could put to use

I'll take 2 or 3 if you have that many suitable pieces, and I'll pick out some guitar tops to fill out to 5 things total.

Oh, and I especially like dramatic colors, like the middle one from the $25 pile you posted, and the redwood tops at Oregon Wild Wood.

Kent, do you know for a fact if the OLF plans (SJ and or MJ or even the OM) will work with these?

Yes, I could dig the plans out, but I was hoping someone familiar with them could chime in ... so sorry for being a lazy butt.

Mike

We understand!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

OK, I finished all my pressing deadlines and can finish this up. All of you that placed orders should have gotten a response with a total.

I'm going to close this out at the end of this week. There are still $50, $40, and $25 tops available until then.

Thanks for helping put this to a good use and thanks to Lance and Brock for letting me post this!




I do have a couple of thin (.300") 6' long boards that are good the whole length. They wouldn't be book-matched but the grain and color match would be good. I could sell those at $40 a board.



Sorry, nothing that thick.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

hey kent.
i think i sent you a pm.
did i?