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Got any interesting ideas? Besides Maple? Someone suggested orange Peala..

Bloodwood might look nice.
I did a walnut slab git, with bloodwood,
thinking it might look garish,
but I think it looks great.

Here's one I did a while back with amazon rosewood binding. That is of course if you're talking Malaysian Blackwood.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

African, Maylasian or Taz?

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Pat

Nah. Nah. It's just "black" wood. He charred it black. No doubt, Mike, go with Holy.

Andy

Spruce top? My default choice would be koa. Or Tasmanian blackwood, for the name But there are plenty of others that would look good too, including paela. Maybe snakewood, desert ironwood, marblewood, ipe, hickory, anything light colored and spalted.

Or if the top is redwood, then pink ivory or purpleheart would be striking.

African Blackwood. Love that stuff. It seems to me rather unimaginative to use curly maple. It would look good in contrast. But...

Hmm. Another vote for paela! Snake wood is interesting!

Cocobolo can look nice against a dark wood.

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I'd go the full tuxedo look and use AB bindings with a fine w/b/w purfling between. But that's just me.

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If paela is chakte viga, I think it'd look nice. I would also consider boxwood, simillar in color to ABW sap. If you want contrast, that is - if not rod's suggestion seems spot on.

Cheers!

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A couple of times now when building with blackwood I went with BRW for bindings and really like the look. The BRW brings out the purple and browns well in the blackwood.

Of course you do have to know that the resulting instrument will not be a border crosser if going with BRW these days. I'll try to find a pic of the results to post too.

I like Rod's suggestion or snakewood.

Almost anything will look good with a dark wood. So that's good news. Might I suggest considering the rest of the guitar and that might give you preferences? For example, what do you want to do with the rosette? Are there color preferences? What's the top wood? Neck wood? Snakewood looks great, but it is expensive and can be tricky to work with.

Andy

Blood wood with a rather purple/pink hue with red/blue/red puflings from gurian. African black wood with a spruce top.

Now that I see it posted ,the bindings do not look at all like they do on the guitar. Not sure why, much more red/purple/pink ....

I think Koa works well.

One more vote for koa. Tortoise shell would look nice too if you can find some that's more amber than black

I bought a bunch of curly Koa from some fellow here. That might me the ticket. But I'd need a curly koa veneer

Anybody got pictures of Peala binding?

That bevel is a veneer. I have a ton of it if you want to drop me a line, I can hook you up.

I'm with Rod. Black binding with just a fine BWB purf to delineate. That would look understated, but very slick, even more so if there's a beautiful streak of pale sapwood showing.

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

Black Limba, Koa, Cocobolo, Snakewood, Bloodwood are all good choices. It might depend on your fretboard and top choices also.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Some tasteful ideas so far, but who says it has to be wood? I for one think it would be fascinating to see what someone could do with fibers and fabrics in this application (hereinafter "carpet").

Not only would slicing strips of carpet be inexpensive, it would also be innovative, add to player comfort, and increase the amount of protection the bindings really provide. The visual opportunities would be seemingly endless. A quick trip to any carpet store presents you with an endless spectrum of browns, creams, speckles, textures, and piles.

When we had hardwood floors, any opportunity to take our shoes off and walk on carpet felt like a mini-miracle. I'd argue that the player experience, particularly for a player coming from an instrument where seemingly everything is made hard, dense wood, would be much the same.

Give it some thought.

Well, that's interesting.

I'd also vote for Blackwood binding with mitered bwb purfling.

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