Feedback from the Forum About Tone/Sound/Qualities of Bubinga
 

I am contemplating a build order (I know, bad GAS right now) using an incredible looking set of Bubinga with an Adi top. Ive never played or heard an instrument using this tone wood however. Any builders or those who own an instrument made of this wood have any info on the tonal qualities, pros, cons, etc?

I have read up some on older threads from the forum but they all seem to be "all over the place" and no one seems to speak consistently about it...

Any feedback would be great....

Thanks.

For fun I attached photos of the materials I'm considering.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2837/...f529118e_b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7192/...f97f4ece_b.jpg

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2936/...b889e1eb_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5285/...cf272f9e_b.jpg

Extremely beautiful wood. Harder than concrete to sand. Burns easily, even with sharp tools. Interlocking grain makes is difficult to bend. During bending it can facet on tight radii. Even more difficult to finish. Tap tone is about as exciting as cardboard but it can be made into a decent guitar if you try really hard.

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THIS is the kind of stuff I lack knowing. Great to know. Thank you, Mr. Mcknight.

Bubinga
 

Well..... I have two custom James Goodall guitars with Bubinga back and sides. One with Sitka spruce top, and one with Port Orford Cedar top. Both guitars are outstanding IMHO. I guess I would call Bubinga somewhere between Mahogany and Rosewood in tone, but as we all know this gets to be quite subjective. Bottom line for me is that both my Goodall guitars in Bubinga are keepers!

Thanks, Reso1. Do you find any commonalities in the two guitars that you attribute to the Bubinga? Anything stand out? Highs, mids, lows?

Built one out of Waterfall Bubinga with Sitka Top. Sounded great, probably would not be on a future build list because of workability. Got that Bubinga there done that out of my system.

Bubinga
 

Well... I would call Bubinga well balanced, especially in the hands of James Goodall. Now... I only play finger-style, and I play in lots of open turnings. So for my style, it works well... Warm and well balanced to my ear. Both guitars are Jumbo models, one a 12 string (Port Orford) and one a Baritone (Sitka bearclaw top).

The Baritone has Bubinga similar to what you have pictured, and my 12 string has highly figured "bees wing" Bubinga.

Hope that helps.....

Absolutely. Thanks so much! I guess "waterfall" is the style of this particular set?

This made me LOL...:lol:

I'm guessing that there will be very few Bubinga McKnight's running around here!! Not sure how they sound, but a very pretty wood to look at.

If you see a bubinga McKnight, snap that bad boy up!! Its a VERY limited edition!!!

My experience has been similar to Tim's in some ways. Yes bubinga is difficult to work. It can facet when bending. It's hard to sand and burns easily. But I didn't find it hard to finish and my sets didn't tap much like cardboard. Though they weren't bright and ringing like rosewood there is a deep tone with moderately good sustain. I've only worked with beeswing figured sets which are generally quartersawn. I haven't worked with the more recently popular waterfall figured sets or the special tight quilt figured sets which may be more difficult to bend. They have the added disadvantage of being flatsawn making them possibly more prone to cracking though bubinga is tough and fibrous generally. The set you show is beeswing and not waterfall figure.

Here is a page with a bubinga small jumbo style guitar that I made for TAMCO with Trevor's description of the sound. http://www.theacousticmusicco.co.uk/...n-guitars.html Your set would probably look similar when finished.

The bubinga guitars that I have made have been powerful expressive instruments. For me the one problem that I have with bubinga is that I don't get many orders for it.

My custom Brook Tavy has a bubinga back and sides. I find it very punchy, superb bass, very balanced. Like mahogany on steroids!

You can hear it hear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQakKdamA8c

Robbiej

Robbie, that sounds awesome! Didn't mean to rain on anyone's parade but my limited uses of Bubinga (2 builds) has soured me on ever using it again. Both customers still have their guitars and are happy with them. One customer commented that the highs on his seem to be fatter than any guitar he has ever owned which incidentally sounds similar to Robbie's guitar.

Ken, I played that guitar in TAMCO, it was a great guitar.

I've played a few Bubinga guitars, and I really like every one that I've played. Difficult to generalise a tonewood, but I'd say it's a little on the bright side of things (not as much as Padauk though), and the Bubinga guitars which I tried all had a clear tone across the frets.

Great tonewood to my ears anyway. It's a shame it's not that popular.