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Old 09-16-2010, 08:18 PM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Chugiak, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zigeuner View Post
I think Nato is another name for what I've heard called Phillipine mahogany. It's used widely in laminated guitars.
No, not unless nato is a "common name" that gets applied to a number of different species of trees.

So-called "Philippine mahogany" is luan, which is a considerably lower quality wood than nato is.

I worked for a couple of years in a touristy store in Crown Center in Kansas City playing and selling mountain dulcimers and kits for them, mostly made from luan. The better quality kits and instruments had genuine solid walnut and spruce vibrating plates, but probably 90% of what I sold was made from luan.

It's not something I'm proud of...I mean, I liked the job at the time, mainly because I was getting paid to stand around and play dulcimer and other instruments and talk to people all day long, both of which tasks I'm pretty good at.

But I suspect that - if the Roman Catholic Church is correct and there IS a Purgatory - I'm likely to spend ten or twenty thousand years in Purgatory for having sold so many crappy luan dulcimer kits to so many nice, unsuspecting people.

Luan is trashwood, at least so far as musical instrument construction is concerned. Nato is not.


Wade Hampton Miller
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