Gentlemen, thanks for your kind comments about the wood.
As per my usual inclinations, I told Tom that I was most interested in tone so I asked him to pick some sets from Ervin's stash that were really well quartered, and then tap it, and choose the best.
I'd never really considered Padouk until chatting to Ralph Bown a few years ago: Ralph said it built a great guitar but people tended to pass over it in favour of something more "exotic" or dramatic looking. I mentioned that to Tom and he confirmed that Ervin thought similarly but, again, found that people just didn't commission it. Ervin had bought loads because good quality stuff was not too difficult to get a while back and he was very generous to allow Tom to chose a set for my guitar. I'm sure Tom paid him; haha.
Anyways, here is that self-same piece being glued up in Tom's new workshop in the UK, with a nice ebony backstrip:
The ebony backstrip scraped flush:
And some braces going on the back:
I have some pics of the sides and will post them when I have more time; still trying to learn Flickr after dumping Photobucket.
Cheers,
Steve