Wenge the new Brazilian?

[Oxwood_Handmade]

I love Wenge in terms of bang for the buck. Much more "ringy" than indian rosewood, IMO. However, it does not bend like rosewood, it DOES deliver splinters by the boat load, and they are not measely splinters but like daggers that bury themselves into your skin and usually break off when you try to pull them out. I took one under the fingernail one day...OOOUUUCH!! Pores are huge and usually take a couple/few rounds of pore filler to get a flat surface.

I also really love the way it looks. It's understated and dark, just the way I like it. Here's a Wenge guitar I built a couple years ago, just lovely. I think Mikealpine, who just had the opportunity to play this fellar can attest to it's tonal attributes. For me, what you get for what you pay definitely outweighs the splinters and utterly cavernous pores.



Brad

[Andy Howell]

I hope it is that good - I have a commissioned guitar in this wood to be delivered around September!

[Eire]

Originally Posted by Oxwood_Handmade

I love Wenge in terms of bang for the buck. Much more "ringy" than indian rosewood, IMO... I also really love the way it looks. It's understated and dark, just the way I like it.

Precisely! This is what I was trying to say back when this thread started last winter (but not as exquisitely!). I was surprised Woody later added that he thought wenge to be tonally similar to EIR; with all due respect to his work as a builder, I too disagree. I've had EIR guitars (and still have one), as well as a wenge guitar and a Braz guitar, both built by Tim McKnight, and the wenge is all but a dead-ringer for the Braz, imo. And yes: Simply love the deep, rich, black and brown grain to this wood. Sounds, though, like it's a good thing I only play a wenge guitar and don't have to build one.

[Dave Murray]

We build a lot with African wenge. Tonally, it seems to compare pretty favorably with East Indian, but with a bit more of a broken-in, dried out sound. It pairs really nicely with western red cedar, lending a little additional clarity.

We also use it sometimes for bridges and fretboards. It's so much lighter than ebony, so it helps the weight balance nicely in your hands, and it's plenty durable. It does take a lot more work to build nice bridges and fretboards with wenge, with lots of pore filling, oiling, etc. to get it looking its best. We also use it sometimes for binding, or for radial purfling around the soundboard.

We haven't had a lot of trouble working with it. It tends to have a bit more bending spring-back than the rosewoods, and any splinters need to be removed pretty quickly or they fester. It can also be a bit more splitty than rosewoods, and a little more responsive to humidity changes. A tighter back radius helps give it some extra wiggle room, and it works best to keep the head block and tail block grain parallel to the side grain to allow all the woods to move together. It's really not much more difficult to build with than any other wood, so we don't up-charge for using it.

[thiseas]

I don't know if wenge is the new BRW but this Kostal guitar with wenge B/S sure sounds wonderfull

Theo

[JSDenvir]

I'm a new builder, so take whatever I say with large chunks of salt, but of the 10 I've built, #8, wenge with a lutz spruce top, was the best I've ever done. Rich, articulate, and with a presence that I'm still trying to recapture.

I strung it up, and my first response was, "holy cr@p, that sounds like a real builder made it."