Anyone built with Nara

[Szk]

Trying to find some info on Nara. It isn't a Rosewood, although it's also referred to as New Guinea Rosewood. Am wondering about the tone it imparts on an instrument and how it would compare to the Rosewoods, overtones, etc. I've built with EIR, Osage, and Walnut

[Halcyon/Tinker]

We have one on the go. It's tap tone is very much closer to the mahogany spectrum of things. It's veyt beautiful and bent very well.

[ewh2]

I played a Narra Webber. It's closer to the Mahogany side of things.

It's referred to as New Guinea Rosewood, but it's in the Padauk family but sounds nothing like Padauk!

[Trevor M]

Here's some photos of the Webber.





More on my website.

[Szk]

Originally Posted by Halcyon/Tinker

We have one on the go. It's tap tone is very much closer to the mahogany spectrum of things. It's veyt beautiful and bent very well.

Will be interested in how it turns out. Are you building with the yellowish or darker reddish? The red is supposedly more dense.

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Without another sample to compare to, I couldn't say...

[Jim.S]

Top notch guitar wood.

Here is a soundclip of a 13 inch PNG Rosewood parlour, Dry with no effects.

[Fsgeek]

I believe Michael Bashkin built one w Nara before.
Nara is the most expensive wood here in the Philippines

[Jimbolaya]

I recall a narra Randall Kramer prairie grass at Schoenberg's a few years ago.
Not like rosewood. More like hog, but different.
It was interesting and might have to play it for a while to really get to know it.
I didn't like it enough to buy it. But that could have been other factors as well.
Not my favorite body shape, for instance.

[WhistlingFish]

Here's a Narra guitar built some time ago by Matt Mustapick:






I have two back and side sets whose figure is very similar, and I can't wait to use it.

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by Fsgeek

I believe Michael Bashkin built one w Nara before.
Nara is the most expensive wood here in the Philippines

It's the national tree of the Philippines!

[Howard Klepper]

It is much harder, stiffer, and denser than mahogany. Usually spelled narra, BTW.

Here's a set waiting to become a guitar, if some client should choose it. But people are very cautious about woods they don't know. I may just have to build it into a spec guitar.

[Dave Higham]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

I may just have to build it into a spec guitar

I'm sure you meant a spectacular guitar Howard.

[AJGorman]

I commissioned a custom David Webber Roundbody a few years ago with a beautiful set of Narra with an Engelmann top. It's on the warmer side of tonality, somewhere in between mahogany and walnut, IMHO. Solid round bottom, defined midrange, and shimmery highs.

It was a spectacular guitar, and I wish I still had it. Alas, at the time I did not realize the difficulties I had playing were the result of severe carpal tunnel, and not the specs of the guitars I had at the time. I have since been cured with surgery, and wish I still had the Narra and a couple of others.

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by The Acoustic Music Co (TAMCO) UK

Here's some photos of the Webber.


More on my website.

What's the extra bit of cross grain wood and purfling at the bottom of the cutaway?