Another guitar is coming down the pipeline for me. I recently fully retired and have now moved full time to the Lone Star State. To honor both of these events, I have asked Steve and Ryan to build a guitar with all Texas woods.
Although not the first guitar I have seen from this wood, it is pretty rare, that is a Mesquite back and sides. We are using dark Texas ebony for back strip and binding. The fretboard will also be Texas ebony. The innards are also Tx woods, local Sweet Bay (magnolia) to use as blocks as well as some Eastern Red Cedar for lining.
The neck will be Mesquite also with laminations of basswood, which also grows in Texas and in fact I have been informed that the champion Tx Basswood grows right in little ole' Nacogdoches. My request for them to go cut off a branch or two to use in the neck was denied however.
The rosette will be spalted Hackberry which I actually gave to them at B.I.G. for fun. It was a cutoff of some Hackberry that I had after building a floating shelf for the lovely Kathy and the colors were so cool I thought they might find a use for it, not expecting it to be in my guitar.
There will also be an inlay on the headstock of the famous Texas Bluebonnet done by Steve.
What about the top you might ask. Well it is Sitka from the Sitka forests of Texas, OK, well I lied, Sitka is not in Texas. However, this particular board was purchased in Texas, by Steve, from a shipyard near Galveston I think it was over 50 years ago. Steve found it at the back of a repair shop to use for ship masts. It had been there a long time before he bought it, so we are saying that since it has been in Texas for well over 50 years, it is officially Texas Sitka.
Ok pictures. First is the Mesquite back with dark Texas Ebony laying over it for the back strip. For those who have worked with Mesquite you can appreciate how hard it is to find a clean board like this.
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Bending the sides which I was told was not too easily done with the Mesquite.
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