Jack Spira built a shorter scale (610mm) zouk for me a couple of years back. It's an absolutely wonderful instrument and I've decided to add a longer scale zouk to the stable.
Jack and I started talking about the next zouk a year ago. At the time, Jack was planning on moving his workshop to another town in Australia. He offered to get it done before his move but I wasn't in a hurry and said it could wait until after he was settled. He's finally settled into his new place and my zouk is the first instrument being built there.
I've long been intrigued by the stories I've heard about how wonderful mandolins and zouks built with King Billy Pine sound. Since we had a long wait ahead of us, I asked Jack to see if he could get his hands on a good set of King Billy for the top. After some months, that happened. We decided to pair the King Billy top with Australian back and sides.
FYI - The dark spots on the King Billy Pine are sap marks that will disappear when sanded.
Here are the sets Jack is using for my new zouk...
At some point in the conversation, I decided I wanted this build to consist of only Australian woods, the only exceptions being for the bracing and linings. Jack was very helpful in providing lots of pictures of various species for me to consider. Everything is in place now except for the fretboard.
These are the full specs:
Top - King Billy Pine
B/S - Australian Blackwood
Neck - QLD Maple
Fingerboard - to be determined
Bindings - Beefwood
Faceplate - Blackwood
Tuners - Schertler open-back metallic with ebony knobs
Scale - 650mm
Nut width - 34mm
Bridge - pin style
We went back and forth on rosette ideas and the one I was most excited about was to create a patchwork rosette out of native timbers. Jack used Gidgee, Tiger Myrtle, and QLD Silky Oak, for the bigger pieces, and Swamp Red Gum for the dividers. I'm totally digging how beautifully it came out. I'm really excited about this build.
