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In addition to what Charles Tauber wrote, I recall a time when the most plain, straight grain was desirable in all areas of woodworking, from yachts to furniture to guitars. You'll only find the most plain grain on vintage top-end six-figure guitars (topic for another discussion, to be sure) like 30s Martin 45s. My own take is that plain grain meant a sort of denial of the variability of natural materials at a time when plastics and other synthetics were becoming popular. Also, plain grain was and is the most rare and expensive. Synthetics on the other hand provided control over materials that we hadn't had before; we could then make plain, elegant objects whose visual simplicity was a way to show our ability to overcome the foibles of working with natural materials
Fast forward to today, when perhaps we've had our fill of the perfection we can attain with synthetics and technology, and we want to show off the beauty that nature can offer in the way of natural materials. With wood, what better way to do that than to use sapwood and wild grain? Just my two cents. Pat |
#17
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__________________
Chasson Guitars Web Site |
#18
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#19
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#20
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There's a very good reason to avoid sap wood in boat building: it's far more prone to rot than heartwood.
Sapwood is the part of the tree that had living material in the cells when it was cut. As such it had 'active' ways of defending itself against the things that try to eat trees. When it is no longer possible for the tree to maintain that living material it floods the cells with 'extractives' that can act as passive defenses: fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, and things like silica that can slow down the bugs that try to eat it. These extractives are what give wood it's color. Some can be quite specific to certain types of threats. The 'spiderwebbing' that you see in many tropical woods doesn't follow the grain lines at all: it's made up of different sorts of things that the tree used to fight off various threats. I've seen a dark extractive line in a plank of BRW between the sapwood and a large grub hole. It's known that many plants emit pheremones that attract particular parasitic wasps when they are invaded by beetle grubs, for example. The wasps come in and take care of the problem, breeding new tree defenders in the process. Isn't nature grand (if you're not one of the grubs!)? Until fairly recently you hardly ever saw tropical wood with the sapwood on it; they cut it off as soon as possible so that it would not harbor things that could eat into the tree. I suspect the fact that you see it now is a tribute to faster transportation: trucks rather than river drives. When you did see sapwood on old tropical wood, it was almost always rotted in part, or wormy, and thus unsound. If it's not so damaged it's not all that much different from heartwood in it's properties, as I understand it. Thus there's not a lot of reason to exclude sapwood from guitars, so long as it's not unsound. There's a long history of using sapwood decoratively in instruments: many lutes were made of 'shaded' yew: the sap/heart line went down the center of the ribs, making a back with alternating red and white stripes. Since the sapwood on yew is narrow the ribs were too, and I've seen these with 33 or more ribs making up the bowl. I was told recently that this was done originally to emulate the look of ivory and tortoise shell, but became a fashion in it's own right because of the tonal properties of the yew. |
#21
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I just remembered another reason: Some years ago a student here where I work had brought in his new luthier-built classical guitar. I don't remember what the back and side wood was, but it had sapwood in the center of the back, a bit less common in the classical world. He said the builder had told him the sapwood was included because it would break in according to how he played, as if the sapwood were somehow more sensitive. It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes and groaning.
Pat |
#22
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I'm active duty military and (again) stationed in Germany. Where furniture in the U.S. is mostly plywood and laminates (even in the higher end lines), "MassivHolz" (solid wood) furniture at reasonable prices is quite common in Germany and throughout Europe. Beech is the most common, followed closely by (white) oak. Knots are common, and acceptable. Initially, this seemed "wrong", and I would grade the wood as #1 common at best, and #2 common in most cases. "Select and better" isn't to be found. Germans in particular have "Wildeiche" ("Wild" Oak) as an option, and it has very uneven grain and a higher frequency (and size) of knots. The wife and I have invested in a lot of furniture during this (and previous) tours, because it holds up to frequent moves and you only have to "buy it once". I have overcome the bias of what I would have found unacceptable at one time. As you point out, abundance of inexpensive, select grades of wood is behind us. Our tastes are going to have to change. In general, I'm not a fan of sapwood, although there are tasteful applications (Kent Chasson's pics being a perfect example). |
#23
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Wow is all I got!
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Adam My guitars: 2006 Martin D16R 2013 Taylor 618e First Edition #98 2013 Taylor PS16ce 2013 Gibson AJ Custom |
#24
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Personally I like the use of interesting sapwood in the center seam as a focal highlight but I prefer very small and thin strips. It has to be even and uniform on both halves or it bugs me to no end.
I've built several guitars with Shag Bark Hickory with extremely wide strips of sapwood, oriented in the center, with no structural or tonal implications. At least Hickory sapwood is as hard and stable as the heartwood. I have come across sapwood that has been spalted, insect eaten and punky in several species including Walnut, Mahogany, BRW, Cocobolo and Zircote. Therefore, each piece has to be closely examined for structural integrity and judged as a unique piece before considering it useful. |