CIRCA GUITARS: 12 Fret 00 [German Spruce | Malaysian Blackwood]

[iim7V7IM7]

I have commissioned a 00 sized, 12 fret guitar with South Portland, Maine luthier John Slobod (aka, Circa Guitars).

http://www.circaguitars.com/

John and I have known each other for a long time now and I have auditioned many his guitars across the years at both the Artisan Guitar Show, the Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcase and some individual guitars owned by friends. Many of you know of John here on AGF, but for those who do not, John primarily builds acoustic flattops derivative of the Nazareth tradition. John has been building guitars for about 30-years now. He first worked for Maine luthier Dana Bourgeois at Pantheon Guitars where he cut his teeth contributing to the crafting many instruments and after that with Massachusetts luthier Julius Borges (making instruments for Eric Schoenberg) before putting out his own Circa Guitars shingle about 25-years ago.

I have grown to like the extra power of a long scale on small bodied guitars. I also find the extended upper fretboard access of a cutaway combined with the timbre a 12-fret to the body to be a great combination in an instrument. So choosing a long-scale 00 sized 12-fret, guitar while not traditional is a great choice comfort and timbre wise for me.

After discussing my tonal goals for this guitar with John, he chose a soundboard set of Picea abies that he sourced many years ago from German tonewood purveyor Andreas Gleisner. The set says “Master”, but by traditional aesthetic wood grading standards, I would say it is more like a AA/AAA set (i.e., tight grained, tending to somewhat more open in its grain spacing toward the outer edges with some color variation and late wood). What is most important to me is that John felt that had fantastic tap tone, with the right density and stiffness for the tonal target he is aiming to achieve.





For the back and sides, I spoke with John about trying some of his non-traditional hardwoods that he had that he always wanted to try for this project. Like many luthiers, John has been accumulating wood sets for decades now (luthiers simply can’t help themselves!). The back and side set we decided on was a beautiful, well seasoned set of Malaysian Blackwood that displayed brown heartwood with a greenish hue with some black veining, with some golden sapwood that he purchased from Todd Taggert at Allied Lutherie about 15 years ago.



Here it is with a bit of solvent wiped on where it appears darker. He has oriented it to avoid the sapwood.



The name “Malaysian Blackwood” is actually a common name used by the guitar making community coined by Malaysian luthier Jeffrey Yong who introduced the tonewood to USA at the Guild of American Luthiers (GAL) show in 1998. Sets of this wood actually come from a number of different Malaysian ebonies, which may explain why some sets are reddish, chocolate brown and others are brownish green in their heartwood color. Like other ebonies, it is a very dense, stiff and hard wood. Its density can range between Honduran Rosewood to African Blackwood. This set has some rosewood like, sustaining tap to it.

In Malaysia, there are a dozen or so species of native ebonies (Diospyros) and the common name for the wood is “Kayu Malam”. This translated means “Night Wood” or “Blackwood”, so it is easy to see how the confusion may have arose with respect to its name. All ebonies belong to the Diospyros genus and Ebenaceae family. Jeffrey may have interpreted it as Diospyros ebonasea (a luthier’s take on botanical taxonomy…). I believe the correct taxonomy would be Diospyros sp. (species pluralis) ex Malaysia.

The guitar body is a traditional length, width and depth but the scale length is Martin long scale and a standard nut width with wider string spacing.

Dimensions:
Model - 00
Lower Bout Width - 14-1/4”
End Depth - 4-1/8”
Frets to the Body - 12
Scale Length - 25.4”
Nut Width - 1-3/4”
String Spacing - 2-5/16”

Materials:
Soundboard - German Spruce
Back and Sides - Malaysian Blackwood (Kayu Malam)
Neck - Honduran Mahogany
Fretboard - Gaboon Ebony
Bridge - Gaboon Ebony
Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
Tuning Machines - Waverly Three-on-a-Plate, Ebony Buttons with Ebony Buttons
Frets - Jescar EVO - 0.043” x 0.080”

Features & Decorations:
Cutaway - Venetian
Rosette - Style 42/45, Green Abalone w/Maple
Top Purfling - Curly Maple
Bindings: Ebony
Fretboard Inlay - Diamond and Squares Short Pattern
Headstock - Slothead
Bridge - Pyramid
Fretboard Position Markers - Diamond & Squares Short Pattern
Case - Visesnut Active Series

More when I get it…

[Jimmy Caldwell]

Congrats! Looking forward to following your build.

[BrunoBlack]

Another promising addition to the family!

[colins]

Congrats on the new build

Malaysian blackwood, Australian blackwood, African blackwood. All different species! I’m interested to hear more about what you feel the ‘Malaysian ebony’ will bring to the tone of this guitar. I’m also at the early stage of a new build, and it is being suggested for the back and sides. I like what I’m being told about it and I’m thinking it will bring a nice contrast in tone to my rosewood guitars. Good sustain, with clarity and a few less overtones? I’d enjoy reading any more thoughts you have.

[FrankCousins]

Woods look stunning! ;-)

Love Malaysian blackwood and that piece with or without the sapwood looks wonderful. I have only played a couple of instruments made from it, but both were simply marvellous!

For those who know more about these things than me, I wonder whether the top WAS rated as master grade when first assessed, because of the most important characteristics you mention, but as its aged, it may have oxidised little and caused the colour variation? This has happened to me with a couple of sets of Italian spruce from about 2008 that I have in my 'amateur stash'. When purchased they were as very pale, consistent colour. Now booth exhibit some colour variation as they have oxidised, and aged. But the tap tone is like a bell... ;-)

I actually think yours looks great by they way, and if it taps as you say, is going to be a great guitar. Looking forward to following this build!

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Caldwell

Congrats! Looking forward to following your build.

That makes two of us Jimmy…

Originally Posted by Haasome

Another promising addition to the family!

Thanks Paul…

Originally Posted by colins

Congrats on the new build

Malaysian blackwood, Australian blackwood, African blackwood. All different species! I’m interested to hear more about what you feel the ‘Malaysian ebony’ will bring to the tone of this guitar. I’m also at the early stage of a new build, and it is being suggested for the back and sides. I like what I’m being told about it and I’m thinking it will bring a nice contrast in tone to my rosewood guitars. Good sustain, with clarity and a few less overtones? I’d enjoy reading any more thoughts you have.

Malaysian Blackwood is a dense, stiff somewhat resonant ebony. Similar to Macassar Ebony perhaps with a bit more richness like a rosewood but not as much. Some Ebonies have no tap and others do. So much of how this guitar will sound is based on John’s build style and the German Spruce top. He will likely need to take the back and sides a bit thinner. No, it will not sound like Brazilian Rosewood nor Honduran Mahogany…

Originally Posted by FrankCousins

Woods look stunning! ;-)

Love Malaysian blackwood and that piece with or without the sapwood looks wonderful. I have only played a couple of instruments made from it, but both were simply marvellous!

For those who know more about these things than me, I wonder whether the top WAS rated as master grade when first assessed, because of the most important characteristics you mention, but as its aged, it may have oxidised little and caused the colour variation? This has happened to me with a couple of sets of Italian spruce from about 2008 that I have in my 'amateur stash'. When purchased they were as very pale, consistent colour. Now booth exhibit some colour variation as they have oxidised, and aged. But the tap tone is like a bell... ;-)

I actually think yours looks great by they way, and if it taps as you say, is going to be a great guitar. Looking forward to following this build!

I attribute the “master” labelling to simply an ever eroding standard among wood cutters. The grains per inch widen towards the outside of the set. In the case of a 00 (14-1/4”) it will likely fall outside the pattern. Those attributes do not change with age. I honestly could care less about that stuff. I asked him to pick the set he had with the best potential to achieve the goals that we had discussed. Like yourself, I think that it is a lovely set. Thanks for your interest…

[jt1]

My kind of guitar by my kind of builder. I'll be following this build closely.

And, once you discovered that John had some wood with your name on it, how could you resist?

[Steve Kinnaird]

Originally Posted by jt1

My kind of guitar by my kind of builder. I'll be following this build closely.
And, once you discovered that John had some wood with your name on it, how could you resist?

How about that? John, it so turns out we have a set of wood here with YOUR name on it! 😜 (I applaud your resistance—dang it.)

Bob, this will be a fun ride. Thanks for sharing!

Steve

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by jt1

My kind of guitar by my kind of builder. I'll be following this build closely.

And, once you discovered that John had some wood with your name on it, how could you resist?

The ultimate “closing” move by a luthier…

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

How about that? John, it so turns out we have a set of wood here with YOUR name on it! �� (I applaud your resistance—dang it.)

Bob, this will be a fun ride. Thanks for sharing!

Steve

Thanks Steve… (a smaller ebony cousin to your 000)

[jt1]

Originally Posted by Steve Kinnaird

How about that? John, it so turns out we have a set of wood here with YOUR name on it! 😜 (I applaud your resistance—dang it.)

Bob, this will be a fun ride. Thanks for sharing!

Steve

I love it!

[justonwo]

Genus Slobodiae. Species Killerus.

I played a very memorable Circa 00-12 at HGF in, I think 2011. Ebony back and sides. I believe JT reviewed it for Fretboard Journal.

https://luthierscollection.com/builder/circa-guitars/

https://www.fretboardjournal.com/col...few-favorites/

[ChuckS]

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

...[snip]...

I have grown to like the extra power of a long scale on small bodied guitars. I also find the extended upper fretboard access of a cutaway combined with the timbre a 12-fret to the body to be a great combination in an instrument. So choosing a long-scale 00 sized 12-fret, guitar while not traditional is a great choice comfort and timbre wise for me.

...[snip]...

This is sure to be a wonderful guitar.

I also like a long scale on smaller body guitars, but that sure doesn't seem to be the norm. I've got a long scale, 12 fret 00 body, with a 13th fret neck join which is a very good combination, but I've also really enjoyed a few guitars with that were a 14 fret 00 with a long scale.

[Mr. Paul]

What an absolute blast to be able to tell John exactly what you want, knowing he'll get it right. Have fun!

[Nemoman]

Beautiful woods, Bob--I look forward to seeing this one come together!

[Guitars44me]

This thread will be a real thrill ride.

Beautiful woods, Killer Luthier, and erudite discussion. What more could we want?

I LIKE the top with that bit of oxidation. Almost like a faint edge burst…

Congratulations and have FUN

Paul