Okay boys and girls, recently I went the the Fylde Guitars website www.fyldeguitars.com as I have heard that they are exceptionally good instruments...but what I was struck by was a picture on the main page of the website, in the extreme top right corner, there is a guitar being played with the most amazingly beautiful decorative timber I have ever seen on an instrument. Does anyone know what type of timber this is? I've had a bit of a search but can't work it out - please help! This has been bugging me for ages!
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
This is a guess, and only a guess. Unfortunately the photo doesn't give enough grain detail to tell whether the wood is a softwood or hardwood species, but it's rare for sotwoods to show such staining. The pattern of that particular top shows a figuration usually associated with spalting. Spalting is a degradation (decay in it's early stages) that most often occurs in dead fall trees. If you catch it at just the right time and saw an dry it you get some incredible patterns in the wood. That Fylde is so colorful that I doubt that it is totally natural. The natural spalt is usually soft reds, browns, tans and blacks. I have heard of experiments of injecting dyes into living trees and then utilizing the wood to decorative effect. Luthier 3
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
My fiddle, which is about 200 years old, has a fine black irregular broken black line running from top to bottom of the back, a centimetre or so from the midline. On the other side of the midline there are one or two other similar smaller markings near the top. The violin maker I go to for maintenance tells me it's called a "water mark" in the wood. It's not a crack and is quite harmless, but quite distinctive. Is this the same as spalt?
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
If you look further at the Fylde homepage, you'll find a complete description of that instrument behind the "news"-tab. They call it the "single malt" guitar and it is entirely built of wood from barrels and such from a whisky-distillery. The top seem to be made of Oregon Pine (also called Douglas Fir) from a fermenting vessel (which is what?).
But simply click on the "news"-tab and the great timber mystery is solved!
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
lars, you are gem! Thank you for putting me out of my misery! So it's made out of recycled barrels eh? Being a winemaking student I should have known that! Okay goody, now to find someone who'll make a fiddle out of it....
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
MYSTERY SOLVED!!
Looks like we were all on the wrong track. I took glaubers advice and emailed Roger Bucknall of Fylde Guitars about the instrument and this is the respose I got:
Hello Andrew,
Thanks for the mail. The guitar you mention is a custom built "magician", the timber is Claro Walnut (figured). Not exactly rare, but not cheap. Im sure fiddles have been made from it somewhere.
Let me know if I can help with anything else,
Regards
Roger
So there you have it straight from the horse's mouth. I thought I might ask the guy who actually made the instrument in question as that'd be the most reliable source...what a nice chap too.
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
No, Me, the false Gem - made of plastic or what? (dargs called me a gem when he thought I had solved the mystery, so I guess that I'm just a false gem now.)
The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
Okay boys and girls, recently I went the the Fylde Guitars website www.fyldeguitars.com as I have heard that they are exceptionally good instruments...but what I was struck by was a picture on the main page of the website, in the extreme top right corner, there is a guitar being played with the most amazingly beautiful decorative timber I have ever seen on an instrument. Does anyone know what type of timber this is? I've had a bit of a search but can't work it out - please help! This has been bugging me for ages!
peace, dargs
# Posted on October 24th 2002 by dargs
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
This is a guess, and only a guess. Unfortunately the photo doesn't give enough grain detail to tell whether the wood is a softwood or hardwood species, but it's rare for sotwoods to show such staining. The pattern of that particular top shows a figuration usually associated with spalting. Spalting is a degradation (decay in it's early stages) that most often occurs in dead fall trees. If you catch it at just the right time and saw an dry it you get some incredible patterns in the wood. That Fylde is so colorful that I doubt that it is totally natural. The natural spalt is usually soft reds, browns, tans and blacks. I have heard of experiments of injecting dyes into living trees and then utilizing the wood to decorative effect. Luthier 3
# Posted on October 24th 2002 by luthier 3
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
Why don't you ask him? Then let us know, because now we're curious.
# Posted on October 24th 2002 by glauber
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
My fiddle, which is about 200 years old, has a fine black irregular broken black line running from top to bottom of the back, a centimetre or so from the midline. On the other side of the midline there are one or two other similar smaller markings near the top. The violin maker I go to for maintenance tells me it's called a "water mark" in the wood. It's not a crack and is quite harmless, but quite distinctive. Is this the same as spalt?
m
# Posted on October 25th 2002 by Trevor Jennings
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
If you look further at the Fylde homepage, you'll find a complete description of that instrument behind the "news"-tab. They call it the "single malt" guitar and it is entirely built of wood from barrels and such from a whisky-distillery. The top seem to be made of Oregon Pine (also called Douglas Fir) from a fermenting vessel (which is what?).
But simply click on the "news"-tab and the great timber mystery is solved!
# Posted on October 25th 2002 by lars
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
lars, you are gem! Thank you for putting me out of my misery! So it's made out of recycled barrels eh? Being a winemaking student I should have known that! Okay goody, now to find someone who'll make a fiddle out of it....
cheers, dargs
# Posted on October 26th 2002 by dargs
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
Shouldn't you be looking for beautiful guitar timbre?
# Posted on October 26th 2002 by ...
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
# Posted on October 27th 2002 by Greg
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
Excellent rant Greg. Agree with everything you say.
(Except ofcourse for the cardboard box bodhran bit of course)
# Posted on October 27th 2002 by ...
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
MYSTERY SOLVED!!
Looks like we were all on the wrong track. I took glaubers advice and emailed Roger Bucknall of Fylde Guitars about the instrument and this is the respose I got:
Hello Andrew,
Thanks for the mail. The guitar you mention is a custom built "magician", the timber is Claro Walnut (figured). Not exactly rare, but not cheap. Im sure fiddles have been made from it somewhere.
Let me know if I can help with anything else,
Regards
Roger
So there you have it straight from the horse's mouth. I thought I might ask the guy who actually made the instrument in question as that'd be the most reliable source...what a nice chap too.
# Posted on October 27th 2002 by dargs
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
So I turned out to be a false gem this time! Plastic? Hmmm...
Glad that you found out the true story!
# Posted on October 28th 2002 by lars
Plastic?
Where did you read plastic?
I saw a plastic fiddle for sale once, cheap. I heard it sounds nasty. Plastic flutes work reasonably well.
# Posted on October 28th 2002 by glauber
Re: The Great 'Beautiful Guitar Timber' Mystery...
No, Me, the false Gem - made of plastic or what? (dargs called me a gem when he thought I had solved the mystery, so I guess that I'm just a false gem now.)
# Posted on October 28th 2002 by lars