Started putting Myrtle together

Indeed. Outstanding piece; best wishes for it.
 
Love the Myrtlewood......................... gorgeous stuff... Sounds awesome too...
 
I'm not 100% sure what I am looking at but I would say it's woodfrom near the first break or 'crotch'. I had a 3/4 size bod with a spectacular fogure similar to the one here - it used to move up and down with every minute change in humidity - like a hygrometer. I dunno - such wild and sensational stuff makes me nervous :)
 
I've used this highly figured Oregon myrtle (California bay laurel) stuff for number of ukes and have not had any problems. However, Pete is right, any highly figured piece of wood is by its very nature inherently unstable, but I've found myrtle to be reasonably stable and polite. A pleasure to work with. The wood I've worked with is from a reputable suppler and is well seasoned and stable. As a matter of fact, that piece of timber looks oddly familiar and it is possible I know where it came from. If it is, they sell nice wood and it is well seasoned and stable. Also Mya-Moe Ukuleles uses a lot of myrtle and they are a commercial outfit and can't afford returns due to unstable wood. Gonna look great.
 
I use myrtle also but it is quartersawn and from the 'bole' of the tree. When talking about stuff like this you have to acknowledge that what you arer looking at is a nice picture. We have no idea what part of the tree this came from, how near the quarter it is or how it behave in fluctuating tremperature/humidity conditions.

I also buy my myrtle from the same source as MyaMoe. I buy from him because he is a luthier, he knows the source of the wood and is an excellent sawyer and grader. He is a personal friend, he makes excellent ukulele, is a good cook and fisherman but none of these mean de-facto his wood is good... despite the fact that it is, and you pay for that privilege!
 
That sure makes for an attractive book match. But I'm going to agree with Pete. I think most of us who have built more than a few ukes have attempted to use wood like that at one time or another and have learned our lesson. It's not just the wide bands of curl ( probably crotch or compression curl), but the direction of the curl that has a wide range of stresses along the seam. Hopefully you'll get lucky. You'll know in a couple of years. Maybe saturating it with Smiths CPES or similar will stabilize it.
 
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