Bookmatched manzanita

Dougf

Dougf

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While I was in Rick Turner's class at the Crucible, I took advantage of the excellent wood shop equipment and cut several thin slabs from a piece of manzanita. I managed to get a pretty good bookmatched set from a couple of the larger slices, here's the result glued and braced. I'm thinking of using this for the back of my first from-scratch build, sort of a proof of concept. If it works out, I may try a few more.

manzanita.jpg
 
That is a lovely wood! I hope to see a uke from it soon! :D
 
Does this wood have a "reddish" hue to it? I think it looks great.
 
Uncle Leroy said:
Does this wood have a "reddish" hue to it? I think it looks great.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a deep red, almost purple, with some bluish streaks in the darker places. It's a very dense, very hard wood, and also quite brittle. I'm hoping that it will have good sound reflective properties when used as a back.
 
Wow, ever since I moved to California I've wondered if Manzanita could be woodworked. It does have a lovely color when it's burnished.
Great experiment, Doug!
 
Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
I'm thinking it would make a good fret board wood as well. Good score.
Click to expand...

Yes, I intend to use manzanita for the fret board, bridge plate, and headstock veneer, as well as the back. I'm hoping to use Pacific Madrone for the neck, and either incense cedar or MacNab cypress for the soundboard.
 
Dougf said:
Yes, I intend to use manzanita for the fret board, bridge plate, and headstock veneer, as well as the back. I'm hoping to use Pacific Madrone for the neck, and either incense cedar or MacNab cypress for the soundboard.
Click to expand...

You have a nice selection of West coast woods there...how about Port Orford cedar for the top? I have it on my super soprano that Brad built for me - it is beautiful, sounds wonderful, and smells heavenly...
 
bbycrts said:
You have a nice selection of West coast woods there...how about Port Orford cedar for the top? I have it on my super soprano that Brad built for me - it is beautiful, sounds wonderful, and smells heavenly...
Click to expand...

My intention is to use wood obtained entirely from my property in the Sierra foothills. Port Orford Cedar (Chamaecyparis), Western Red Cedar (Thuja), Incense Cedar (Calocedrus), and MacNab Cypress (Cupressus) are all fairly closely related according to the phylogenetic tree at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupressaceae

Of course, every species is unique, and every piece of wood from a given species can have its own unique properties, but I think I have a pretty good chance of getting some decent tonewood from the incense cedar and macnab cypress.


Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
Won't madrone be pretty heavy as a neck?
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Yes, the madrone is pretty heavy, but I think it may be balanced a bit by manzanita of the back. We'll see what happens -- this is my first from-scratch build, so it's all part of the learning experience.
 
Wow. How beautiful that slab looks. I have manzanita, madrone, laurel, oak, redwood, etc on my property in the Bay Area. I'm going to start looking at the trees on my property in a different way.
 
The trick with both manzanita and madrone is getting it cut and dry without it checking and warping horribly. And I assume you know that bay laurel is the same as myrtle, a wonderful wood for lutherie that often comes in beautiful flame figure. I've stained myrtle to where you could not distinguish it from very nice koa. Oak...good luck...Sudden Oak Death has swept Northern California, and all the oaks are in danger of extinction here; they haven't figured out a cure or preventative method yet. Redwood...great top wood.
 
Sudden Oak Death hasn't reached the Sierra foothills, apparently it needs the fog (whew!).

I don't have any Bay Laurel (aka Myrtle), but I've got Oregon Ash, Big Leaf Maple, Red Alder, Tan Oak, Black Oak, Canyon live oak, Madrone, as well as Douglas Fir, Ponderosa, Incense Cedar, MacNab Cypress.

Of the above, any opinions on which might be best for the neck?
 
I have used a lot of big leaf maple for necks on mandolins and arch top guitars, and would not hesitate to use it on a ukulele. It is also a great wood for sides and backs, in fact you could use it to build the whole uke.

Brad
 
That's really great to find manzanita large enough to make backs from. I would be really curious to see and know how your manzanita fretboard turns out. The manzanita I have played with seems as hard as ebony. It's one of the woods I was always told you can't do much with due to the cracking and twisting when drying. Another myth busted. I was told and believed the same thing about building guitars out of the huge blue gum eucalyptus that grows in my area until I saw a beautiful guitar built from it.
 
The piece I used was from a large manzanita that had been dead for several years (the wood is very rot resistant), so it had seasoned itself slowly, perhaps preventing some twisting and cracking. However, there were still many fissures and holes in the wood, but I managed to get the two bookmatched pieces. Several other slabs were close to usable for bookmatching, but I'll probably use them for headstock veneer or fret boards.
 
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