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any one use purple heart for fretboard?


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i was thinkin it would be a good wood to use , its hard, dense, and it has a nice feel to it.

and it would look great with some mop,abalone inlays in it! :D

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yah that was the next wood i was gonna ask about , any good places to get it? i cant seem to find it up in pa. and i will be sure to post some pics but i will have to learn how, i suck at computer stuff!

rye :D

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I used purple heart for a wide backstrip in an acoustic I built, it is a beautiful wood, but horrid to work with. It gives nasty slivers too LOL

Mostly, the worst part is that the grain all kind of loops through the wood, it's nearly impossible to plane. I nearly gave up on it a few times. I think it would make a pretty neat fretboard, but you're going to be carving and griding alot with it, I would recommend find someone with a thickness sander to take it down to 1/4" thickness first, and then just sand your radius into it after, don't try taking it down to thickness by hand unless you have a LOT of ambition.

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do you think a thickness planer can take it down to thickness if i take off thin amounts at a time ? i dont own a thickness sander but i do have a nice new dewalt thickness planner that works great! and the acoustic looks great by the way.

as for the snake wood, ithink i'll use my 100 bucks for something else right now. if i messed up on the piece i would never forgive myself!

and besides im new to building a whole instrument,ive only refervished them before. but eventually i will get some and use it, the prs web site has a nice snakewood necked mcarty on thier custom page you should check it out

its the first and only snakewood neck ive ever seen.

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yeah i saw that guitar at namm a couple years ago....they got it from gilmer........those little bench top planers seem to do a nicer job on smaller objects, so you may be ok.....one trick to smooth planing when you experience a lot of tear out is to wet the surface you are planing......only the wet area gets taken off.....(hint for all you figured wood people)

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thanks man what a great site! now all i got to do is get some cash! ive been out of work for two months so far do to knee surgery it sucks! but as soon as its bak to normal i am gonna get me some of that fine wood! :D

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