Merbau - Solid Body? Neck? Fingerboard?

[ray]

Anybody here used it for any of the above?

Edited July 22, 2007 by ray

[Jon]

There's one current project using Merbau as a body wood.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...t=0&start=0

[jmrentis]

There is also this thread which I believe is an all merbau guitar with some carbon fiber laid ontop. I believe the whole thing, neck, fretboard, body is all merbau. Not sure if you can consider it a fretboard though, because it was covered with cf. This is one of my favorite guitar shapes, very cool and the cf looks amazing when finished. I searched for this a few days ago, there have been a few projects that have used merbau and while it seems its not perfect wood, it always seems the projects turn out nice. So, I doubt you'd run into crazy problem. Best of luck. J

[marksound]

Hyunsu uses merbau a lot (his translation comes out as "merlbau").

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...lite=%2Bmerlbau

[jmrentis]

Hyunsu uses merbau a lot (his translation comes out as "merlbau").

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...lite=%2Bmerlbau

Ya gotta love Hyunsu and his attention to perfection. If he sees even a single hair of a grain out of place, he heats the house. That is what I call quality workmanship and discipline. I wish he would post more, I can never get enough of his posts and he sounds super cool. I'm completely jealous of Maidens overseas adventure, bet that was a blast.

Anyhow, you can bet that if Hyunsu used Merbau once and decided it was worth using again, then its perfectly usable for guitars. I think instead of opening these threads asking if a wood is good or not, our new policy should be to mail Hyunsu two planks of the wood in question. If he ends up using the second plank, you know the wood is worth using for guitars. J

Edited July 22, 2007 by jmrentis

[Maiden69]

He has a lot of it, but interestingly he goes thru a few pieces before using one. he tap, and tap until he finds one that "sing" to him. This is him shaping a merbau nech with a spokeshave!

[Motorbreath]

I am working on a merbau solidbody project. The wood is dense and heavy. Hardness is 136% compared to oak. I even tried to use it as binding in my other project but it simply won't bend. I read Hyunsu's posts and admire his work and I can understand his selection process, because this wood seems to have much variation in grain, color and sound. This is an asian species and I have no previous experience with it and haven't played a guitar with a body or neck made of merbau. If all goes well, I can finish my project and record some sound clips with it, only then I can recommend it. The only thing I am positive about is that it rapidly blunts sharp tools but has very high machining qualities.

Cheers.