Purple Heart

[J-Doe]

now... im really interested in making a guitar out of purple heart... but i haven't got any opinions or info on its being a tonewood..

but since its dense i believe its sounds like maple but brigther?

and tone wish what im aiming for is a blues sound from those airline guitars

plus purple heart cost like 3.50 per BF in my area

[avengers63]

It's about double that here, but $7-8/bf still isn't TOO bad. Be careful about the weight. Purpleheart looks cool, but it's heavy. IMO, PH is best served as accent instead of the main wood. If you're set on PH, consider a 1/4" top instead of the whole body.

[Prostheta]

+1

It's heavy, blunts tooling, tears out easily and can fade to brown. It's great as laminations due to it's stiffness however, and makes a great fingerboard.

[ihocky2]

A while ago someone here made a V out of solid purple heart. It was supposedly pretty heavy, but it did look cool.

[Bmth Builder]

fade to brown.

The not so famous metallica song

Any one know why it does fade to brown? Is it like a hit or miss thing, or will it always eventually fade. Even after its been sealed and lacquered etc?

[zyonsdream]

The sun's UV rays cause it to turn brown. You can use additives in your hard coat that will help to block UV and will slow down the browning.

The guitar below gets a moderate amount of sunlight and it has retained it's color for a few years

It's made of solid purple heart with a black walnut strip up the center. It's also got a purple heart fretboard

Edit: sorry, didn't mention that it's coated with the UV additive and a flattener which is why it isn't all shiny

As for tone- the body is smaller than the average explorer it is is as heavy as a Les Paul. The lacewood neck helps to add to the weight. To me this guitar doesn't have a tone suitable for blues as there is little low end response. A courian nut and Seymour Duncan's helped but it just doesn't sound the best. I'd suggest going with a purple heart top and a mahogany back. The top would act as a maple top.

Interesting though: the guitar I just built is solid maple body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard and it has an excellent sound with balanced highs and lows- one of the best sounding guitars I've ever made so it goes to show that even though the properties are similar, it doesn't mean they will sound the same.

Edited May 25, 2008 by zyonsdream

[Prostheta]

For one of the builds I have on the table, i'm going to see what happens with it myself, although if it does I don't mind as cleared ash won't look bad with brown anyway. I'm going to try some of the methods of brightening the PH that i've read about, although I think that UV will brown it over time no matter what you do.

The shavings I saved from planing have gone bright purple within a couple of days, although how long they will stay like that is debatable. I'm going to get ahold of some hydrochloric acid and see how the tannin in the shavings reacts with that and being left in bright sunshine (or "daylight" given our weather right now). Half of these are going to get coated in finish for comparison. I'm not sure if the finish i'm using has a UV inhibitor, but not to worry.

[mdw3332]

The one thing I have learned - the hard way - is to wipe down your Purpleheart with a solvent before gluing. I've used Naptha. Otherwise, the oils in it will make clean glue lines very difficult. The middle Tele here is my adventure in Purpleheart. I bought 4 or 5 pieces of it (6-7" wide X 5' long by 1/4" thick) for something like $10.

[djhollowman]

.....I'm sure I've read somewhere that purpleheart dust can be poisonous..........????????

Never used it myself.

DJ

[zyonsdream]

I never noticed any ill affects when using it. The dust is very heavy and grainy like sand. It might be poisonous to sharp edges because it pretty much killed my router bits, drill bits and elbow from all the sanding I had to do on it.

[Prostheta]

It makes me sick working with it when the extractor doesn't catch all the dust. Heat makes the dust go a BRIGHT DARK purple when the resins cook. Smells like death too.

[ToddW]

Yeah, I don't use a dust collector when I make cuts on the chop saw, just a mask, and it does smell awful when you cut it.

If you want a stiff and pretty smelling guitar Jatoba is similar in weight, strength and stiffness, has nice figure, and smells like cinnamon and cherry when you cut it.

[Prostheta]

Bloodwood is very cinnamon-y when cut also. Love that stuff.