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Posted

I have some longhi & bloodwood, both 1" thick, that I'm wanting to match up into a body. We've all seen bloodwood made into thin caps, but... this would probably end up being 3/4" thick. Aside of weight, is there anything specific I need to worry about?

As for longhi, has anyone ever made a body from it before? If so, what are your experiences with it as far as tone?

Posted

Very hard, too. I just finished slotting a fretboard made out of it and it took forever. I checked the depth of the miter box with an equally thick piece of rosewood, and the bloodwood was SO much harder than the rosewood to cut.

It's a great looking wood, just make sure your tools are sharp. It's almost as hard as ipe.

Posted

Yea, I made a small box from some thin stock I had, so I know how hard it is. That's why I'm not figuring to do as little machining to it as I can.

For the shape, I'm thinking anout an LPjr. I haven't done a double cutaway yet, so why not.

Posted (edited)

LPjr! LPjr! possibly the coolest looking guitar ever!

P90 and scratchplate?

Edited by joshvegas
Posted
LPjr! LPjr! possibly the coolest looking guitar ever!

P90 and scratchplate?

I suppose that might depend on what the dude who buys it wants to do. Like the other bodies I've been doing, it's going on eBay. I can always make myself one later if I really fall in love with it. It's not like there'd be anything overly difficult about getting these two woods again.

FWIW: I'd be 100% OK putting a pair of P90s in it with a white p/g. I might be tempted to put some GFS DeArmond copies in it instead of soapbars. For some reason, I'm liking the idea of those quirky top-mounts. Too bad I have NO IDEA what they'd sound like.

Posted (edited)

sounds good!

dog ear p90s are the way to go on any LP junior though! :D

EDIT: or is that what you mean?

Edited by joshvegas
Posted

AH right got you yup they would look pretty sweet in my humble opinion!

Posted

the blood wood I've used turned a reddish brown but looks nice still. Not sure if that's the info you are looking for. It's also like rosewood heavy but if you have it in stock you already know that!

Posted

The Warbird I built originally had a blood wood fret board. Not too bad to saw through. I didn't think it was that bad to sand into the radius and smelled wonderdful. Like another post said, it smells like chocolate. After several months it did start to turn more of a brown color though. A lot faster than purple heart turns brown. It was also very brittle and loved to chip out. That is why I ended up having to replace it with a rosewood board. My first fret job sucked. I pulled the frets and even with heating the board chipped out terribly. I could not find another piece of blood wood that I like as much as the first so I went with rosewood because I was under a dedline. BUt I have tosay that other than the chipping it wasn;t that bad to work with.

Posted
After several months it did start to turn more of a brown color though. "

That's surprising to me. I have it as the fingerboard on a guitar and a bass. The bass is almost a year old now I guess and still that lovely bloodwood color. The guitar is newer (half a year?) but hasn't changed.

I read on the LMI site that bloodwood "doesn't oxidize over time" or something like that.

Has it changed color for anyone else?

Posted

Woods do strange things. I'm starting to think that the oxidizing properties of bloodwood, purpleheart, paduak, etc. are individual to each piece.

True story- I was in the shop working with a luthier in my area who's been around for quite some time. We were looking for a specific veneer piece and ended up going through an ancient stock of wood in his workshop, which hadn't been touched in quite a while. He said that almost everything in there was from 1990 or earlier... I found a purpleheart board near the bottom of the stack that is still BRIGHT purple. It was under a chunk of paduak dated 1974.

I have, however, noticed a lot of color changes (brown to purple and fading back) in the purple heart I'm currently working with. I'm going to try a UV protective clearcoat and see if that helps the color stay better. However, I've noticed no fading or color changes whatsoever in the bloodwood I have for the fretboards, which has been in my posession for almost a month.

Go figure :D

Posted

It could also be due to location. The UV is different in different parts of the world, air quality also could play a part in just how fast it changes. The PH in the basement under a piece of Padauk was likely out of contact with any UV for the past 20 plus years so it would seem logical that it wouldn't change as quickly. Put that board outside for a month and see what happens.

Posted

The bottom line really is that if it's going to turn, it's going to turn. The best we can do is take preventative measures, like using marine/spar finish and limiting the exposure to light.

Of course, this doesn't bode well for the purpleheart/bloodwood picture frame I made for my mother-in-law. :D

finished1.jpg

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