Bamboo And Bubinga!

[Robbinst]

Hey everyone I recently acquired a nice piece of bubinga but I'm not sure what to use it for. I was thinking either a few fret boards, using strips of it in a laminated neck, or making a whole neck from it. Its pretty heavy so would a whole neck be too much?

I also have been given a relatively large piece of 3/4" bamboo. It is a plywood but its all bamboo, no filler/crap wood. I was thinking of making a hollow body by cutting two halves, routing out the internal chambers and gluing them up into a 1.5" body blank. I would like to get some of the more experienced builders opinions on this. Is this a good idea? What can I expect tone wise? Will it be too heavy even after its hollowed out? I'm just trying to get a feel of what I will be up against before I dive into it. Here is some pics:

Any advice for either piece will be greatly appreciated, thanks guys!

-Tyler

[ScottR]

I've been making whole necks from jatoba which is similar in hardness and weight. It makes a heavy neck which I offset by making a long tenon and spreading some of it to the body. Since it is so strong and stiff you can go quite thin without sacrifing strength and stiffness which help reduce the weight. So my opinion is it would be fine for a whole neck. Of course I may be the only one that says that. Most will likely tell you to use it for lams and fretboards.

SR

[dpm99]

I can say a little about Bubinga. I'm sure others will add some. I'm almost finished with a solid Bubinga neck right now. Weight is going to vary per sample, but it should be similar to a rosewood neck. The advantage of the Bubinga is that its added strength means you can build a thinner neck, if you want. Looking at that particular piece, I would consider using it for laminates. Bubinga makes incredible laminate stock, and pairs well with maple.

I have zero experience with Bamboo, but I've always wanted to play around with some of that Bamboo plywood.

[dpm99]

Scott beat me to the punch. The reason I suggested laminates is because you could eliminate the knot (or whatever it is) that way. I'm all for solid Bubinga necks though. It's stiff, requires no finish, and feels like silk.

[RestorationAD]

Don't do it...

I fail to see why you would waste a nice piece of Bubinga while combining it with a wood barely suited for salad bowls and tongs.

If you are trying to be eco friendly I understand the bamboo. Don't use the bubinga. Find an alternate fretboard material like a phenolic.

Also the grain overlap on the bamboo plywood is running the wrong way to make a neck. Real woodworking skills still apply even when you are using grass to build.

In my experiments with bamboo I have found it to be unstable piece to piece (especially the laminated stuff). Since you can not guarantee how it was dried/glued you can't really tell how long you have before it implodes. I have blocks of bamboo that I cut up with the intent of making fences and jigs with that changed so much dimensionally as it sat it was useless.

If I was going to try a bamboo neck I would look for long strips of bamboo that I could laminate with carbon fiber or phenolic lams so I could have the bamboo grain all run the length of the neck. Carbon fiber rods or using carbon fiber sheeting with a marine grad epoxy would allow you to control the flex of the neck. Using a double action trussrod would be imperative. I would top it off with a phenolic fingerboard.

For the body I would use the same principles minus the carbon fiber.

[Robbinst]

RestorationAD- I did not explain as well as I should have. I did not intend to use both pieces for the same build(although it does seem that way), I just wanted to ask questions about each of them. Also I did not plan on making a neck from the bamboo, just a body. Do you think gluing up two pieces into a body blank would hold up in the long run or will it be likely to distort even at 1.5" thick? The bamboo really has no use it was left over from a cabinet my uncle built and is relatively expensive($399 for a 8'x4' sheet of 3/4) so he wanted me to mess with it rather then throwing it away.

I'm thinking of using the bubinga for fret boards and lams. For right now I think I would be happier spreading it across a few builds then just getting one neck from it and that knot is in the way I believe, I haven't measured. Also Dpm99's suggestion of a maple and bubinga neck is appealing to me.

Thanks for the advice so far you guys!

[RestorationAD]

RestorationAD- I did not explain as well as I should have. I did not intend to use both pieces for the same build(although it does seem that way), I just wanted to ask questions about each of them. Also I did not plan on making a neck from the bamboo, just a body. Do you think gluing up two pieces into a body blank would hold up in the long run or will it be likely to distort even at 1.5" thick? The bamboo really has no use it was left over from a cabinet my uncle built and is relatively expensive($399 for a 8'x4' sheet of 3/4) so he wanted me to mess with it rather then throwing it away.

I'm thinking of using the bubinga for fret boards and lams. For right now I think I would be happier spreading it across a few builds then just getting one neck from it and that knot is in the way I believe, I haven't measured. Also Dpm99's suggestion of a maple and bubinga neck is appealing to me.

Thanks for the advice so far you guys!

Thanks for clarifying... I prolly wasn't paying close enough attention. <shiny>

I am not sure that even glued together the bamboo holds up. One thing I have found is the layers in the plywood separate over time. If I had personally glued the pieces together it would be different. In the end just make a decision on what your time is worth. If you are willing to do the experiment by all means go for it! It could go great. Make sure you give us a report on how it works as then we can learn vicariously.

As for bugbinga

I wouldn't worry about that knot. Lam the bubinga up so that the know is in the heal if you can. In my experience bubinga is really stable so I would not be afraid to trap that knot in a set of lams.

Another thing I might try is to scarf it right at the knot as the knot would end up outside the neck... if I was building a solid bubinga neck I would pair it with a heavy body.

As for lams I would pair the bubinga with a lighter wood and use it for the interior lams. A nice pairing in my book is a peruvian walnut with bubinga lams, khaya w/ bubinga lams. If you pair it with maple use a western big leaf if you can as it is lighter. If you are bent on hard maple and bubinga just be prepared to match it with a properly weighted body.

I don't think a solid bubinga neck or a maple/bubinga neck would be any worse than other necks.

[nowa90]

why not use the bamboo simply as a top? Still get the look, but you get the strructural integrity of a "real" wood underneath.

[dpm99]

Hey RAD, have you tried Khaya and Bubinga before? It seems to me that their color is too close to make an effective contrast. The stuff I've got almost matches.

[Juntunen Guitars]

Bubinga makes nice back and side sets and makes real nice necks lams, I have never used it but I have seen great results from it. A guy I know is building an acoustic with it now.

As to bamboo all I know of it is that it returns to the shape it was when it was cut very easily or it tries to return to the shape it was in when it was in the tree, I have heard of bow makers saying it's a good wood for recurves and low bows because of that. I have thought of playing around with it as brace wood on an acoustic but I'm a little nervous of its hardness compared to spruce.

[RestorationAD]

Hey RAD, have you tried Khaya and Bubinga before? It seems to me that their color is too close to make an effective contrast. The stuff I've got almost matches.

Not in a recent build as I have stayed away from it in general as I use bloodwood where most use bubinga. But I have a set of bubinga lams for a blank on the shelf that looks ok next to the Khaya I have (much lighter and pinkish than the old stuff on the shelf). I think that over time they would start to be close in color.

I personally would use the Peruvian Walnut with it as it is a nice very light weight dark wood. I like contrast. I also have a claro walnut blank that would go very nice with bubinga.

Now what I would do on a khaya bubinga neck is outline the bubinga with some maple veneer and that would make the bubinga pop.

All those are visual preferences. I think using a bubinga and khaya in a neck would make a really nice sounding neck. I am just not really a fan of bubinga.

[dpm99]

Never worked with Bloodwood, but that's just because it's hard for me to find locally. I can buy quartersawn Bubinga right down the road for $11/bf. It's not my favorite wood, but it does seem a bit underutilized to me.

[westhemann]

but it does seem a bit underutilized to me.

Not really.I started using it years ago and recently it's popularity has increased exponentially...It is stable enough to use even the most figured pieces for necks and the figuring is outstanding...I have built with waterfall and pomelle bubinga and both have turned out amazing.Best wood ever in my opinion,but it is so heavy you should make the smallest,thinnest guitars you can out of it.

[dpm99]

but it does seem a bit underutilized to me.

Not really.I started using it years ago and recently it's popularity has increased exponentially...It is stable enough to use even the most figured pieces for necks and the figuring is outstanding...I have built with waterfall and pomelle bubinga and both have turned out amazing.Best wood ever in my opinion,but it is so heavy you should make the smallest,thinnest guitars you can out of it.

That's kind of what I mean though. It seems to get used a lot more in the bass market, but given its strengths, coupled with the fact that it's an exotic with a fairly plentiful supply, I'm not sure why it isn't more of a "go to" wood for guitars. Somebody send Gibson an email and tell them about Bubinga please. They can keep their stinking Obeche.

[Robbinst]

Well guys, I spent a few hours today cutting and routing the bamboo. Just a RAD said, the bamboo almost immediately warped once the body shape was cut out on the band saw. When I put the two pieces together I have about a 1/4" gap on the lower part of the body. I have come this far so it would be dumb to not at least try and get a good glue joint between the 2 halves and see if it holds. My question is will the wood ever give up and remain flat once glued or will it be forever trying to separate?

[dpm99]

Don't do it, bro. At times like this, it's best to just step away for a day or two and think it through. If you like the bamboo and want to use it, sandwich something really solid between the two halves. Then you want a thick, hard finish on the outside.

[Robbinst]

Well I actually just got home from the shop after gluing it up...I didn't get any replies and I so I went for it. I have 23 clamps holding it together so hopefully the wood will chill the hell out and just do what I want it to do(unlikely ) I did manage to snap some pics of my adventures today so here they are:

design

hollowing out the body

The GAP!

The clamps!

so now its sitting there drying till tomorrow, hopefully it will hold up. I'm pretty sure that if I had not made it a hollow body it would have stayed dead flat, but that was just poor decision making on my part, but if nothing else this will help others know what not to do with bamboo.

[dpm99]

You never know. Maybe it will work. And I think you may be right about hollowing it out being the problem. I would think gluing it up will help, but the real test will be how it holds up under string pressure.

[Robbinst]

So I unclamped the body today to find a pretty decent joint all the way around and the body is dead flat again! I did some shaping up and routing tonight but now I think I'll leave this one sit for awhile to see if any signs of moving or joint failure appear. Check it out:

[pauliemc]

If I get a blank that warps like that I sometimes cook it in an autoclave / steam oven for about 5-6 hours. then clamp it to a level surface like a jointer bed for a few hours. Usualy flattens the thing out nicely. But your 10,000,000 clamp method work well also, Iv had success with it in the past

[Robbinst]

Starting back up on this build since the body is pretty stable.

[headstack]

I have worked with Plyboo on a couple of cabinet jobs and it is cool lookimg stuff.

Like the shapes and lines in your build so far!

Need to ask you though...

Have you filled your hands with a load of needle like splinters yet?

The stuff was e-ville :twisted:

We ended up working in heavy Nitrile gloves and doing our grain fill with epoxy to hold the fibers tight while obtaining a glass smooth surface.

I'll be watching this one,

John

[Prostheta]

I would try and design out two necks from the Bubinga if it is thick, otherwise a solid neck might create lots of Bubinga chips. I'd want to get maximum mileage out of it.

Can't complain about the use of a ply body. Brian May's Red Special is blockboard which is essentially softwood (sometimes soft hardwoods Poplar also) laminate faced with hardwood veneers. That was build almost fifty years ago, has gigged HARD and is still playing now. Amazing. In fact, I might build one myself.