A unique piece leaving my shop... or a Pernambuco guitar

[Jeremy Clark]

I realize that most guitar players are not as familiar with pernambuco (as a wood not a composer) as their bowed string instrument cousins might be but in my mind there are very few woods as perfectly suited to a concert instrument. A year or two ago I had the opportunity to acquire a reasonable sized board of perfectly vertical grain Brazilian pernambuco and this guitar is one from that board.

Just a couple of photos (but there will likely be some more on my site in a week or so.)

[guitargeorge]

what a beautiful instrument, especially the modern lookign rosette, which remind me of mediterranean tiles.

[mikfik]

If I am correct- Pernambuco is THE wood clarinets and oboes or made from. It's a wonderful tone wood.
I'd love to hear your new guitar

[Bruno Piancatelli]

I love everything about it!
congrats!

[Aaron Green]

I'm pretty sure that clarinets, oboes, bagpipes and such are made from African Blackwood aka Dalbergia Melanoxylon. Pernambuco is the wood of choice for bows.

[Jeremy Clark]

...are made from African Blackwood aka Dalbergia Melanoxylon ....

That's what I thought. Though really I don't see any reason not to. I bet it could build great oboes --though what to do with the oboists is an entirely other debate.

Having spent most of my life also playing violin I knew pernambuco (like Aaron said) as the premier wood for bows. Most of the attributes that make it a great bow wood also, I think, make it a phenomenal wood for guitars.

With the rosette I was kind of into the nonspecific as opposition to the disciplined. I used two different origins of pernambuco to provide a sort of contrast and bordered it with Afican Blackwood (go clarinets) and a quite dark cocobolo --the body being bound in cocobolo from the same board. More than anything it's just my current take on a mosaic.



The camera can't quite capture the change in chatoyance between pieces. I would absolutely do it again -- in fact I glued a couple in a similar style earlier today. Sure it's not a carbon copy of the traditional but It's just me having fun in the shop.

N.B. I want to mention that all of these photos were taken my friend Noemie (http://www.noemieletu.com) with the guitar on a bench in our shop and lit by a steady sunbeam that we enjoy for most of the day.

[AdamX]

Guitar looks great. I love the mosaic rosette design and purfling. It's simple but has a little bit of an art deco vibe.

[AdamX]

What kind of finish do you use?

That's a gorgeous guitar.

[Doug Ingram]

Bow makers would be dropping big blocks of building materials from their back sides if they saw so much premium Pernambuco used for a guitar! They're really distressed about their future supply.

[Jeremy Clark]

What kind of finish do you use?

This guitar (like most of my work) is french polished. It's one of my favorite parts of the entire process and I really love being able to hang out in the shop, listening to great music and drinking delicious coffee while finishing my instruments. Who wants to put on a "fancy suit" and breathe through a mask in pursuit of making something shiny that's just going to end up crazing anyway? The mind boggles...


and in terms of the "dropping building materials"... there are plenty of great archetiers in the world making phenomenal bows but why should they have all the fun? I think if I was a pernambuco board I would feel okay about being a guitar rather than a bow...

[stringman]

Beautiful instrument!

[Doug Ingram]

Bow makers would be dropping big blocks of building materials from their back sides if they saw so much premium Pernambuco used for a guitar! They're really distressed about their future supply.

I should clarify that I am not endorsing the idea that Pernambuco should be reserved for bows only, just anticipating their response. Rare and valuable wood should be used well, and you obviously have done so!

[Marcus Dominelli]

Nice looking guitar Jeremy!

One of the guys I used to work with bought a large volume of pernambuco with another violin bow maker. They realized upon receiving the shipment of wood that it was not heavy enough for making top quality bows. Apparently, according to them, the specific gravity of violin bow grade perambuco must be 60 or higher, in other words, it must be dense enough to sink in water, when it's dry.

Their wood did not make the grade, and last I heard they were trying to sell some of it for guitar backs and sides.........so clearly, not all pernambuco is by default going to be used for bows - only the top grade stuff, which is very difficult to obtain.

Dominelli Guitars

[David LaPlante]

Lovely Guitar Jeremy,
I admire your willingness to back up your creative ideas with long hours of work to make them a reality.

Hope you will find a deserving client who will appreciate this one!

Best

[Alexandru Marian]

Nice guitar, I'd love scoring a set of this. For a while very affordable sets were on the market coming from a Mexican relative, Chakte Viga. It's same genus as the Brazilian thing, same as our rosewoods are related.

I wonder how much this pernambuco preference for bows is based on real facts and how much is blind tradition and myth. I can't easily believe a bow well made out of dense resonant rosewood or any other suited hardwood would create inferior tone.