European Spruce/African Blackwood - 640 Scale
It was a joy to work with the materials that were provided to me by a friend who is an aspiring guitarist, a craftsman and lover of beautiful woods. Although the photography does not do it justice, the African blackwood exhibited a wonderful “birdseye” figure most often seen in hard maple. Not having worked with African blackwood’s bright sapwood as part of the aesthetic scheme before, it was an enjoyable process to shift the book-matched panels on both the headstock and the back to achieve the desired appearance. The aged European spruce top was not only extraordinarily stiff but also had an abundance of a unique random figure which is referred to as “bear claw”. The geometric rosette counterbalances the bearclaw utilizing African ebony, Castello boxwood, American holly and Pacific yew. Precision Rodgers Tuning Machines were manufactured with German silver plates and a custom engraving that recalls the geometry of the rosette.
