Wenge Build Pics

[Gordon Bellerose]

Here is a few shots of the wenge guitar I have been working on.
Nothing is glued together in these pics, and there is still some shaping in the heel, and neck-body areas,




I have bent the small pieces for the headstock binding.



The finger board is cherry, bound with maple.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Looks awesome.
Nice effect with the bevel-reveal of the white body wood under the wenge.
and the body carves do nice things with the wenge grain - contours.

[Dan Smith]

Look's great Gordon!
Man, I bet the Wenge was a pain to carve and sand.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I did the carving with an angle grinder. I used an 80 grit sanding disc.
The carving actually only took about 15 minutes for the bulk of it. The shaping around the horns took a bit longer with a lot more hand work, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
I DID THE CARVING OUTSIDE. Very dusty operation. And, BE CAREFUL!!! The grinder can take a big bite and ruin the whole thing.

The body is a sandwich, much like the other neck-thru I built last year.
This one is wenge, maple, western ash. The bevel on the edge reveals the maple, giving it a binding effect as Chuck noted.
The neck is a hard maple center, purple heart, maple veneer, wenge combination. There is also a strip of cherry in between the wings and the neck.

There is still a fair bit of sanding left to do, and most of it past this point will be by hand.

[Bob Francis]

Looks really nice Gordon

[Dan Hehnke]

Looking good! I've still never worked with Wenge, I think I'd like to try it some time.

[chris cowley]

hay there Gordon,it lokks amazing,love wenge,i want to use it on my first tele build,im looking to purchase my timber soon,can you tell ,me where you got your wenge from? was it expensive? and does it rout well,cheers

[Gordon Bellerose]

Bob: Thanks. It's still a work in progress. Just in the grain filling process right now.

Dan: The wenge is a nicely grained wood. It is going to be beautiful when complete.

Chris: I live in Edmonton, Alberta, and I bought the wenge in a local lumber store. They had what they call "shorts". Pieces no longer than 4 ft. in various widths, one inch thick. Perfect for guitar building.
It routs better than I expected. You must always rout away from the grain, not into it. When I did the body carve, I used an angle grinder with an 80 grit sanding disc. VERY dusty. Work outside if at all possible.
As for price it was priced the same as the maple that they had in the store. 19.99/board ft. Canadian.

As I said earlier, I am just in the grain filling stage. I'm using epoxy, and when the epoxy goes on it really makes the color and grain pop. Going to be nice! I will post some pics later.

[chris cowley]

good stuff,i just got off the phone to a dealer in england as its close to me,TIMBERLINE DECORATIVE AND SPECIALIST HARDWOODS,i got ideas and prices on the go,just the top of body alone,wenge/ 17" by 14" and 10 mm thick is £35=$58 ,also honduras mahogany/body 17 by 14, 35mm is £63.50 or a 2 piece £40, mahogany neck £68/£39 and African ebony fretboard for £22/£13 all rounding out at about £159 or if i choose slightly diff timber it will be £200 post included,in my case 183 euro for the cheaper way of going,i think im happy enough going ahead with it mabe,he sounds like a really nice guy to and was happy to help out,and new what he was talking about as i expected,but on the other other hand,what is the name of that timber yard up there lol,im still going to shop around and get the best i can for future relations you know?

[Gordon Bellerose]

17 inches long may be a bit short unless you are building a Tele style guitar.
I do not know what style you are going to build, but I would definitely have a template in hand to measure off, before buying wood.

[Jerome Hess]

WOW

'nuff said

[Gordon Bellerose]

Here's a shot of the guitar, almost ready for strings.
Just a few finishing touches left.

[Eric Knapp]

Gorgeous! And I'm not a big fan of electric guitars. That one makes me want to hold it.

Great work.

-Eric

[Mark Swanson]

Makes me want to play it!

[Randolph Rhett]

Makes me want to copy it!

[Gregory nangle]

looks great. i just finished working a nine foot by 18 inch piece of 8/4 for another project, most inconsistent grain ever! there are like layers of soft and hard grain stacked, hard to keep flat. also it checks pretty bad and has a weird C.O.E what is the other wood its laminated to? i wonder if they will pull on one another? very nice work! and the finish is spectacular! i especially love how the grain follows the contour on the body.

[Gordon Bellerose]

Eric. Thanks for the nice comments.

Mark. Coming from you that is high praise indeed!

Randolph. Please feel free. This is an original design, inspired by many before me.

Gregory. Thanks for the comments on the use of grain in the design.

The other woods in the neck through are, maple, purple heart, maple veneer, and wenge; all turned to be quarter sawn. There is a thin piece of cherry in between the neck and body halves. The body sandwich is cherry on the back, a thin layer of maple to create the faux binding, and of course wenge on top.
The fret board is cherry, bound with maple.
The pickup rings are wenge also.

I will be taking the obligatory glamour pictures as soon as it is done.

[Gordon Bellerose]

Correction. My last post said I used cherry on the back.
It is actually western ash.
The cherry was used on the back of the bass I am building.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I'm not sure what happened to the picture above, but it seems to have disappeared..
Here it is again.

[Dennis Salvage]

Gorgeous!