Wenge?

[Danny Seamon]

What are your experiences/opinions of wenge as a back and side wood on an acoustic?
Thanks,
Danny

[Ron Belanger]

Wenge is an excellent tone wood for acoustic back and sides. It has a bright glassy tap tone and I really like the dark Chocolate Brown color. I've built a dreadnought with it and look forward to doing more. It is relatively easy to bend, but it is a bit splintery and the pores are deep so take extra care when filling. I use epoxy and it took me 4 coats to fill. It looks great under finish sort of like a chocolate brown mahogany.

[Steve Senseney]

You will get a lot of slivers and develop skills at removing them. But it is a good wood for sides and backs.

[Clay Schaeffer]

The wenge I have used splits easily along the grain so some care was required when handling unbraced pieces. Nasty splinters, as mentioned, but otherwise a nice wood to work with.

[Danny Seamon]

I appreciate the comments very much. The research I tried to do on the web was confusing....you know how google is....I had read everything from "the large pores dampen the sound and it should not be used for acoustics" to "it is the future replacement for brazilian rosewood" to "it is oily and doesn't glue well" to "you will have to replace all your saw blades because it is so hard", etc. This forum is great in that you get to learn from people with first hand experience. Thanks again!

[Matthew Lau]

Danny,

I haven't worked with it, but I've seen it in some world-class guitars.
It sounds amazing. Great tap tone. Even running my finger on a sanded board brought a nasty splinter.
Apparently, it's a pain to work with...literally.

[Tyko Runesson]

Intresting that Ron Belanger says that it is easy to bend......for me it wasn´t! From all the instruments I built of different woods Wenge is the only one that I gave up on. Wasn´t possible to bend at all.....I just managed to bend it very slightly on my bending iron but I did managed to give it some long cracks along the grains....(not the normal ways wood tend to crack when bending it).
Maybe I just got some bad pieces.
It made good fretboards though.

[Ron Belanger]

With the Wenge I used a fox bender, used damp paper on both sides and bent starting at 250 degrees F and increased the temperature to a little over 325 and let it cook for 15 minutes. After it cooled I put it through a reheat cycle for another 15 minutes or so and they came out fine, with just a little spring back. Hopefully future sides will bend as easily.

[Danny Seamon]

Uh oh. I only have a bending iron. Any suggestions out there on how much to wet? ...or other advise to prevent cracking or otherwise help with the bending process?

[Clay Schaeffer]

Using a "backing strip" (spring steel or even a piece of formica) during the bend may help minimize the chance of splitting along the grain.

[Ron Belanger]

What Clay said.

[Tyko Runesson]

I did (and do) use a backing strip. But that wasn´t really the problem. It didn´t crack, it just didn´t wanted to bend (plus cracked along the grain). But as I said, I might just had bad pieces. See no reason to try it again though, there is a bunch of different nice woodspieces out there!

[Louie Atienza]

I am considering sending a sizeable billet of Wenge I have had sitting for a long while for resawing into boards suitable for back-and-side sets. The billet is beautifully dark and almost perfectly quartersawn. Does anyone have a recommendation for thickness? I've only used my trusty bending pipe, but do have some metal slats for backing if needed. Also, are you guys bending wenge dry or are you slightly moistening it?

I just saw an artical by Ervin Somogyi in Premier Guitar magazine, championing the use of wenge as an alternative to Brazilian rosewood. I can't wait to see the price of this stuff go through the roof (I believe I paid $11/bf at the time...) Not too worried about splinters; my hands are so calloused that I probably won't feel them (and I probably have quite a few embedded splinters in my hands right now!)

[Jim Kirby]

A board of Wenge was my greatest ever one that got away. It was sitting there at the lumber yard - 6/4, almost perfectly QS, 10" wide by 15 ft long, absolutely straight grained with about 1" of sapwood running the length of one side of the board. Could have been mine for about $180. What was I thinking?

[Alan Carruth]

One of my friends made a very fancy 12-string reso out of wenge. He took it out to show at a local luthier's meeting, and it had a crack down the back. Omne of the other makers looked and said: "Yup; that's wenge". We get some pretty wide humidity swings here in New England, and it brings out the worst in some woods.

Alan Carruth / Luthier

[Louie Atienza]

I do have concerns about wenge cracking like that. Would increasing or decreasing thickness help? Also I've seen some builds with reinforcment strips parallel to the ladder bracing; I suppose that would be a good idea?

[Clay Schaeffer]

Using wide "flatter" back braces in the lower bout to make a more flexible back might be a good idea.

[Alan Carruth]

I'd dome it a lot, so it has someplace to go when it shrinks, and not make it too stiff. Cracking happens when the stress of shrinkage when the edges can't move exceeds the rupture strength of the material. Since both the stress and the strength should be proportional to the thickness, making it thinner probably won't help.

Alan Carruth / Luthier

[Louie Atienza]

I'd dome it a lot, so it has someplace to go when it shrinks, and not make it too stiff. Cracking happens when the stress of shrinkage when the edges can't move exceeds the rupture strength of the material. Since both the stress and the strength should be proportional to the thickness, making it thinner probably won't help.

Alan Carruth / Luthier

Would using a softer wood for the braces (i.e.) cedar) help?

[Clay Schaeffer]

A radical idea (and not saying _ I _ would do this ) might be to use 100% silicone sealant to glue the lower back braces. It would be a bit more flexible than HHG.
Building the guitar under the proper conditions and keeping it reasonably humidified is probably all that is necessary to keep it from cracking.