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help with binding selection on next arch top

Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:55 pm
by Greg Martin
My next archtop build will be walnut back and sides, sinker western red ceder top , ziricote head plate and fingerboard and finger rest,ebony/ziricote bridge and tail piece. the fb inlays are from depaule and are modern than traditional, mop. head and f holes wont be bound on this one. Last build I used white/black/white and tortoise.
I cant so far , choose a combo of bindings for neck and body that strike me right.I was thinking of a red fine line in there some where,maybe not. This one is dark overall with the walnut and the cedar top looks more tanish than spruce. any suggestions

Re: help with binding selection on next arch top

Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 2:04 pm
by David King
Perhaps a Macassar ebony binding? Ziricote would be cool but I'm not sure how well it bends. There are dozens of Macassar ebonies and some of them are very prone to splitting so you'd want to have the right stuff. You could combine it with birch or hickory for contrast.

Re: help with binding selection on next arch top

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 6:51 pm
by Patrick Hanna
You have rich color on top and back. In my view, you need rich contrast. Your contrast could come from extremely dark or from light binding. If you go dark, or, let's say if I were in your situation and I were considering dark, I'd consider a light fillet between body and binding.

These are personal judgements.

I think you should draw your possibilities out with colored pencils on sketch paper and then decide, because there is not a person here who can get into you head and understand your preferences.