Dead cherry tree

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Peter Wilcox
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Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

My brother's cherry tree died a few years ago, and when I flew out there to visit, I took 2 large suitcases so I could bring home some wood (2 free 50# bags on Southwest.) We cut out a 30" section of the trunk, cut it in half, pared them down to under 50# apiece (that's some heavy wood), painted the ends with latex, and I brought them back and let them dry.
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

Late last year I resawed them (poorly) to build a guitar and a bass. The wood had lots of checks, splits, knots and worm holes, and I made lots of procedural mistakes, but I pushed on and they're finally done. They're very heavy, even though I thinned the guitar body to 1 3/16", which caused its owns set of problems. Building these was a learning experience.
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

The bass is finished with clear lacquer - no dyes, stains or pigments
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

I thought I'd try a wipe on sunburst on the guitar - wow, bad mistake. In addition to my inexperience, the different cuts of wood, and the repairs took up the dyes variably. I reverted to a spray on sunburst which didn't come out too bad.
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

The bass is 34", and has a generic Music Man pickup with the separate coils wired like the pickups of a jazz bass - a volume control for each and a combined tone control. The first volume control is push-pull, combining both coils in series. Fret board, control cover and headstock veneer are cocobolo.
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

For the guitar I tried my first Bigsby type trem with a roller bridge. The switch is 5-way, giving neck humbucking, neck single coil, combo neck and bridge humbucking with one coil from each, bridge single coil and bridge humbucking. These builds were frustrating in dealing with this wood, but a good learning experience.
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Steve Sawyer
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Steve Sawyer »

Those came out pretty nice, Peter!

When you tried the wipe-on sunburst, was this on the bare wood?
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Bob Francis
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Bob Francis »

Those look great!
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

Thanks for the encouragement.

The wipe on was to bare wood. I figured if the wood was finished or sealed that wiping it would streak it What I didn't figure on was the variable uptake of the dye by the irregular wood figure, the different cuts of wood glued together, and the epoxy repairs of the cracks and worm holes. If I try it again it will be on good wood with a regular or symmetrical figure.

Also, when I sprayed on the the sunburst, I had a brain fart and added the pigment to lacquer thinner and sprayed that, not lacquer. It sure dried fast, and came out OK in the end with multiple clear coats over it. :D
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Bryan Bear
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Bryan Bear »

That burst really brings it all together nicely!
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Beate Ritzert
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Beate Ritzert »

May i ask how long You dried the wood? And did you dry it as those two halves or did you roughly resaw it "early"?

We have the trunk of a dead mountain ash in the garden - about the same size as Your cherry - and it needs to be removed completely.
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

Beate, the tree died in 2015, and was cut down ~5/2016. We cut it up 9/2016 and it dried as the two halves until I resawed it a couple of months ago, so it dried for 2+ years in the relatively low humidity of the high desert north of Reno Nevada.
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Steve Sawyer
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Steve Sawyer »

Peter Wilcox wrote:The wipe on was to bare wood. I figured if the wood was finished or sealed that wiping it would streak it What I didn't figure on was the variable uptake of the dye by the irregular wood figure, the different cuts of wood glued together, and the epoxy repairs of the cracks and worm holes.
Thanks, Peter.

I have a build in my head that would benefit from a burst, and I was thinking of trying that hand-applied dye technique demo'd in American Lutherie a while back. I was thinking that you might have minimized the effects you observed by preceding the dye with a wash coat (1/2 lb to 1 lb cut) of shellac. I'll be doing some test runs of whatever techniques I try, so I'm interested in how others are doing this. I'll have to go back to the AL issue to see how the fellow that demo'd that technique (he was doing mandolins) as I don't recall whether he was working on bare wood or did any kind of prep.
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Peter Wilcox
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Re: Dead cherry tree

Post by Peter Wilcox »

Steve, that sounds like a worthwhile idea. The only Youtube videos I saw were on bare wood, so the dye would be well absorbed. I suppose with the correct cut of shellac that could be adjusted. Let us know if you do it and how it comes out. For now if I do any more bursts I'll spray.
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