Sometimes you come across a piece of wood that is so stunning, you just have to have it! Case in point - this beautiful piece of quarter-sawn, Zebra wood we found in a suppliers stock pile.
“The name zebrawood is used to describe several tree species and the wood derived from them. Zebrawood is characterized by a striped figure that is reminiscent of a zebra. The name originally applied to the wood of Astronium graveolens, a large tree native to Central America. In the 20th century, the most important source of zebrawood was Microberlinia brazzavillensis, a tree native to Central Africa. Other sources include Brazilian Astronium fraxinifolium, African Brachystegia spiciformis, Pacific Guettarda speciosa, and Asian Pistacia integerrima.” - Wikipedia
It is a heavy and hard wood with a coarse texture that can make it difficult to work with. We are currently creating this guitar to feature a recessed Floyd Rose, rounded neck heel, standard tummy and forearm contour and two humbuckers (make/model of pickups yet to be determined).
We have actually found the wood to be not too bad to work with. A few splinters here and there but nothing major. Some slight burning of the wood when routing some of the cavities which we sanded out. But look at that grain! As this wood is also very porous, we will no doubt have to treat it with grain filler prior to, and during, the various sanding and finishing stages. This body will not be stained but will receive a glossy, clear coat buffed to a high gloss. Then it will be married to a 25-1/2” scale neck, 10”-16” compound radius, standard-thin neck with a black ebony fingerboard, jumbo stainless steel frets and a reverse Warhead-style head stock cut from maple and will be topped by tuning keys from GraphTech.
A faraday box will line the control cavity and will house premium, 500K pots, a Switchcraft 3-way toggle and sound fed through a 4-point Pure Tone jack. We can’t wait until it’s all finished. Check back soon to see the finished product!
If you’d like your own custom built shred-machine, don’t hesitate to reach out via our Contact Us page for a quote
Regards,
Nigel \m/
P.S. Update on this guitar here.