Mandolins and trees

[Chris Travers]

Sup Dawgs!

If you could have a mandolin made from any tree/wood ever mentioned, what tree/wood would it be?

For me, ... The Tree of Life from the garden of Eden.

Chris Travers

[Tim2723]

Well, you can at least have a Tree of Life inlay on the fingerboard.

[Elliot Luber]

Besides, if you were in the garden of Eden, why would you want to chop down the tree of life?

[Brad Weiss]

One of those trees from the Wizard of Oz - if I could teach it to sing, I'd probably sound like a good player...

[chordbanger]

Birdseye maple is real pretty.

[Chris Travers]

Besides, if you were in the garden of Eden, why would you want to chop down the tree of life?
good point http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JEStanek]

Just to out geek you Crazylotrfan, I'll say a 3 Point F4 mandolin out of Engleman top and mallorn back and sides. For those not so geeky, the mallorn tree grows in Lothlorien in Middle Earth.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Caras_Galadhon.jpg

I actually have a dreamy wood, Western Australian Sheoak, on the back and sides of my Spira. There is some beautiful wood there in Australia. Koa is lovely too (I have a nice uke). The walnut on my Labraid is warm, lovely. I guess, I already have dream woods.

Mallorn would be a special tone wood based on how revered it is by the elves and the wonderful things they can craft with wood.

Sheoak below...

Jamie

[Chris Travers]

Beautiful!

[Brady Smith]

The one Bill's was made from.

[SnapCut]

Doesn't dogwood have 3 different colors of wood in it?
The tale that I was told when I was a kid was that it was the tree that they used to make the cross out of that they put Jesus on. That's way the blossums have 4 pedals with a blood spot on each. And God from then on made it grow thinner so that it could not be used for that again.
Most backs are like bookmatched anyway so if being narrower and being layed-up in a pare doesn't work could it be done in staves or ribs of 3 or 4?

[SnapCut]

Why arn't some parts made from black locust? It does not rot, when seasoned it rings like metal when tapped, It's very heavy. If your playing in a bar and a fight breaks out you would be ready for it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[Capt. E]

Mesquite would be beautiful, but not sure if you could get boards wide enough or if it would be at all suitable for an instrument.

[JEStanek]

Bill Bussman has done mesquite with beautiful results. He's amazing.

Jamie

[pjlama]

The Bodhi tree, I bet it has some mojo.

[John Flynn]

Here is a Mesquite back on an Old Wave oval that I had custody of for a few months. This was a great instrument, with a cedar top. It had that classic "bell-like" tone. I wish I owned it!

[Woody Turner]

Mesquite offers several outstanding properties: its exceptional dimensional stability (no. 1 among two dozen common flooring woods), attractive color, and hardness/abrasion resistance (about 50% harder than hard maple). Although mesquite trees are often misshapen, it's possible to find specimens large enough to produce one-piece backs, as shown in the previous photo.

Another appealing wood from a misshapen tree is olive, as shown in my avatar mandospoon. It's a challenge to find olive without a lot of cracks, but it's possible. I once ordered a pallet of largely sound (unchecked) olive boards from the Martin Guitar Co. (though I don't think Martin ever used any in its own products). Olive is common around the Mediterranean, from Spain, France, and Italy to Israel and Lebanon to North Africa. Not much of it, however, makes it to the U.S. Some domestic olive (mainly from California) occasionally turns up in the marketplace. Olive is hard, fragrant, and fine grained.

[Chip Booth]

Mallorn, perfect!

Oh, and nice new avatar Jamie #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Chip

[Fred Keller]

Continuing the LOTR theme, why not go a step up for the top wood and have it made from quarter-sawn ENT, ala this fella (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treebeard) from Fangorn forest? I'd guess you'd get a real old tone right away, one that truly spoke. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[GRW3]

Maybe Jean Larivee or Bill Collings ought to call their good buddy Bill Taylor to see if there is a chunk of the Liberty Tree left that is too small for any guitar but could be made into a mandolin b&s. Great story there

Whatever tree tops out the "Freedom Towers" in New York.

Following up on the Chinery "Blue Guitar" concept, how about a series of Mandolins made up of different hardwoods?

[OzMando]

Continuing the LOTR theme, why not go a step up for the top wood and have it made from quarter-sawn ENT, ala this fella (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treebeard) from Fangorn forest? #I'd guess you'd get a real old tone right away, one that truly spoke. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
TREE KILLER !! TREE KILLER !!!!!

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

I'm sure you don't mean it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JEStanek]

I'm not making a mando out of Ent. Do you remeber what those angry Ents did to Sauruman?

Yikes.

The mando MandoJohnny shows is one I really hoped to win (but didn't!!!) in that St. Louis Auction that Bill donated it for. It was a beauty.

Jamie

[allenhopkins]

About ten years ago, Taylor Guitars made what they called the "pallet guitar" out of a nondescript oak freight pallet, with the pine top from a two-by-four selected (they said) at random. They inlaid a forklift design crafted from aluminum, and said it sounded quite good.

The tree contributes its body, and sometimes it's a beautifully figured one, but the builder's skill and knowledge bring the instrument to life.

And, guys, don't mess with ents. Remember, they're an endangered species; as Treebeard said, "There are no Entings."

[Hans]

Well, there's always Pink Ivory!

[billkilpatrick]

from my present perspective they both look like they might have been dodgey dates ... but there was a time when i would have loved playing with either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_Tree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiggy

[Capt. E]

I have a beautiful dining set made from mesquite, purchased 10 years ago. Now I need a mandolin to match.

How about mango wood? I've played an Elkhorn F in that wood that sounded pretty nice.

[Keith Erickson]

I am curious to hear what this exotic mango (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=7;t=54684;hl=mango) F-5 sounds like.

[danoNC]

I've always thought that something more sentimental might be nice, like a mando with back and sides from a red maple that grew around the house where I grew up.

Also, since my work life is focused on physiology and ecology of spruce and fir trees (red spruce and engelmann spruce included), I thought it might be nice to have a soundboard from a tree I've actually worked on.

Dan J

[homeslice]

Keith, If you can make it up to Austin then you can play that exact mandolin at Fiddler's Green. I think it's a killer sounding instrument.

[B. T. Walker]

I'd like to see a mandolin made of of bois d'arc, known as bodark here in Texas. The problam would be to find a piece big enough, but it would be hard as steel and very pretty.

Here is a pic of a fret board made of bois d'arc from a 2006 discussion in this forum (it's the one on the extreme right, the lightest colored wood):

[Bill Snyder]

Plenty of bois d'arc big enough for mandolins. I have some that I hope to eventually use for that. I have seen guitars and I think maybe a mandolin made from it.
BTW it turns brown after a while. Not dark brown, but brown none the less. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Woody Turner]

Here in the eastern U.S., the tree/wood is usually known as osage orange, associated with green softball-size fruit. As Curious says, the lumber can darken over time. This was the premier archery bow wood of the American Indian.

[JEStanek]

Osage orange fruit. I get nervous driving under these in the fall...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg/800px-Osage_orange_1.jpg

Jamie

[B. T. Walker]

We used to have wars throwing bodark apples (what we called Osage oranges), but I don't remember anyone getting hurt. They were formidable, a little like having wars with softballs, I suppose. You'd need God's help if you had to cut up the wood after it dried. I bet it is still pretty after it darkens.

[Chris Wofford]

ZZ Top donated an electric guitar to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, MS that had been made with wood from a cabin Muddy Waters grew up in.

[Eddie Sheehy]

KOA!

[Tracy Ballinger]

Osage orange fruit. #I get nervous driving under these in the fall...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg/800px-Osage_orange_1.jpg

Jamie
I have a funny story about those...

[Mike Snyder]

Here in Kansas bodark is called hedge. It is still widely used for fence posts, and will resist rot for several decades when buried in the ground. Virtually nobody will attempt to chainsaw hedge when it is dry as it is extremely hard and frequently has sand particles in the wood that were blown into the bark by the unrelenting Kansas wind. I cut one for firewood years ago that was greater than three feet in diameter. Hedge is a dangerous wood to burn for heat due to the high temperatures it produces and VERY vigorous sparking when stirring the coals or adding wood.
I sealed the ends on that log long ago and blocked it up off the ground, but no takers could be found among sawyers I called. I'm sure it would have yielded some awesome lumber. Probably also some fence staples. The hedge apples make wonderful targets for a youngster starting out on the shotgun. I've seen beautiful gunstocks out of hedge, probably a little heavy, though. Love to see a hedge mando.

[Woody Turner]

"I sealed the ends on that log long ago and blocked it up off the ground, but no takers could be found among sawyers."

Next time you run across some osage, why not contact South Kansas Woodturners (Wichita) at wallburl@cox.net. Woodturners often prize this wood because it polishes so well. I've worked it a few times myself, beginning with a fencepost I received from Kansas long ago. I guess I was lucky not to get a sandy log, as it machined without major difficulty. (I do hate it when silica shows up in wood.) As I recall, osage is pretty stable, which would be a definite plus for instrument making.

Nice koa, Claughaun. I once had a koa Old Wave in my possession for a few weeks. Beautiful material.

[shadco]

I like this stuff

a lot


http://www.pbase.com/shadco/image/58578795.jpg

[Eddie Sheehy]

This thing about making a mandolin from an Ent brings this story to mind:
In Gaelic Mythology there is a story about a king named Lowery who had horse's ears. The story goes that he concealed his ears under a large crown and let his hair grow long. He had his hair cut once a year and then the barber, who now knew the king's secret - and it was a well-guarded secret, was executed so he couldn't spill the beans. Now one year the poor barber who was chosen begged for his life after the haircut. He plead his case so convincingly that Lowery agreed to spare his life on the condition that he should never reveal the secret to another person. The barber agreed and was spared. A year later the barber was on his death-bed. No doctor could cure him. A wise man examined him and said that his condition was because of a terrible secret that he concealed. His only hope was to tell the secret to someone. The barber said that he had promised never to tell the secret to another person. The wise man said that in that case he should tell the secret to a living plant and that would be as good. The barber went deep into the forest and told his secret to a beautiful tree - probably the only mesquite tree in Ireland - this is not in the original story but it makes more sense of the end I have, which is also not in the original story. He immediately recovered and got on with his coiffing. Later that year there was a huge banquet and the king ordered the most famous musician in the land - a mandolinist named Liam Munroe (also not in the story, it was a harpist) - to come and play for him. Liam decided to make a new type of mandolin - a Folk Loar. He went deep into the forest and saw the same tree. He cut it down and carted the wood back to his workshop...

[Eddie Sheehy]

.... His skilled hands fashioned a beautiful mandolin complete with an F scroll with a sine fada and a buailte on it. He took the mandolin to the kings banquet. The king called for silence for Liam. Liam strummed the strings of the mandolin. A hauntingly beautiful music came forth and filled the great hall. The sounds reverberated from the rafters and seemed to form words. The words became clearer and louder...LOUDER: "LOWERY THE KING HAS HORSE'S EARS..."
We know that the tree was Mesquite because of what happened to the mandolin which led to the first Irish barbecue.....
Sin a bhfuil.

[Eddie Sheehy]

The previous post could also be posted in the Celtic etc. section to explain why the mandolin never really caught on in ITM....