Well, since you asked ..
.. I'll post another snippet of my baby .. The back and sides are 1930's era Brazilian Rosewood .. this is a stiff, very hard tonewood that resonates and rings with almost a chime like quality .. I was fortunate to acquire a small stash of slabs large enough to use some years ago .. as it is a protected species now and fairly rare .. the acquisition of this wood is heavily regulated these days ..
Rosewood is unique in that when you work with it, you'll smell a scent like roses during cutting, shaping, etc .. thus, the name rosewood .. although this wood in and of itself is not rare (Indian Rosewood is common), any other besides Brazilian is really inferior (although still fine to use) .. the quality of the antique Brazilian is beyond compare, due to coloration, tone quality, grain, etc ..
This back is called bookmatched .. in that, you take a slab, band saw it into two halves, and when you open the two halves, it's like a book .. thus, each side is "bookmatched" .. although all manufacturers use an electric planer these days to then sand down each side of the "book", I prefer, instead, to hand sand using a leveling bar .. in fact, on this project, my goal was to use, as much as possible, tools that a builder would have used in the 1930's .. why .. ?? I don't know if this will be my last project, however, if it is, I want to transfer as much mojo into the build as I can ..
The back strip inlay as well as the back edge binding is less detailed than the front I posted yesterday, but it is Green Palo Verde, reclaimed Northern Cali redwood and a very thin ebony strip border / enhancement .. alternating with bleached Canadian Maple .. although plastic / ABS is used commonly, the idea on this instrument was to use all wood on everything it could be used on, with no corner cutting .. in the grand scheme of things, if someone has this in 100 years, they will likely never know, but, that's still part of the mojo ..
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