Beautiful Guitar Thread

[stan]

for sure, there is a ton of work in them

[Zandit75]

[Zandit75]

[Zandit75]

[Zandit75]

Taken from Facebook:
BOG OAK

I decided to do a dedicated post about this national treasure as my teaser posts about this guitar got a fair bit of attention. It's quite a complicated subject, so i'll try to keep it as simple as possible...

The Bog Oak stock i have access to is sourced from East Anglia, in the 'fenland basin' which today is made up of vast flats of farm land. Thousands of years ago it was endless ancient forests that reached as far as the eye could see and comprised of behemoth trees, the like of which do not exist in England today.
Approximately 7000 years ago a rise in sea level (relative to land level) caused the local rivers to back up and flood the vast forests of the fens - consequently the trees died standing and then all slowly fell into the silt of the flooded forest floor. Many have been preserved under anaerobic conditions until now, where the flooded marshy forest floor has become peat rich farm land. The logs are generally discovered when farmers hit in to them while ploughing their fields and quite often, break their equipment. As such, they are generally quite keen to see them excavated and taken away.
This preservation in an anaerobic state for around 5000+ years has meant that the Oaks are in superb condition and many yeild viable timber if excavated and dried correctly.

I am lucky enough to be good personal friends with a man named Hamish Low, who is quite simply, mad. He has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to excavating these ancient forest giants and is the worlds leading mind in bog oak excavation, milling and drying. He is the only person in the world who TRULY understands the mechanical properties of how this incredibly rare and tricky timber truly works. It can in some cases take up to two and a half years to dry some of these excavated logs to a level suitable for woodworking, so his dedication, passion and unwavering madness is truly astonishing.
Like all timber sources, and more so than most others, Bog Oak has a finite supply. There are nowhere near the amount of logs being excavated each year as there used to be, and finding these logs really is luck of the draw. I am not exaggerating when i say that Bog Oak truly is one of the worlds rarest timbers, and it is a national treasure.

Hamish very kindly allowed me to select a few pieces from his private stock of planks back in September when i gave him a hand with this years log milling. This is the first time he has allowed a luthier to purchase from the VERY BEST stock he has, and among the pieces i bought were some FLAMED planks. According to Hamish "It is the only flamed log i have had in 30 years" so this is basically as rare as it gets. What i purchased was also the last of the figured log!
These pieces will be turned into electric guitar tops and there are TWELVE available. The stock has been officially carbon dated at 5,300 years old and has good figure, good (two tone) colour and clean grain throughout. Three of these tops have already been reserved for upcoming builds, so if you would like to commission an instrument with this unbelievably rare and beautiful timber please get in touch through my website to discuss it. Please note: i will not be selling these tops separately - They are purely for my own use.

The pictured instrument i have just finished and has been built for 'show stock' so will be available later this year. More on that soon. I have a fairly extensive experience working with Bog Oak now so i chose the timber selection based on balancing tone. Instrument spec is as follows...

Polaris 6. Bolt on.

- Swamp Ash body
- Bog Oak top (With Purpleheart secondary cap)
- 9 piece Bog Oak / Purpleheart / Black Walnut / Flamed Maple neck.
- Bog Oak fingerboard.
- Bog Oak / Flamed Maple hand spliced head veneer.
- Bog Oak reverse head veneer.
- Hannes bridge.
- Gotoh SGS510 tuners.
- Oil City Blackmachine pickups / clear covers.
- 10,000 year old fossilized Mammoth tusk nut.
- Stainless Steel jumbo frets.
- 1v, 1t, 3 way selector.
- Dunlop flush mount strap locks.
- Polyester lacquer / high gloss.

[wokkaboy]

wow Zandit that is off the chain that axe, stunning is an understatement

[pablopepper]

Hawt! you just answered mu question.

[Zandit75]

I'm on a page on Facebook that features high-end guitars for sale/swap etc. Some guys just share their latest purchase. Some beautiful guitars on there.
I love the reversed burst on this top. Might keep it in mind for another build.

[stan]

oh wow, so nice

[FrankenWashie]

I think I just had a wood-gasm.