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Side wood grain?


golfski

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Hey All, 

As discussed in other threads, I am enjoying a recently acquired J-150 (Noel G. Sig) and it is really starting to open up and is just beautiful to look at!  While admiring it, I noticed the one of the sides has some ‘dimension’ to it.  When light is reflecting, you can almost see what looks to be a long dent, but it seems like maybe its more the grain raised in the wood that is causing this. You can barely feel ‘elevation’ of a ridge that runs down the side of the guitar, but you can feel it.  It’s pretty easy to see in person but very hard to capture on pics - in the ones attached if you notice the reflection of the curtain, on one side its clean straight lines (last pic), on the other side you can see the lines curve in two places which s the edges of the ridge.  I have tried to include other pics that show this as well.

 

This doesn’t bother me, I am just curious to know that this is normal and an explanation of what it could be.  Given there is only 200 of these made, I’ll assume it makes it even more unique, but want to make sure its not a sign of damage or anything as I had it shipped to the desert and it took a while.

Grain side

gFIkRfW.jpg

BeNMbYe.jpg

No grain side

 

ysBNHKt.jpg

Edited by golfski
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I've seen that on one of the ones I've had. . . 'just took a quick look at a few that are around here/not seeing it, I'll broaden the search later-  maybe it's one of the gone ones. 

Similar to automotive sheet metal, whenever you bend it, it's going create surface tension in that area. But with wood's cell structure, it's not too much of a stretch to see how it could "pull" the reflection as the finish sinks in a little.  Yeah, it could probably be minimized with some compounding, or even with some rubber-backed wet sanding with microfine paper if you cared to do so,  but it wood bug me as little as it sounds like it bugs you. But it is curious.

At 37 seconds in to the video, this Bozeman tour shows the sides not being steamed, but rather soaked before being put into the press:

 

Edited by 62burst
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My SJ200 Western classic has similar waviness on the high side, lower bought bend. I thought it was just a symptom of the wood being bent, and haven't worried much about it. Mine is from 2017, and is doing just fine. Enjoy that nice J150 golfski. 

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Thanks for the continued information everyone!  It definitely doesn't bother me if its not anything that is considered damaged, if anything after watching that video above I think it gives it even more character and uniqueness being hand made.  I noticed the edging on the back of one of the shoulders is slightly not straight and seeing how this comes together in that video you can see how some variation can be expected!  

 

On a side note - I really enjoyed that finger-picking/strumming music to that video - any ideas where tab might be or what song that is?  I don't usually play that style but trying to get into it and that seems like a great example!

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13 hours ago, 62burst said:

I've seen that on one of the ones I've had. . . 'just took a quick look at a few that are around here/not seeing it, I'll broaden the search later-  maybe it's one of the gone ones. 

Similar to automotive sheet metal, whenever you bend it, it's going create surface tension in that area. But with wood's cell structure, it's not too much of a stretch to see how it could "pull" the reflection as the finish sinks in a little.  Yeah, it could probably be minimized with some compounding, or even with some rubber-backed wet sanding with microfine paper if you cared to do so,  but it wood bug me as little as it sounds like it bugs you. But it is curious.

At 37 seconds in to the video, this Bozeman tour shows the sides not being steamed, but rather soaked before being put into the press:

 

Its a cool process.  Great vid. 

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On 7/10/2021 at 11:43 AM, golfski said:

Hey All, 

As discussed in other threads, I am enjoying a recently acquired J-150 (Noel G. Sig) and it is really starting to open up and is just beautiful to look at!  While admiring it, I noticed the one of the sides has some ‘dimension’ to it.  When light is reflecting, you can almost see what looks to be a long dent, but it seems like maybe its more the grain raised in the wood that is causing this. You can barely feel ‘elevation’ of a ridge that runs down the side of the guitar, but you can feel it.  It’s pretty easy to see in person but very hard to capture on pics - in the ones attached if you notice the reflection of the curtain, on one side its clean straight lines (last pic), on the other side you can see the lines curve in two places which s the edges of the ridge.  I have tried to include other pics that show this as well.

 

This doesn’t bother me, I am just curious to know that this is normal and an explanation of what it could be.  Given there is only 200 of these made, I’ll assume it makes it even more unique, but want to make sure its not a sign of damage or anything as I had it shipped to the desert and it took a while.

Grain side

gFIkRfW.jpg

BeNMbYe.jpg

No grain side

 

ysBNHKt.jpg

I think youll be fine  ,  I own a few like that.  

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