Working with wenge

[Jens]

Planning my next project and am pretty set on a wenge body this time. I got a great Warmoth Wenge/Ebony neck for my first build (a Gibson RD copy)
Made the body from scratch out of mahogny and learned alot. Wasn´t entirely happy with the result so I´ll be using the same neck for this next project.
Have found a local luthier who can order the wood for me. I know about splinters, toxic dust and potential gluing problems so it promises to be a fun build.  :toothy10:

Anybody got experience working with wenge? I saw norumba:s wenge/ash project and that looked great.
The body design will be a solid eletric guitar similar to Sandberg´s Florence. http://www.sandberg-guitars.de/guitars/florence
I am little concerned about the weight. Has anybody played a solidbody guitar made entirely out of wenge?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[NonsenseTele]

I worked a little and it the thing most vivid on my mind is tha it's hard as f*$@... As the problem with gluing, try getting a one piece of it...

I bet Gallery Hardwoods would have... good chances of Gilmerwood too and perhaps even on ebay... Wenge is not very hard to be found on big slabs

 

[norumba]

having finished the wenge/ash tele project, i can tell you it is one of the heaviest guitars in terms of weight i've ver had. Weighs more than the hefty LP used to own,  and on a par with the Gibson doubleneck i used to have as well -- and this is *chambered*. 

i havent lived with it thru amps very long, but  as can be expected, it does sound massive: solid, excellent definition and clarity, balanced, very in your face and upfront.  What  you seem to give up for that  is a certain sweetness, an organic musicality and responsiveness. There's low end in there, but not a lot of  overall warmth, if that makes sense.

That doesnt make it intrinsically bad or good, it just is what it is, so it depends on what  sort of guitar character youre looking for out of your build.

Of course, there's  a ton of other factors to consider- pickups, amp, etc --  but those are my first impressions, fWIW.

Good luck and keep us posted!