Veneers

When I inquired among several builders the colors of veneers they would like to see us carry, most politely yawned and said "natural" colors. The images at left are darn close to the real colors, at least within + 13 psu. Anyway, in this business the important colors are black and white. These are nicely produced veneers from Japan.

If you want other colors, it's not difficult to make your own from our white poplar veneer: use water soluble dyes (W.D. Lockwood in NY, NY makes good ones), cut your veneers into the sizes you intend to use (under headplates or for edge trim) and place them into a pressure cooker that contains your dye. Cook the mixture for about 12 hours, stirring or rearranging the pieces from time to time. When they're done, season to taste, take them out and hang them to dry using spring clips, like bag closers.

This I got from the late Richard Schneider. On the left are a couple of images of his wild rosettes. It's hard to tell from the images but they angle up from the outside edge of the rose. This is, I was told by Richard, the only cedar topped guitar he made. He gave it to me because I was one of the few people that didn't have a Kasha-Schneider guitar.