King Billy Pine tonewood profile
guitarbench
For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on King
Billy Pine as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always,
improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own
experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you
and linking back to you! This may be a little contentious and but no
means complete.
I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to
http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2008/11/28/king-billy-pine-tonewood-profile/
for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text
portion of the interview for your consideration- although I do highly
recommend popping by to see the pics!
Warmest regards,
Terence
www.guitarbench.com
Athrotaxis selaginoides | Tonewood Profile | "King Billy Pine"
Tonewoods Database
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Please email with any corrections/ additional info
We aim to keep each profile as complete as possible & your help is
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Quick Facts
Scientific name: Athrotaxis selaginoides
Trade names: King Billy Pine
Janka: ~1200 (no firm references)
Uses: Tops, veneer
RIYL: Ebony, Acacia
Bling factor: Grain variation common.
Availability: Rare
CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions
Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like
Natural History
Although not a true pine, King Billy Pine is also known as King
William Pine. King Billy Pine is an extremely slow growing species
that like most spruces grows in high (400-1,120m) altitudes, often
snow covered during winter. It’s range is limited to the north west
and south west Tasmania.
It is an evergreen coniferous tree attaining heights of 20–30 m, with
a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter and claw-like leaves.
King Billy Pine gets it's name from William Lanne, most famous as the
last surviving member of the Oyster Cove clan... read more here
Status
The species is threatened, with bushfires being the major cause of
decline . These are often started as controlled fires to clear logging
debris after timber harvests in nearby Eucalyptus forests. Some
sources indicate up to 1/3 of the species' range has been lost due to
fires in the 20th century. Logging plays a smaller role in the King
Billy Pine’s decline.
In Northern Europe, it is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental and
is rather successful in Scotland where it receives rainfall for good
growth and is documented to produce fertile seeds.
Physical properties
The timber has a light pink hue with very close grain. It is softer
than sitka spruce and has a characteristic aroma when worked. It's
physical properties is comparable to a pale red western cedar, but
with greater stiffness. King billy pine has a specific gravity of
0.25.The janka is said to be around 1200 but I could not find any
solid references for this figure.
As a tonewood...
It is less stiff across the grain than spruce and benefits from being
left thicker on flattop construction and from a higher arch on
archtops.
It is used for soundboards for guitars and violins although it excels
as a mandolin top. Australian mandolin maker, Peter Coombe is a big
fan:
"King Billy Pine is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest
soundboard timbers that grows upon this earth. In my experience, it
makes beautiful sweet clear sounding mandolins that many musicians
prefer over the best spruce-topped instruments. It is not as strong as
Spruce along the grain, so I use Red Spruce bracing, and carve the top
a little higher than my Spruce tops."
Subjective tone...
I would broadly characterise the tone of King Billy Pine as sweet in
the midrange with a strong bass and open trebles. It has headroom
similar to redwood and responds much like cedar. This is my experience
of the A and F style mandolins as well as flattop guitars made from
this topwood.
Availability
As a threatened species, King Billy Pine is no longer commercially
harvested and is only rarely available.
Links/ References:
Cole Clark Guitars http://www.coleclarkguitars.com/
Australian Tonewoods http://www.australiantonewoods.com/
©2008 Terence Tan.
Pictures copyright individual holders.
Tony Done
> Hi Folks!
>
> For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on King
> Billy Pine as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always,
> improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own
> experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you
> and linking back to you! This may be a little contentious and but no
> means complete.
>
>
> ©2008 Terence Tan.
>
> Pictures copyright individual holders.
Maton did a few commemorative guitars with KB tops about a decade ago,
it was a big anniversary for them. 50 years? It looked beautiful with
its very tight even grain, but the sound was totally underwhelming. It
lacked the dynamic complexity of spruce and the "bounce" and even
response of cedar. Might have had something to do with the fact that
many Matons from that period still sounded grossly overbraced.
Tony D
Mike Brown
Tony.
Are they better now ? Nearly all of trhe Matons that I have played have
sounded "tubby" (I don't know if that word makes sense to you, but that
is what always comes to mind when I hear them).
There have been a couple of exceptions, one of which was a parlour size
of which I can't remember the model number. It was Queensland maple b/s
and a striking multi coloured Bunya top. I only sold it when I bought my
Tim Wright parlour.
MJRB
Tony Done
>
> - Show quoted text -
My recent experience is that the lower priced ones, 325 and 225, are
better than the expensive ones. Mostly not great sounding compared
with many cheaper ones, but they have the AP pickup system, a very
good warranty and repair service, good looks, and the rather
"dead" (not dull) tone goes well with their pickup system. A number of
expensive models I've tried, Messiahs and TEs, have struck me as
having good amplified performance potential, especially for jazz,
while not being the kind of thing that would appeal in your lounge
room.
Tony D
McCollum
Lance
"Tony Done" <tony...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:add46081-db5a-4d8b...@a26g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Tony D
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hank alrich
> Maybe it's time to use the set I have and see what I can make it sound like?
> Lance
Do that. When you get 'er finished, meet me at Luke's so I can try it
out.
--
ha
shut up and play your guitar
Mike Brown
It's often (not always) the case that the guitars that amplify best are
not the best sounding acoustic guitars.
MJRB
Tony Done
> Maybe it's time to use the set I have and see what I can make it sound like?
> Lance
>
> ---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Yeah, Maton's approach, like Martin, is formulaic, one size fits all.
I would bet $ that you could get a good sound out of it, I think it's
all in the hands and ears.
Tony D
guitarbench
it'll be very interesting! If you get the chance do let us know.
Ps. could you pop me an email off forum at terenceatguitarbench.com?
Terence
www.guitarbench.com