Sycamore Esquire

[Rob DiStefano]

Picked up an interesting sycamore Tele body that's uber lightweight, so I stuck on a TRO-W neck I had lying around along with a Nocaster Holy Grail and good electronics. I had an Esquire pickguard in the pickguard bin and figured to use it but didn't realize I'd modified it for some other Esquire and it was too short - got a Bakelite one on order. The finish of both body and neck is amber aniline dye powder in denatured alcohol for the stain, and five thin coats of Tru-Oil clear, nothing fancy, just good wood grain protection. Anyhoo, sans a pickguard and strap buttons the guitar weighs in at a sparse 4lbs 13ozs. A bone nut and a good setup and she plays great and sings well through a new VHT Special Six. Me like!

 

[ScottJPatrick]

Looks good Rob, bakelite guard should look ok but a nice tortoiseshell would really set it off.

 

[crazydave911]

Sweet! I love sycamore

 

[68tele]

That thing is syc!

 

[archetype]

Looks cool. I'd think that sycamore would have to dry a l o o o n g time to be ready for a body. I've burned a lot of syc and it's wet stuff. It can have random, interesting grain.

 

[archetype]

That thing is syc!

Nice! You have a way with words.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

Another killer Cavalier build! Love it!

 

[Dan German]

Sycamore is fun to say.

 

[Ebidis]

4 Lbs, 13 Oz? Holy cow that is light. It would probably float in the bathtub.

Anyway, cool guitar.

 

[Roscoe295]

That may be the lightest guitar I’ve ever come across. Looks good. I bet it sounds fantastic.

 

[otterhound]

Looks cool. I'd think that sycamore would have to dry a l o o o n g time to be ready for a body. I've burned a lot of syc and it's wet stuff. It can have random, interesting grain.

The random , interesting grain you write about are called medullary rays . They are present in all Sycamore , but it must be close to or dead on quartersawn for them to show . I know this for a fact and have harvested and sold a fair amount of this wood species .
If you choose to burn this wood , it burns hot and leaves very little ash behind .
In Europe , Sycamore is a Maple and in the Middle East , it is a Fig and spelled Sycomore . Sycamore is native to the Orient and North America . A hybrid is called London Plane . I could go on .........

 

[WingedWords]

Against all advice my first guitar build was a classical in curly/flamed sycamore. A lovely piece of wood and it taught me a lot about setting a plane and using scrapers for thicknessing the back and sides. Looking at it now, there was clearly a lot more left to learn from that piece of wood... I believe it's a tradition in violin making that your first instrument is burnt. That guitar demonstrated why.

 

[archetype]

The random , interesting grain you write about are called medullary rays . They are present in all Sycamore , but it must be close to or dead on quartersawn for them to show . I know this for a fact and have harvested and sold a fair amount of this wood species .
If you choose to burn this wood , it burns hot and leaves very little ash behind .
In Europe , Sycamore is a Maple and in the Middle East , it is a Fig and spelled Sycomore . Sycamore is native to the Orient and North America . A hybrid is called London Plane . I could go on .........
View attachment 915229 View attachment 915230 View attachment 915231

Thanks. Good info. In the Spring we're going to plant Sycamores in our creek bottom.

 

[trapdoor2]

The hardwood lumber yard I had nearby in Alabama usually carried a good stock of well-quartered Sycamore. I bought some nice planks with good figure for a future build.

It didn't seem especially light to me...I guess I'll find out!

 

[GreatDaneRock]

A little under 5lbs!!? That's incredibly light. Oh, great finish on it, by the way, it's a looker.

My issue with lighter than, say, 6lbs is the big chance (fact?) the neck will be diving to the ground. You can already start to feel the pull towards earth with 7lbs guitars. This is why I can't own semi-hollow-type guitars.

So I'm curious, how bad is the dive on yours? I know, a "good strap" can fix neck dive... Not really, still pulls on your shoulder to be honest.

Congrats.

 

[otterhound]

Thanks. Good info. In the Spring we're going to plant Sycamores in our creek bottom.

They love wet areas and are not as dirty or vulnerable as Willow trees .

 

[otterhound]

The hardwood lumber yard I had nearby in Alabama usually carried a good stock of well-quartered Sycamore. I bought some nice planks with good figure for a future build.

It didn't seem especially light to me...I guess I'll find out!

I do not know Sycamore as a light weight wood .

 

[Telekarster]

Nice job Rob! Looks great! So.... what pickups you gonna go with?

 

[old wrench]

Nice axe Rob!

I have a pretty good idea of how it sounds -

I have the same pickup in my B16 Esquire, and it sounds great


.

 

[archetype]

They love wet areas and are not as dirty or vulnerable as Willow trees .

Oh, man... we have 85 year old, 70 foot high Willows all around us. The limbs break off, they die as fast as they grow, they're all hollow, and they all fall down. The adjacent property has 2 that will fall and hit our garage and house. The one in the center, out back, will miss us if we're lucky.

A LOT of Willow has gone into the fire bowl on the upper patio.