Choice of wood for a cello tailpiece

[Lilian Kelly]

I have just seen some cello and violin tailpieces for sale, that are made out of Italian/French Olive tree wood.

I haven't seen this before.  Has anyone any experience of this wood being used as a tailpiece?

Is a it a good tone wood?

 

Thank you

[Dwight Brown]

Olive wood is used for recorders some.  It is usually one of the more expensive choices.

[baroquecello]

If the Salad cutlery I have is any measure to go by, then it is a gnarly, not very wear and water resistant, acoustically dead wood. That doesn't mean it won't make exactly the right tailpiece for some instrument  (on some instruments dampening certain frequencies can be beneficial), but I wouldn't expect much from it.

Recorders made of olive wood? Not what i'm used to seeing. It's usually box wood or tropical hardwoods over here.

[Altgeiger]

13 hours ago, baroquecello said:

Recorders made of olive wood? Not what i'm used to seeing. It's usually box wood or tropical hardwoods over here.

It's a reasonably common wood for recorders, not as usual as boxwood or pear, but about as frequent as ebony.

[Randall The Restorer]

Dear Lilian,

A quick Google search revealed several pages showing Classical Guitars with back and sides made from wood of Mediterranean Olive Tree Olea europaea, plus tonewood of the species for sale.

There is also a webpage devoted to a violin with all parts, except the soundboard, made of Olive Tree wood. (see links below).

https://reverb.com/en-fr/item/68219499-alhambra-6-olive

https://maderasbarber.com/tonewood/en/olive-backs-acoustic-guitar/9011-olive-backs-acoustic-guitar.html

https://boisdolivier.fr/en/instruments-in-olive-wood/

Some electric guitar builders use Olea europaea wood for bodies and fretboards.

https://acerguitars.com/products/live-edged-olivewood-epoch

I have personally made very sonorous wind chimes using cutoffs of Mediterranean Olive Tree wood flooring. 

I would say it is a good tonewood. I also find it visually stunning.

It would be utilized more, but the way the tree grows and the importance of its fruit causes  lutherie quality boards and billets to be rare. 

Yours truly,

Randy