Seth - if you're making a banded wheel, I suggest using Baltic Birch or Finnish Birch as the core. It will be a lot more stable than a piece of solid wood. If you use solid wood, it will shrink and grow disproportionally as the humidity changes, and your band will come unglued (and likely you will also.)
For the band, we typically use holly, about 1/8" (3 mm) thick after scraping and shaping. Holly is great because it is easy to bend, and it's practically grainless. The downside is the shortage of long clear holly - it's kinda like the Holy Grail (holly grail?) of HG builders who make this style of wheel.
The fun (ahem) parts of this process are getting a nice clean bend around the wheel, and making the scarf joint, and clamping the band.
Trimming the band on the lathe before final scraping in the instrument is tons of fun: the holly comes off in long, long strands. With a sharp tool, there's a magical feel to watching the wood pour off almost like water.
Good luck, Alden F.M. Hackmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Beati illi qui in circulum circumeunt, fient enim magnae rotae."
