Official Luthiers Forum!

Just purchased a B&S set on ebay claimed to be "Colombian Rosewood" and described as dalbergia tucurensis. However, after doing a bit of googling I discovered that dalbergia tucurensis is native to Nicaragua. The same supplier is also advertising other pieces of tonewood as "Colombian Rosewood" but decribed as platymiscium which I believe is Macacauba. Comparing pictures, it looks very much the same to the stuff I've just bought.

There seems to be a lot confusion out there as to what is a true rosewood and what is being substituted as such. Anybody care to throw in a few words on the subject?

Bill S.

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Dream to be a luthier

you definitely cannot go by anything but the latin names. and even then you are trusting the supplier. rosewoods and mahogany seem to be the worst because there are so many commercially acceptable forms of "rosewood" and "mahogany". khaya and sapele are both lumped into the group mahogany. and rosewood well you have figured that one out yourself.

ebay has got to still be the most sketchy way to purchase tone wood IMO. although i would consider jumping on a deal if i saw one and thought the wood was coming from a reputable source. there are a supplier or two from these forums that sell on ebay those would be the sources i trust.

i think it will be very hard to find an answer to exactly what species of rosewood you have received but that shouldn't stop you from making a sweet guitar from it!

Most of the confusion stems from the use of common names.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

IMO, and I think this is pretty much the standard for those who care, a true rosewood belongs to genus Dalbergia. There are quite a few, with D. Latifolia, called "East Indian" Rosewood, being the most widely used now, and D. Nigra being your prized Brazilian, as examples. A true Mahogany belongs to genus Swietenia, the only commercially viable/abundant species being S. Macrophylla, called "Honduran" or "South American" Mahogany. S. Mahoganii, whence Mahogany gets its name, is native to Cuba, and is was wiped out for commercial purposes somewhere around the late 19th century. FWIW, the true ebonies are genus Diospyros, which includes a few unlikely members such as american Persimmon.

Like was said though - belonging to a certain genus doesn't make you better! There's lots of good stuff from many genera, including some that may be inaccurately dubbed a Rosewood or Mahogany.

Peace,
Sanaka

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...imagine there were no hypothetical situations...

I believe d. tucurensis is usually referred to as guatamalan rosewood and is a little less dense than honduran. Not completely sure but I think this is right.

Allied sold D. Tucurensis as Panama Rosewood a year ago. Gilmer is currently selling D. Tucurensis as Guatemalen Rosewood. While both these woods look different, their weight and pores are remarkably similar and both have awesome tap tone. Both Gilmer and Allied have cut and marketed lots of tonewood and both are very reputable. I have also seen D. Tucurensis referred to as Honduran Rosewood. All this means to me is that is has a large growing range. FWIW here is a back that I bought from Allied a couple of years ago, that was marketed as Panama Rosewood, that I am currently converting to a 000.

I heard they only sell this stuff by the Kilo.