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Suppose a customer wants me to build them an electric guitar with a brazilian rosewood fingerboard, where can I get them?

Due to CITES I have to get it in Taiwan but since no one here has it...

would this be a good candidate for a fingerboard transplant if the guy has a guitar that already has brazilian rosewood fingerboard on it, assuming he insists on that wood...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I did suggest that, and he said "I know Madagascar Rosewood looks like Brazilian but I WANT Brazilian and if I were to get Madagascar rosewood then I might as well buy a Gibson"

I can see why the other luthier didn't respond to his inquiry... he's really not being reasonable,

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Yea, I told him if he has a guitar with brazilian that he doesn't want, I can transplant it... but then the scale would be determined by the fretboard.

I said the only way to get it would be to find a guitar in Taiwan that already has brazilian, because no seller will ship brazilian rosewood outside of their country.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

you can try your luck with this:
http://www.octopus.com.tr/store/?page=p ... 36&cat=312

maybe they will ship to taiwan, maybe your customer will take the plunge... it´s a very light coloured example of BRW, but that can happen sometimes (acidic soil, less humidity, more sunlight than BRW grown near the ocean will yield a paler timber).

cheers,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

that really looks like pao ferro.

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Build log

It could very well be... I mean how would you know, especially if you have never seen Brazilian Rosewood before?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hi Tai Fu,
What are the import laws regarding Brazilian rosewood in Taiwan? If it not legal to import it and you can not source it in country, then I would let the customer supply it. I would also be inclined to get a hefty deposit on the commission.
Brazilian rosewood is one of the most variable in color and grain that I have worked with. The wood in the picture above could very well be Dalbergia Nigra, but then again there are a lot of people calling a lot of different species "Brazilian Rosewood" these days. (those do look a lot like Pau ferro.)

well, you could take the plunge and order one - after all octopus has some reputation and it would be very bad practice business-wise if they sold something mis-labled, specially if it´s the official holy grail of tonewood-land. But then again, it is in the paler side...
After you have it there, it would be rather simple: morado (pau-ferro / caviuna / santos RW / bolivian RW - all different names for the same stuff, i.e., Machaerium schleroxylon) does not have the rosewood smell (not much smell at all in my samples) and has really a fine texture, while braz RW is a diffuse porous wood with medium to medium/coarse texture. Looks-wise Brazilian tends have that crazy spider-webbing many of us lust for and darker colour, but - as i said before - its colour palette is broad and varies widely with sun and moisture exposure and soil pH. The stuff that was exported out of brazil and suited european tastes (from the XVI century onwards) was the more figured, orange/purple tinged with dark veins stuff that grew in the "mata atlantica" forest, near the ocean, specially from bahia to southern rio state, where high humidity, low pH and dense, high canopy forests favoured slower growth and the production of extractives that produced the rio-type brazilian rosewood. More to the interior (near the "sertao") the lighter, paler type tends to be dominant. I don´t know if it´s endemic or planted, though.

Cheers,
Miguel

P.S. -crappy picture of bolivian RW follows

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

First thing that hits you when handling real Brazilian is the smell. It smells nicer and stronger than any other rosewood, and you don't even have to scrape it. When I use it for bridges and play the guitar in the white I can sometimes pick up the smell when playing. Other species that pack such a nose punch are Spanish cypress, cedrella and lignum vitae. I am only talking dry and somewhat oxidized wood here. Handling wet fresh Madagascar rosewood for example is simply mind blowing.

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Build log

I really wish I could get a sample so I'd know the difference... I don't know the Taiwanese import law but as they're not UN they really aren't under any obligation to follow international laws, but they do their best to follow them to build a "better international reputation".

That being said I just don't know where I could source some D. Nigra outside of the USA (actually, I don't even know where I can source pretty much anything luthier related outside of the USA) and I am pretty sure anyone selling D. Nigra in the EU, Australia or NZ is pretty much not going to ship it out of their country because I am sure those countries have tough regulations against exporting CITES species.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Perhaps "some" vendor or "someone" else could send you some "cocobolo" . I don't have any in the shop myself right now for fretboard, but if I did I would send you some "cocobolo"
Perhaps I have been watching to many cowboys movies when I was younger as I though Americans was a brave bunch of people who did not let government rule over the individuals. times are changing
as Bob Dylan sings... ....
First shot on me......
Lars

- it is widley known that Octopuss is selling Santos as BRW, which is not a mistake at all...Brazilian Rosewood is just a name, you can sell American Red Oak and call it Brazilian Rosewood. The point of no return starts when you (have to) label the real scientifc, botanical name, for example for a CITES permisson or Lacey Act. As soon as you use these two words in combination, you should really know what you are doing: Dalbergia Nigra. Yes, you are right, Octo is also saying, Dalbergia Nigra, but that is not my problem.

- The Octopuss BRW is Santos, I have seen it and smelled it. I resawed it, scraped it, plained it. My comparison knowledge comes from a few hundred BRW sets I have worked with.

- The Cites works worldwide, in every country. And it works for both. The seller has to have a permisson to sell and export from his government. The buyer has to have the permisson from his government to import and to buy, and perhaps to resell (...).

- ther are a few very reliable seller of BRW, with the correct CITES paperwork, not much but enough. It is complicated, expensive, takes lot of time, but it works. And of course, when you are planing to do this step, the first would be to go to your government and say: Hey, I would like to import, work and sell Dalbergia Nigra...ever tried this?


best regards, alex

Hmmm .. well I think those pix are pau ferro as well .. I have seen my share of BRW, and none of it ever looked like that.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Try Madeira or Hanover brazil.

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I think the closest looking wood to brw is,
eir.

Total +1 on that...

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Ever seen any Amazon Rosewood?

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John

f&ck me! that´s just dishonest,no matter how one flips the coin. what about follmann? is their stuff worth it? it´s definitely not expensive, so one wonders...

cheers,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Not true. Allied lutherie ships BRW to Taiwan while they still had it. That was before 2005, IIRC. I just managed to get 18 B&S sets and some bridge blanks from Allied but I didn't order any fbs. I'm certainly not the only one who has BRW, btw.

Here's an eir bridge blank,
on top of what I'm fairly certain is brw.
The brw has tung oil on it.
The eir doesn't have the sharp contrasting black grain.
Anyboby think this is braz?
Pics are bass-ackwards.

Yeah filippo.
I bought 2 of that type of eir, (the junk),
roughed out a bridge,
and didn't feel good about it.
So, I went to Allied,
and found the good stuff.
I also got some nice eir bindings from him.
I think he's got a nice stash of it.
Real nice to actually go in there and look around.

Hm, I'm not very experienced and I can only compare it to EIR, but I bought headplatte and bridge blank from Octopuss and the smell was MUCH stronger and sweeter than EIR. Also, the tap tone was more "glassy gong" compared to "metallic" EIR - hard to describe in words. But maybe santos rosewood feels similar, I don't know.

Here's headplatte finished with light blonde shellac:

Santos rosewood has very small pores.

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John

it's Santos then - pores were rather small. But the intensive smell is confusing...

Huhm! Stockholm....Sweden! Isn't it the law in Sweden you guys have to pee sitting down?

Piss like a man...
go to jail...
IT'S THE LAW!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)