Official Luthiers Forum!

I had no idea Woodcraft even sold guitar woods but apparently they have East Indian rosewood back and sides sets for sale - and on sale for $49.99, as listed in the latest flyer I got in the mail today. Item #154133. I'm sure they likely aren't premium quality sets but who knows? For 50 bucks it's still a good deal. Just fyi!

Is there a discount code associated with the flier? When I pull up that item # on their site it shows the price as $69.99.

The ones I saw in my area were crap. I mean, really bad. But I guess it's cheap enough. Not near as nice as the "Opportunity Grade" stuff Todd Taggert was selling a few years back.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

They still sell it. At $38/set, it's a pretty fair deal.

http://www.alliedlutherie.com/indian.htm

The quality has been surprising, at least on the sets that I've gotten. And they're a sponsor here.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

The ones at the Columbus, Ohio Woodcraft were pretty bad also & they had Ebony bridge blanks were $15 or maybe $20.

They do have Indian Rosewood, Honduran Rosewood & Cocobolo turning squares for a decent price that you can cut bridge blanks out of though.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I wasn't impressed with the sets I saw. I would definitely not buy them online.

Plus one on the Allied opportunity grade rosewood. IMHO, at $38 a set, it's the best tonewood deal out there by a mile. (I got a few sets at $25 each years ago, and I still have some in my stash.) It's really nice wood -- the "opportunity grade" label is really unfair.

They had two sets at My store. One was pretty nice so I picked it up, but the other set was crap.

Todd, I think what they need is for someone that knows something about guitars to sit down with their buyer and explain what we're looking for. These sets are sawn more or less randomly. Some of them even have decent grain, but sawn off at whacky angles (i.e. whoever processed it probably ruined otherwise perfectly good wood). They seem to know the general dimensions we need but don't seem to have a clue about the basics.

I actually work part time (or used to...I'm just subbing on rare occasions now) at my local Woodcraft. I'm still in there all the time, though. The owner must be on vacation...I haven't run into him in a few days, but I've been meaning to talk to him about it the next time I see him. I'd love for Woodcraft to start bringing in stuff like this. It would be great to be able to buy billets of high quality spruce through my local Woodcraft I really hate to pay shipping for big chunks of spruce.

I can tell you how they operate. You have some corporate stores, but a lot of them are franchises. The local owner can bring in whatever he wants and do whatever he wants, as long as papa Woodcraft gets their pound of flesh every day. Our local owner has a thing for flashlights and hand cream...it sells incredibly well. He brought in generators last year. Wood like turning blanks and the small, surfaced pieces typically come from Woodcraft. Lumber is often local. My local guy brings in whatever he can get his hands on, and typically BEATS local lumber yard pricing, believe it or not. I've built lots of necks from a batch of Honduran Mahogany he brought in a while back.

Believe me, I was surprised to see the sets sitting there. At first I thought it was left over from the acoustic building class (the Manchester Woodcraft is integrated with the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking). And then I looked at what was otherwise nice wood that had been sawed poorly and realized that it didn't come from any kit.

We still carry caning and picture framing supplies. We don't sell much, but we occasionally do and it makes money. Same with knife kits and things like that. They move, slowly but they move.

I've shied away from teaching the class too. The guy that taught the last one was an employee that had never built a guitar. He did a great job, actually! I may do it next year if they ask and I have time.

Well, I saw the owner today and showed him what I was seeing that I didn't like. Some funkiness that looked like a pitch pocket or a knot (not sure what it was, but I wouldn't want to try and bend it). Side sets that could have been cut better to make for straighter grain. We'll see how it goes

I bought 1 set at the local store here in Louisville. They had two sets on hand. The first had a big enough crack in one of the sides that I did not want to chance it. The set I got didn't have any cracks although both had significant runout and even swirly grain on the back. I think it will give a interesting look under a glossy finish. I know the swirled grain is not the accepted convention for a traditional EIR guitar, but it will work for a first flat top for a complete newb to guitar building.