Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello old friends. It has been a very long time since I've posted (or viewed) the forum, and I'm happy to find it alive and well. I haven't done any building for a long while but am thinking about getting back into it. I still have a pretty good stash of Honduran Mahogany, as well as some lovely Rosewoods, including Braz.

From a brief perusal of ebay it looks as if the prices of Braz and Honduran are much lower than several years ago. Is this accurate, or am I mistaken?

Thanks,

Corky

From a quick look at the offerings on ebay it doesn't seem like prices have dropped, but I haven't studied that market over the long run.
Most of the wood looked pretty marginal for guitar making, so the prices asked seemed plenty high to me.
I think some builders are moving away from using the Dalbergias, as the laws become more restrictive, and the quality of the wood becomes less.
But honestly, I don't see a drop in prices for the decent stuff.

good Brazillian has risen but the market has changed you can't sell alot of this internationally .Mahogany and Braz are CITIES so you need special paperwork . Ebay has become a dumping ground for wood and I seldom buy wood there as most is garbage. RC sells on ebay and I check him out regularly but there are some on ebay that are out right crooks

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I used to buy a lot of wood and veneer from eBay and I never had an issue. In fact, a lot of the stuff I got was even better than described and prices were very low. But eBay has changed and is much more risky.

Nothing but good experiences here buying wood on ebay. I could name nine currently active regular sellers including two sponsors of this forum who have been totally reliable. I've also bought nice stuff from a number of occasional sellers who were also builders.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I don’t buy Brazilian rosewood, not from anybody. These days it is too expensive and not very good quality, so not a great value, in my opinion.

Like Jay, I have mostly had good experiences buying tonewood on eBay, but I pay close attention to who the seller is, the photos, and the description. I recently got some great deals on Indian rosewood and Honduran mahogany, some of which came from an OLF sponsor. When it comes to wood quality, my biggest disappointments have come from doing business with private sellers, so I steer clear of those now. I only buy from established businesses with good reviews. Again, some (but not all) are OLF sponsors.

I bought all my BRW a LONG time ago, only have a few sets left that are the least acceptable of all that I had. Sold a good set a couple of weeks ago. Although 1-1.5K for 6-7 sets sounds good on ebay, flat sawn, sapwood and crotch wood is not what I would call worth it, but it's a lot cheaper than what I paid for mine when I bought it.
To me, just another sign of the end of it all...

Thanks all! Appreciate the feedback.

Corky, a couple of years ago a friend walked into my shop with an armload of wood. He said "the Madagascar is for you, I want you to build me something out of the Brazilian". I didn't ask where he got it (probably evil bay) or what he paid, I just said OK. First problem was that the sides didn't match the back - my friend had to go back to the seller and get the right pieces shipped. Then by the time we worked with the wood the best fit we could get was a size 0 (which he actually kind of wanted anyway).



I built the guitars with sister cuts of Lutz for the tops, thicknesses and bracing are as identical as I could make them. Several people have played (and listened) to them side by side, we agree that we can't hear any difference.