Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Guys,
Anybody used these rosewoods much???Thinking of using either one as fingerboard/bridge on my builds......want some opinions on the tonal qualities

Thanks in advance...

All woods differ in weight & density from tree to piece!
Heavy hard woods do make good f.b.s & bridges.
But weight becomes a factor for a bridge.
If you have other bridges you've made & weighted and like the sound of your instrument then I'd stay close to that weight and braceing.

There is no great wood;not so great woods in guitarmaking.
You have to find what works for you .
So give those rosewoods a try & let us all know how you liked them-or didn't.

Mike

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Mike Collins

I'm building two with Honduras Rosewood right now, It has a nice tap tone.

I have a B+S set of each from Allied. Great tap. Either would make a good FB + B.

I just built a guitar with Amazon and I really like it. To me, Brazilian has nothing on it.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I've never had the pleasure of working with Amazon Rosewood but I have built with Honduran Rosewood a couple of times and was very pleased with the results. Honduran Rosewood can have a very "glassy" tap tone much like BRW and produces a great sounding guitar.

In the white the color of HRW took a bit of getting used to for me in as much as initially the brick red color was not doing it for me... But the lack of pores (ease of finishing) and excellent working manners and tone swayed me.

I still use HRW to this day for bridge plates and consider it again to have very similar tonal properties to BRW.

Here are a couple of guitars from some years ago that are long gone in the hands of happy players. These were finished in nitro back when I was finishing my own guitars in my bathroom shop.....

This one does have a HRW fret board, bridge plate, and back and sides:



This guitar just has HRW back and sides. The sides were much darker than the back and not "reddish" or brick like in color. If you are a fan of sapwood, and I am...., HRW often is available with nice sapwood:

I have been using honduras rw for a number of guitars (I forget exactly what that number is) and have been consistently pleased with the results. It has the tonal characteristics at least equal to Brazilian with out the price. I almost always use it for bridge plates, partly because I have a lot of cutoffs and partly because it is hard, and strong, and has very low damping.

FB and bridge, Todd, or just back and sides?

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

FB and bridge, Brock, or just B&S?

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Guess what my question is for you, too, John...

I'm very interested in exploring options for FBs and bridges right now, and would appreciate hearing people's experiences with these and other woods. How well they seem to hold the frets, other workability issues, sound, wear-resistance, etc.

Also, Bigbear's original question was about FBs and bridges.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I have an Amazon FB on one that Joe is finishing up now. I love it. Amazon, Honduran, and African Blackwood I think all make excellent fretboards. They are seemingly always hard and dense. Brazilian and Madagascar can certainly be as dense but can also be very light and still glassy, which I love for bridges. I am hesitant to use Amazon, Honduran, and Blackwood for bridges for the weight reason only, although I have used them before successfully. It just seems like you can always find a lighter piece of Brazilian or Madagascar although all of them are lighter (usually) than ebony. For fingerboards, I am feeling lately that a dark quartered piece of Amazon is about as nice as a rosewood fingerboard gets.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I haven't tried it on the bridge and fingerboard, but provided I could find the really dark Amazon blanks I wouldn't hesitate to try it.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Hey Hesh, is that a redwood top on that guitar? If it is, how did it sound?