Official Luthiers Forum!

Where do you other uk builders get wood from? The only English wood suppliers I can find seem to be rather expensive and most of the lutherie wood on ebay comes from america so you pay huge shipping costs.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Hi Peter ... I actually buy most of mine from the USA but have got some from David Dyke ( http://www.luthierssupplies.co.uk/ ) Anytime I've given them a call they've been more than helpful. Getting the more exotic woods seems virtually impossible here but here are a few other suppliers :

http://www.guitartonewoods4luthiers.co.uk/

http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/

http://www.madinter.com/b2c/index.php?idioma=2

http://www.maderasbarber.com/

hope these help

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imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world

Hi Peter
Here is a list of suppliers I use. I have not been disappointed. I have not yet personally tried Octopus (Turkey) or Espen.De (Germany) but I have heard good things so should be ok.

Maderas Barber - http://www.tonewood.es
Madinter - http://www.madinter.com
Octopus - http://www.octopus.com.tr/store/
Espen.De - http://www.espen.de/index.php/en/products/tonewood

Apart from these places I use the Tonewood suppliers from America/Canada. The shipping is not the problem - It's the Import Duty which truly is extortionate. However, I have never had a bad experience from overseas and have always found the suppliers to be very generous and honest with their products. Sometimes the extra cash is worth it.
I would highly recommend:

RC Tonewoods
High Mountain Tonewood
Bluescreek Guitars
Colonial Tonewoods
Hawaiian Hardwoods Direct

I have had an excellent service from these providers.

BTW, there really is no cheap option for quality goods if you're in the U.K

Mat

Thanks for those links. I had only seen Touchstone tonewoods before. Madinter looks like a good source of general guitar hardware.
If you do buy wood from overseas, do they inform you of the import duty before you buy, or do you find out afterwards?

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

you get it charged when the goods come in Peter. Here in France they just love slapping me for a bill of 30% of the total, I havent lived in the UK/Ireland for 6 odd years so I dunno what HM Customs will hit you for. I agree with Matthew - RC Tonewoods are great and the shipping is fast to say the least. I've also bought from these people :

http://www.oregonwildwood.com/

they have some beautiful Douglas Fir tops. Another seller on eBay is AHix ( http://stores.ebay.co.uk/AHix-Tonewood- ... ies?_rdc=1 ) ... nice woods there as well.

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imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world

Not only do you get stung for import duty, the Post Office charge a 'handling fee' as well!! Rotten Bar Stewards.

If you are buying from oversea's shoot me a PM and I'll give you a tip on how you can make the import duty smaller

The import duty in itself isn't usually that bad. It's the VAT and the combination of import duty and the handling fee that really pushes the overall price up.

Hi, here is another supplier from the UK

http://www.guitartonewoods4luthiers.co.uk/

have no experience with him, but I know a guy who knows him very well and gives him only good words.

BTW your avatar picture guitar seems to have some nice wood, would you like to comment a bit about it?

cheers, alex

Hi Peter

My main supplier is Bob Smith at http://www.exotichardwoods.co.uk/ the web site isn't that great, but if you know what you're after, talk to him on the phone, his knowledge of tonewood (and stock) is second to none.
I also use David Dyke (very easy to deal with) http://www.luthierssupplies.co.uk/ and occasionally Touchstone Tonewoods http://www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk/

I am very lucky in where I live as all these suppliers are with a 20 mile radius of me (half hour's drive) and the best way is to actually see and feel the wood you are wanting to purchase. Having said that, I have used http://www.guitartonewoods4luthiers.co.uk/ and was extremely impressed by the goods I received.

Most of my soundboards tho come from http://alaskawoods.com/

Bob

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http://www.bobmatthewsguitars.co.uk

doesnt sound to bad, we have a 50% custom tax on imports...
and I´d be happy to pay it If I was certain that the money goes for good actions/most needing.

David Dyke @

http://www.luthierssupplies.co.uk/

Regards

John

Another UK Supplier

http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/

So it seems like you do not know how much you will end up being charged for overseas wood until it gets to you. Oh well, for my first guitar I'll just stick with some reclaimed mahogany shelves.
The trouble is I'm addicted already and I haven't even started yet!



Sorry, that's just a nice picture of a Traugott guitar - certainly not built by me!

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

You don't pay any duties or VAT on wood imported from the EU, i.e. Espen or the Spanish suppliers.

I really like Madinter for backs/sides - good prices, good selection, flat rate 30 euro shipping regardless of order size. Prices are listed ex. VAT, added on to the bill, and no problems on delivery. They do tend to sell wood a little on the 'wet' side, so not ideal if you want to be building with it immediately.

I very rarely buy wood or supplies from the USA now due to the high shipping and duties that nearly, and sometimes do, more than double the cost. For something like 15 years now David Dyke has been my first port of call for most of my wood needs, certainly I have never bought a neck blank from anyone else as David will cut to my size spec for me. I have a large pile of mahogany blanks from him that came from a 19th century bed, superb wood. He also does great sycamore necks as well, which I use a lot. David carries a lot of UK wood so if you want great English Walnut or Yew etc then he is your man. I know Dave White and I have recently bought some truly beautiful walnut from him.

Bob Smith at Exotichardwoods (Timberline Tonbridge) is another really great guy to go to he also will cut wood to order for you, and will carry some of the more exotics, but he is also great for Euro spruce tops, he travels and selects the wood himself and if I want a truly perfect top then he is the man. That said I have had some wonderful Euro from David Dyke recently.

For WRC tops Cypress B&S and Cedrela necks then I head straight to Madinter, Spanish so not duty just shipping and as Mattia said fixed price over a certain limit, and with the Euro so bad against the pound increasingly good value.

Another of my preferred suppliers is Octopus tonewood in Turkey, the guy who runs it Muzzafa, is great to deal with, send him an e-mail and you'll probably get a reply in 30 mins. I buy a lot of the Caucasian spruce tops from him, they make a great sounding guitar and were traditionally used in 19th century Spanish instruments as well as the normal Euro spruce. He sends the wood in the postal system rather than a courier, but in the years I've dealt with him I've never had to pay any duty.

For drop dead drop tops then try Holz-faszination in Germany, not cheap, but miles cheaper than importing from the US and also great to deal with http://www.holz-faszination.de/home/node/2.

But between David Dyke, Bob Smith, Madinter and Muzzafa at Octopus, I rarely need to go anywhere else. If there is anything specific you are after drop me a PM and I'll see if I can recommend a supplier in the UK or the EU.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

It's been decades since I did business with Gunter Klier in Germany.
Is Shellex still in business?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I actually like the stuff I get from espen.de and the shipping cost is actually not that high, considering when you order from within Germany they slap a 19% (!) tax on top of its normal price. Shipping to Taiwan on 10 kg of stuff was around 50 euros, and the VAT+shipping within Germany is actually only a few euros less.

As for the wood the quality is quite good, especially for European spruce. If you need to buy European spruce don't buy from LMI, buy it from Espen.de because they have much better price. Plus with euros sucking its actually not a bad time (for Americans) to order from the EU...

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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

Someone I've tried recently is http://www.primetimber.co.uk/ - he used to sell on eBay as wadkin1. At the moment he hasn't got anything on eBay and his website only has a few sets of Cocobolo, but I contacted him a couple of weeks ago and got a couple of very nice English Walnut ukulele sets. There's also Craft Supplies - again, what's shown on the website isn't necessarily all they've got; it's worth contacting them or going along if you can.

Cheers,
Bri

What is a good price for, say, an average quality sitka spruce top and indian rosewood back and sides. I've been looking at the OLF challenge thread and just can't see how anyone could build a guitar for under $150 apart from using reclaimed wood. You could easily spend that on the back and sides alone!

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

I will second the vote for Wadkin 1. (Andy) Here is his new website. I have been dealing with him for about 3 years and his wood is always exactly as described. www.primetimber.co.uk.

You can easily spend that amount, yes, but you can very easily spend less.

Example: a first or second grade set of EIR from one of the Spaniards will set me back around 40 to 60 euros, I have plenty of great Euro spruce tops (grade A or AA, i.e. slightly wide spacing but hand selected, I think they look great) that I didn't spend more than 25 euros on (most of the top grade stuff I got for about 50-60). African mahogany or sapele for a 2-piece laminated neck is maybe 5 or 6 euros worth of wood purchased locally, fingerboard another 5 to 15 (indian rosewood, ebony or stripy madagascan), say a rosette from scraps of exotics (or a dollar or two for a slice of spilt maple from a turning block or offcuts from backs/sides), 10-20 for assorted trim if you don't make it yourself, another 10 for a truss rod, and about 30 for some decent Gotoh tuners. Total, bottom end estimate, say 120 euros for a guitar with very nice woods (nothing super top-end flash, but quartered, stiff spruce and nice EIR...Walnut or african mahogany are even cheaper, even if you don't resaw it yourself). So about 150 bucks.

A margin of 150 euros gives me a little more leeway in terms of tops and back/side choices.