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I will be making a trip to Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford, PA for some furniture lumber. They advertise all sorts of wood for guitar building. Has anybody shopped there?

Ed MInch

Not me, but I wish I was going.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
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Yes, they have everything under the sun. Their flitch inventory is nothing short of awesome. Bring lots of $$$ there's plenty of guitar wood in there.

I was there two years ago. I bought a couple Italian red spruce tops, and a set of Tasmanian blackwood back & sides. Their guitar wood was a dusty pile in an attic. I thought the spruce was good quality but you really had to look through the sides/backs to find good sets. I see they're advertising some new stock recently. Worth a visit, but the East Indian rosewood backs and sides I can buy locally or on-line were much better than what Hearne had in stock on the day I was there.

Thanks to you both - I'll see what they have.

By the way, is Italian Red Spruce the same species as here?

Ed Minch

I've shopped there several times over the years as they are not too far from me (I'm in Cecil County). Rick has some not so run of the mill pieces of lumber and charges for it accordingly. The times I have stopped by, the wood I saw cut specifically for guitar sets was not impressive for quantity or quality, but if you are into resawing you might find some good stuff. One caveat - If you want to buy part of a board, he will cut it, with the stipulation that the better end stays in the shop.
Rick Hearne is very knowledgeable, his staff less so. It is a very reputable business and I do shop there. For guitar related stuff I think you might do better shopping with the OLF sponsors, but if you see something you like don't hesitate to buy.

I didn't even see any guitar sets when I went a few years ago, but I was there to see flitches.

They have recently upgraded their guitar related inventory and it's a much more sizable pile than what used to be in the attic. Rick likes acacias so there is always a fair amount of Koa and Tasmanian Blackwood there. At this point there is also a good bit of Cocobola and Macassar Ebony. The cocobola is very nice if you prefer the straight-grained variety. Pricewise, there are no bargains. There also isn't anyone in house obsessing over the guitar wood pile - there is little or no matching up of back and side sets done in advance, for example.

This is data based on a visit last Saturday.

Hearne's also always has a big pile of English Sycamore in stock and usually you can find very nice figured QS boards. I think this is often the best bet price-wise if you like to resaw sets yourself.

Unfortunately, I've built a bigger pile of sets than I can use, so I have to carefully guard my wallet when I'm there.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Yesterday I went to Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford PA - they had an open house with tool dealers and acoustic bands. I asked a random guy with a name tag if they had the guitar wood, turns out it was Rick Hearne who owned the place. We talked guitars and he showed me a Bourgeois D body that was just completed. It was the most spectacular piece of Brazilian Rosewood I have ever seen - it looked like it was about 2 feet deep and had orange and yellow coming out of it like I had 3-D glasses on and it was going to hit me in the face. We talked technical stuff and I guess he decided I was worthy, because he took me to his private office to show his collection.

He had a triple O in Koa by a local guy that was top notch, a twelve string Koa D that was highly decorated - he called it his French Whore guitar, an electric with a cloud maple top that was amazing, and he had a Tim Teal ukelele that was unique.

The body and sides where a solid piece of Koa about 2-1/4" thick and hollowed out on a CNC machine so the back and sides were very thin. The back actually had 2 braces across it that were left when the back was thinned - all one piece. The top was also Koa, and the decoration was so delicate - the abelone purfling was about 1/3 of the width of what you would see on a guitar top, with tiny tiny b-w next to it. It had a very delicate vine inlay up the fretboard. And it sounded great. Probably most amazing is that the back and sides were spectacularly figured and when you think about, to get a figure showing on all surfaces of a block of wood seems very difficult.

And did I mention that he sent each maker the wood to build each guitar!

He said that he would take me back to show me the guitar wood - tops and violin/cello/double bass maple were in a small attic room - he get $150 a set for Italian Red Spruce (all of his personal guitars had this wood, except for on that was American Red Spruce). This wood is much finer grained and smoother looking than the American variety.

Then we went to another warehouse and looked at his perhaps 300 sets of various wood - from ebony through bubinga through all manner of figured mahoganies and maples. I picked up a cocobola piece and rapped on it and it sounded like I had hit a steel wind chime - amazing.

And then they did a demonstration of sawing a 15 foot walnut log on their 63" band saw - and the log was 62" at the biggest. They sawed from one edge to the center, then flipped the log so the flat side was against the carriage, then went in from the other side. All pieces, including the last one, were the same at about 2-1/2"

Remarkable day

I am not too familiar with guitar wood prices, but they seemed high - but now I have to build a cocobola guitar.

Ed Minch

Sounds like a fun day.

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