Saturday, December 12, 2009

New Rosewood Back and Sides


Here's a recent acquisition which I hope to begin work on early next year, assuming I've managed to complete my current crop of guitars. As much as I've grown to love it, East Indian Rosewood can sometimes look a little bland and uninteresting, but in this case the colour variation is a little more pronounced than usual and I found myself unable to resist the urge to click the "Buy Now" button when I spied it on Allied Lutherie's web site! It should look terrific under a finish, and the tap-tone in its current raw state suggests that it has the potential to sound pretty impressive too.

East Indian Rosewood is something of a staple in the guitar-building world and, unlike some of the other rosewoods, is still reasonably priced and has a fairly secure future. I always smile when I see sets of this wood marked down to a lower grade when they're not exactly quarter-sawn or exhibit anything less than perfectly straight grain. Some of the other more coveted rosewood species are offered to instrument builders for astronomical prices even when they're flat-sawn or have been salvaged from stumps and have the wildest grain imaginable. The bar is obviously set pretty high for their Indian cousin!

Cheers
Pete


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