Honduran Rosewood Guitar Sets

[Tod Gilding]

Hi all,

I have just been looking at Tim spittle's Honduran Rosewood Guitar Sets available now through this forum and lovely sets .

What I see is sets with some mild wild figure although when it comes to "Indian rosewood" sets with this type of figure are being classed as A grade and only sets with a straight grain are considered AAA , how ever Tims sets here are considered ( I think ) as high grade sets,.. well he's asking $200 plus

So can someone please educate me please ? ... is the straight grain the more sought after sets or the sets with wild figure ? The Pricing is confusing me . or is it that Honduran rosewood can have figure all over the shop but Indian rosewood cannot. ?

[curly]

As a specialty sawmiller I'd have to agree that grading systems for tonewoods is sometimes arbitrary . There is no real industry standard that holds up across species and between countries .
In our own work in arid zone timbers like Gidgee , Cooba , Beefwood and such we grade figure as higher , or at least more valuable simply off the basis of rarity , figured trees might be one in a thousand .
This is not to say however that figured wood is tonally superior . Certainly for soundboards we are looking for perfect quarter and dead straight growth rings for higher grades .
I've always found Tim to have a good grasp on what the market expects .
Pete

[Bob Connor]

Honduran Rosewood is so priced because of it's rarity and superior tonal qualities. There are some who will place it as equal to or superior tonally to Brazilian Rosewood.

Trying to compare a grading level between Indian Rosewood to Honduran Rosewood is quite futile. They are two quite different animals.

You'll see Brazilian Rosewood that is dirty old flat sawn stump wood that is graded as AAA but that's all that is currently available. It's certainly nothing like the Beautiful straight grained, spider webbed stuff that you'll see in pre-war Martins (which truly was AAA in it's day).

You'll notice that the HR that Tim is advertising is quite light in colour. That's because most of the really nice dark stuff is gone.

I just checked on CITES and it has been elevated to Appendix II. I thought they were on appendix III.

Appendix II lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled.

No import permit is necessary for these species under CITES (although a permit is needed in some countries that have taken stricter measures than CITES requires).

There are some vendors in the States who are refusing to export HR now so I guess the US falls into the category mentioned above. Luthiers Mercantile certainly won't export either Cocobolo or Honduran Rosewood.

So it is rare and difficult to obtain.

Essentially it's supply and demand. There's heaps of Indian Rosewood coming out of India (strange that) that is grown in plantations so it's not going to cost as much as something that is quite rare.

For me, I wouldn't spend $120 on Indian Rosewood when I can get really nice South American Rosewood species for around the $200 mark.

I love Honduran Rosewood. When you tap a good set it sounds like a piece of glass. I have a number of sets and they're my go to sets when I feel the need to fondle some tonewood


Anyway that's my take on it.

[Tod Gilding]

Thanks Bob and Pete, You have explained it perfectly.

[ozziebluesman]

Tod as you have seen I bought two sets of the Rosewood from Tim.

My reasons where:

It is almost impossible to buy it from overseas's due to CITES.

A set will cost you $200 US anyway and our dollar is slipping and you have to get it here. It is a very heavy set of wood!

The colour of the sets I bought are a light purple more toward the heart wood and the tap tone is very, very responsive.

From my research Honduran Rosewood is the closest you will get to Brazilian Rosewood at a fraction of the price.

It cost $30 post to get it from WA to me.

According to my research it bends easy.

The only down side is it is hard on hand tools due to it's hardness.

Hope that helps mate.

Cheers

Alan

[Tod Gilding]

Thanks Al,

I wasn't aware of the rarity of Honduran I thought it was just the Brazillian that was valuable and rare, I should have researched before posting my excuse is that I concentrate on Domestic species

That said , I am noticing variations in the grading of a lot of species that can be hard to understand, as Curly has pointed out.( I am not referring To Tim's Tonewoods here )

I am starting a build with Indian rosewood Back and sides and I have a couple of sets on hand to choose from, one straight grained AAA and one with a wild figure A Grade, the more I look at these sets the more I like the A set as it has a lot more character but I won't use it as it not graded AAA

[ozziebluesman]

Yes I noticed the same trying to track down some Koa. I have never heard of 5A grading before??? I have noticed that with Indian Rosewood too that some use 2A 3A 4A 5A etc Also some of the European tonewood suppliers use that as well. It would be nice to have a level playing field but I guess no two pieces of wood are the same or the conditions of which the same species have been grown. I'd rather buy a set of wood unseen from our trusted vendors here on the forum although I have taken the odd risk here and there.

Cheers

Alan

[kiwigeo]

Honduran mahogany??? Where??!!!

[Allen]

I have a bunch of very dark plum coloured, straight grained, old growth Honduran Rosewood uke sets on my shelf. They are reserved for very special instruments now. And as Bob said, if you tap them they ring like a brass bell.