The Acoustic Guitar Forum - What's the difference between rosewood and indian rosewood?

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- - What's the difference between rosewood and indian rosewood? (https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135053)

One is a subset of the other.

There are a LOT and I mean a LOT of rosewoods on the planet. My guess is that many of the less expensive manufacturers are purchasing it in bulk from Asian marketers. Because it would be cost and time prohibitive to catalog each and every piece as to it's specific species of Dalbergia they just call it rosewood.
I think it's inaccurate to assume that all "rosewood" guitars are East Indian. There's a TON of Indonesian rosewood out there and I'd be inclined to guess that there is close to as much (if not maybe more) of that than EIR.
I was at an exotic wood dealer once and was looking at the EIR. There was a plank that had more browns in it that I'm used to seeing so I pulled it out and investigated a little more. There was a sticker (not from the store but from their supplier) that said Indonesian Rosewood. The store owner told me," yeah, their the same thing, just marketed differently". Which is untrue but I'd bet you see a lot of Indonesian being sold as EIR.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Cory (Post 1598697)

The labels "Indian Rosewood" and "East Indian Rosewood" both refer to the same wood. The word "East" was added by someone years ago to keep Americans from thinking it had something to do with Native Americans, sometimes called Indians because Columbus didn't know where the heck he was when he landed here. It doesn't mean that the rosewood is from "East India."

That sounds very plausible :)

From the Wikipedia article on tonewoods:

Quote:

East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia and Dalbergia sissoo) emcompasses 2 different species from India. East Indian rosewood is resinous, and generally more stable than most other rosewood species. Currently, the Indian government controls export of this timber. Dalbergia latifolia tends to be harvested from Tea plantations where it is used as a shade tree whereas Dalbergia sissoo is harvested from forested areas. Both are tonally similar being reflective and producing a deep warm projective bass response. Although latifolia and sisso can differ in appearance, distinguishing processed (i.e. sanded and lacquered) East Indian rosewood from Brazilian is difficult but not impossible. Brazilian rosewood can display distinct visual features not found on East Indian rosewood such as spiderwebbing.

Dalbergia latifolia is typically richly grained with dark purple, red, and brown color.
Dalbergia sissoo is similar to latifolia except the shades tend more towards red than purple. This species can also display crimson streaks in the wood.

That explains why some are "purple-ish" while others are "red-ish". But they're both (East) Indian Rosewoods.

the plantation grown stuff is pretty easy to spot, and while it will make a nice guitar, it is not nearly as nice as the old dense forrest grown lumber.

I really can't find anyone (luthier supplier) selling the old dark, dense, sets.

I dont think there is a lutheir that has been building for long that hasnt run into the "rosewood" issues. It seems as though every country has their own species of what they call rosewood, and some are not even rosewoods at all as in the case of Bolivian Rosewood (Pao Ferro). Not all true rosewoods are created equal also.

As far as the asian rosewood, it makes a pretty fair fingerboard, but I cant comment any further than that. It is dense and tough and at least some of it has a pretty nice ringtone. I dont know that I would want to build a guitar with it.

Good question indeed and glad somebody finally asked it!

Thank you all for your answers to my questions! :)