Quote:
Originally Posted by Re-Tunes
Some people have put estimates of the number of guitars that have actually been built of wood from "The Tree" at between 25 and 30. I have no idea if that estimate is accurate. My gut feel is that there are more, but few people know of them. A guitar made of such rare wood would typically be owned by a collector and would rarely be on the market.
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I'd be willing to bet there are 10x that estimate. Baranik built two; Lance McCollum built at least one; Breedlove built a number of them, as did Martin. Brock Poling had several sets; and I know of at least one large table-sized billet that will make at least a dozen, yet to be cut.
Yes, some quilted mahogany is not from the "tree", and as far as I know there's no provenance on any of it. RTaylor had 7 sets when I asked about it 5 years ago. The picture below is of the "veined" set used on the guitar built by RT shop for Bob. Another forum member has 5 Taylors / RTaylors made from their sets. I think they're out now.
Not all of it is "veined" or turtle-shell - I've only seen three sets of that. Taylor called it AAAAA, and only had 3 sets, and the upcharge alone was $7000.
Is it magic? No, but as I said before if you like mahogany, and you like quilt, this is a great wood with a great story.
Pics:
Martin D40
Olson:
Bob Taylor's RTaylor gift from the shop to him:
The other Baranik:
Example of where most of the wood went:
If you want to find your own...
and look for this:
and this:
Cheers,
Phil