Calling luthiers: rosewood blend recommendation? (tucarensis or Madagascar?)

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by tpeff

... a builder is only as good as the tonewoods they start with... and the selection of tonewood is defining.

You have that backwards: the "tonewoods" are only as good as the builder.

A "bad" build can turn very expensive wood into a $200-sounding guitar. That "good" builders can make nearly any species of wood sound good is a testament to the belief that it is more what one does with the wood than it is the specific species of wood. There is no "magic" species of wood that guarantees guitars made from it will sound good.

My favorite quote is from noted luthier Serge de Jonge who, when asked what is his favorite tonewood, said, "The kind that grows on trees."

[B Chas]

Edited . . . .

[tpeff]

Edited . . . .

[tpeff]

getting back to the OP's question... something in between Indian and brazilian rosewood? I too have pondered this question for a custom build,, for me BRW has a bit too much reverb and the tones overlap... MRW has less reverb but enough and has better clarity between notes... I tend to pick single notes and triads... as opposed to strumming... Madagascar for me.

[mercy]

this is an opinion and sharing forum with no actual facts but...my opinion is a consistent builder will sound different with different woods. We all would agree, well not on this forum, that a D18 and a D28 sound different. So why wouldnt other woods sound different as well. I think that tucarensis will get you as close to BRW as can be gotten. Stevensonii and Madi are very close as well.

[B Chas]

My vote would be for Madagascar.

[mcduffnw]

My vote would be to tell and show...via sound clips...GOOD quality sound clips...your luthier what you want your guitar to sound like, and let him choose the woods to do so.

duff

[SiliconValleySJ]

Thanks all. Appreciate the thoughts here so far!

I'm actually considering 2 builds, so brought up the question with the second luthier as well. (2nd luthier's waitlist is a few years now, but we talk regularly as he's local) Not sure who will make me which guitar, so that's still to be decided too. 2nd luthier thought Madi might work here (he also hasn't worked with tucarensis) for what I wanted, but we also bounced around a lot of ideas for how to voice an EIR back to achieve more of what I wanted. It's not quite how the 1st luthier builds, so I'm leaning toward Madi at this point. The 2nd luthier may have a Madi build coming in a few months for a commission, so I'm probably going to take my time on this choice. (Though my mind is a bit torn, it's been fun trying to figure out what I want and why)