Indonesian rosewood tonewood

[rschultz]

I noticed Allied has some Indonesian Rosewood, looks wild. Has anyone built a guitar with this? Any impressions?

[reholli]

Originally Posted by rschultz

I noticed Allied has some Indonesian Rosewood, looks wild. Has anyone built a guitar with this? Any impressions?

That's some pretty unusual grain, with great coloration, but generally, Indonesian Rosewood is another name for Indian Rosewood, or East Indian Rosewood, or...etc.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by rschultz

I noticed Allied has some Indonesian Rosewood, looks wild. Has anyone built a guitar with this? Any impressions?

Way back, I built two guitars with Indonesian, though not purchased from Allied. Sounded to me like any other of the common rosewoods. I still have a set that I'll likely never use. I hated working with it 'cause it smelled just awful when worked. Way worse than Indian, which is no perfume factory. Brazillian, well, that's a different animal, smell-wise.

Originally Posted by reholli

but generally, Indonesian Rosewood is another name for Indian Rosewood, or East Indian Rosewood, or...etc.

I'm no expert on the latin names of it all, but, I don't think so. At least the stuff I have is different than any other Indian rosewood I've ever used. And I've used a lot of Indian rosewood over the years.

[rschultz]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Way back, I built two guitars with Indonesian, though not purchased from Allied. Sounded to me like any other of the common rosewoods. I still have a set that I'll likely never use. I hated working with it 'cause it smelled just awful when worked. Way worse than Indian, which is no perfume factory. Brazillian, well, that's a different animal, smell-wise. ;

How about some eye candy... Post a picture of that set you'll never use

[Jim.S]

I have heard good and bad about this stuff but never bought it, there is a guy on ebay in Indonesia that sells it for way too much money.

I have heard a rumour from the ANZLF that one of the American luthiers bought some and sent it to a university to be tested and it was confirmed to be Dalbergia Lattifolia (East Indian Rosewood) .

The above statement stands to reason as Dalbergia L. has been grown in countries like Indonesia to surround coffee plantations as a wind break for a long time, often called "sonokeling" it grows real fast because of the fertiliser run off from the coffee and lack of forest competition. The different conditions give it different colours and smell. Sometimes if a species is planted under very different circumstances that allow it to grow much faster than usual the wood itself can end up with much greater "movement in service" than the original species from its natural habitat but this is not always the case. The negative reports I have heard on it (from someone I know to be very experienced) state that it is not very stable and taps like cardboard but I have heard the opposite on this forum as well.

Jim

[Guitarbench]

Sorry for the late reply,

In Indonesia, the main dalbergias growing to guitar sizes is latifolia. Sonokeling is the local name for it. Mostly plantation grown.

I have visited plantations of tonkinensis (sorry for the spelling) and also frangrant rosewood (can't remember the species name off the top of my head) but those trees are nowhere near guitar sized yet. Plus, you aren't likely to see them on the market as they are grown for large luxury furniture firms. I was told the trees are going to be harvested at pretty small sizes for better efficiency.