Official Luthiers Forum!

Do you offer your customers a limited list of woods you build with based on what you have on hand or do you build with whatever the customer wants as long as you can find the wood? I was just flicking through the Larivee brochure and noticed they only offer 3 woods (Mahogany, EIR and Koa) in the brochure. They may offer others for custom work but was wondering what the people here offer. And if you offer a limited list, what other woods do you offer besides EIR and Mahogany?

Custom means, "whatever they want". I am more a meat and potatoes luthier, and try to stay mainstream. But I Find the exotics attractive, seductive, but too darned expensive to stock.

Highly Flamed Koa costs 400 bucks, Brazilian rosewood even more, then Macassar and some of the others two hundred and up....

Here's a list of my stock:
1. East Indian Rosewood from three suppliers, all different.
2. Genuine Mahogany
3. Sapele, generic ribbon stripe
4. Pomele Sapele, premium figured, sawing myself
5. Black Walnut from Arkansas, while okay, nothing to brag about,it has some streaking that I don't like.
6. White Oak, highly flamed
7. Red Oak, called Cherry bark red oak, closed pore oak
8. Catalpa, very sweet smelling, light and very live tone
9. Zebrawood, very colorful, heavy like a rosewood
10. Cocobolo, I have a lot, but three piece backs are the norm for this stuff. I've built two with LMI Coco which is much more red orange. The stuff I cut is more black/brown/yellow, but does have the characteristic black veining everyone likes.
11. Ovangkol, gray/yellow/striped wood with gentle flame, came from Ed
12. Koa, mild flame down the middle, but plain otherwise. A good set, will make a guitar to love.
13. Big Leaf Maple, aka Western, very pretty, Jay sold me this and I love each and every piece of it.
14. Silver Maple, good flame, with brown mineral inclusions all over, very uniform, I have a triple Oh going together with this stuff.
15. Santos Rosewood, also came from Ed, It has about ten other names, and from what I hear, should be worked with caution. Brown beauty, plainsawn.

I'd like to have a stash of Brazilian Rosewood with nice straight grain in Cordovan and Burgundy colors and I know it's out there someplace. But me and Paul Woolson ain't touching the stuff with a ten foot pole. We refuse to work with it, absolutely no, nada, negative, won't do it. Huh? A commission, sure, you have your own wood? That's fine, I can work with that. You'll pay me a premium. You got a deal.

So, to answer your question, if someone came with Grandma's Rosewood pew from the Episcopal church, it wouldn't take me long to get a new blade on the old Laguna and crank 'er up. Yeehaw!

What's sets us apart from factories like Larivee is the fact that yes, we can and will build with anything, within reason.

In my case, stocking woods isn't a problem, because with my wait list as long as it is, I can buy green wood and it will still have 3 year's worth of air drying time before I build <sigh>

C'mon BD where are your virtues? Just say no!
I've got a pretty good list of woods that I "recomend" working with. I know them and how they work and sound. I find that many cusomers just gotta have something made of "X" becuse they played a guitar a guitar center made of "X" and it sounded great. I try to convince them that the back/sides don't really have all that much to do with the sound except for "coloring" it. When people ask me how a certain wood sounds I try to dodge the question and ask them how they want the guitar to sound and what they want it to look like. Then work within the perameters of those requirements. It's pretty easy to recomend 3 or 4 woods in each asthetic range that will meet their cosmetic requirement and the sound will come mostly from the shape of the box, top wood, and bracing pattern/style.
So to answer the question, I try my best to use what I know. It doesn't necessarily have to be what I have on hand. But as Bruce said, we are indeed custom builders and should be willing to use anything asked of us (except Brazilian of course) Paul

Lord, Bless Paul with some nice Pre-ban Brazilian. Oh and Lord, when you do, remind him I resaw on the halves, Amen.

And Lord, if you do grant such a request, please bend it for me and do the crack repair in 10-15 years when it comes back and explain to all of the environmentalists why I'm building with such an exploited resource.
Amen

HAHA...Thats why i asked because i know some woods are difficult to work with and wondered how many luthiers are working with these difficult woods and breaking them while bending. That could turn out to be a real expensive build.

Thats quite a list. And I assume you have mutiple sets of each. You could start your own small factory.

I build what ever they can afford. If it breaks they pay . If it's my fault...they pay. I don't care they pay. Any one who doesn't like it go some where else! All I am interested in is money... I stock many exotics and usually 3 grades of each. But that's only so I can charge for inventory carying costs. The longer I hold the wood the more I charge for it. It's really all about money


I was just kidding. I tried to post again but was accused of being a spammer! It's all about Spam...but that's another thread...Dave-SKG38367.7920601852

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

You know I stock some things in the shop, not as much as bruce but pretty close. I have a preference for EIR, Koa, good cocobolo (if it's stable) and Madagascar Rosewood, I like working with them and like the way they sound. I do try to work with them on their choices, after all *I'm* building the thing and my name is going on it, but in the end I'm not afraid to say no.

I've also got a huge softspot for Snakewood and grab it whenever I can, I think it makes wonderful headstocks and fingerboard when treated right (read lots of ca and drying time).

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

I stock whatever pretty wood Bob puts up here.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I think I will borrow Bruce's statement - Custom means, "whatever they want". I try to stock a wide selection so when folks come to the shop they can fondle the wood or so I can email them pictures before starting the build. It's also helpful to build with a wide variety of woods so you (the builder) will know how the wood works and how it influences the tone.

My current stock includes:
Sitka [new & 1959], Red Spruce, Cedar, Douglas Fir, Engleman, Carpathian, Caucasian, Redwood, Paudauk, Kyha, Sapele, Honduras Mahogany, Birds Eye Maple, Hard Curly Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Sycamore, Hickory, Osage Orange, Quilted Gaboon Ebony, White Oak, Pau Ferro, EIRW, Brazilian Rosewood, Madagascar Rosewood, Cocobolo, Anigre, Koa, Black Acacia, Bubinga [ropey & waterfall], Zircote. Probably left a few out. So much wood and so little time.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Recently I discovered that "if you buy it, they will order it". I had bought a set of BobC's striking Ambrosia maple, and just "happened" to leave it out when a customer came over. He saw it and flipped. Just had to have it, so right there he ordered another guitar using the maple. Now granted, that doesn't happen all the time. But I don't mind stockpiling wood because it's so rewarding to have it here at the shop. Bruce is right--"Custom Builder" pretty much means you're ready for anything.   

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

What they said....I'll try to get my hands on whatever someone wants.
Unlike some folks however, I will use Brazilian Rosewood. (No knock on them, just a personal choice I don't have a moral problem with.)

Why? Four very good reasons.

1) The stuff that's been sitting here in this country may as well be used for a noble cause, and I can't think of anything more noble than a musical instrument.

2) Since I ran into a supply of seven planks that was sitting in someone's garage for 40 years, I have enough to be used for quite a few guitars.

3) Let's face it... when I get to the point of feeling worthy of using the stuff, and my guitars are fetching a *reasonable* amount of money, I can upcharge the price of the guitar by two or three thousand dollars for using it. Economics. I'm too poor to be swayed by grey-shaded ethics to refuse to use it. I would most certainly refuse to use anything I know or even suspect was illegaly harvested though.

4) Nothing, I mean nothing smells as heavenly as Brazilian Rosewood. It is such a joy to use. I like to sand some just to get the aroma in the air in the shop. Dang...! It's an addictive scent!

As to woods that I stock...well...here goes.
Black Acacia, Indian RW, Brazilian RW, Madagascar RW, Honduran RW, Nicaraguan Cocobolo RW, Mexican Cocobolo RW, Honduran Mahogany, S.American flamed Mahogany, Quilted Maple, Flamed Maple, Birdseye Maple, Black Acacia (aka Tasmanian Blackwood) did I say that? Koa, Claro Walnut, Pauduk, Ziricote (a big favorite of mine), Flamed Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle,...... Sitka Spruce, Adirondack Spruce, Englemann Spruce, European Spruce, Western Red Cedar, Redwood, and Douglas Fir (thanks Tom). I'm sure I've missed something in there, but it's late and I doubt I could remember it all even if I were fully awake.
All told, I've got easily 120 back and side sets, and probably at least 55 or 60 tops. That should last at least a couple years anyway.


Lately I've had to face a hard reality, I've let my wood addiction overpower my credit card...so I'm going to be selling off a bunch of my wood in the near future. Almost nothing I have is out of the question for selling for the right price. I've got 20+ sets of really nice redwood to sell off, and several sets of cocobolo, honduran rw, and some other stuff too that I will be advertising. Eventually, when I can cut some of it, I'll be selling a couple sets of my Brazilian Rosewood too....just to let Paul and Bruce know so they can save their pennies....


Don W38368.001400463

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I build and because of that I managed to find great resourses for wood. I have built from Cherry and Walnut. The mainstream do like the standards but it is fun to have a commision in somthing different.
   That is why we have white and black paint. I have access to Koa and BRW along with importing woods. Make the cost affordable.
    Have fun what you are doing

Hey Don: Don't forget to keep me on that Braz list or did I get banished because of the old Sitka deal?

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Hey Don if any of that redwood is from LS please let me know. I would be very interested.   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Well, I've got it pretty bad. I've only got one acoustic guitar finished, another almost done, and an ever-growing stash of woods. At last count, including some stuff from BobC that'll arrive when I ask him to ship it (waiting to see s'more Coco), and a pair of sets coming in from MadInter today, I've got about 20 back/side sets, and 25 or so tops. Woods range from: EIR, Macassar Ebony (3x, might get more), Bubinga, Walnut, Black Acacia (Don's, of course), Cherry, Walnut, Sycamore, Cocobolo, MadRose. May stock up on mahogany sets fairly soon, since I've found a place that does them for good prices, and I'd like to add some Santos Rosewood/Pau Ferro to the mix as well. At the rate I'm likely to build, I've already got enough wood for the next 5-10 years (depending), and since I've just gotten two rather large translation invoices filled, I fear there's yet more tonewood in my future. Oh dear ;-)