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Hey Bruce, do you recognize either of these two back and side sets? I'll give you a clue, they were the best $22 dollars I've spent in a long time. They have just been thicknessed and rough sanded. I think they'll look great when they're done. Do you know if anybody has completed a guitar from that batch of wood? I'd love to see pictures if somebody has completed one.


SET 1


SET 2


Cheers!

John

I have one to nearly that stage. Those look great by the way. Lots of deep color.

No one has told me they have, if they did. That was an interesting endeavor and required a great deal of trust for everyone involved.

A few more processes to get down for me and then I'll be using the fool out of that wood. One thing I've learned messing around with tonewood. The woodcutters and sellers earn every penny. American guitarmakers have the world at their fingertips. We are spoiled with the best tonewoods available.

Is that EIR from the group buy we all did a couple months back?

Yeah, was that the wet IRR that y'all got a while ago? Details, we need details!!!

Here are the details: The sets came from a group buy Bruce put together over 2 years ago. When it was all said and done, we all got EIRW back and side sets (kiln dried) like you see for about $22 bucks a set. Also included were some killer bridge-blanks and headstock veneers. Bruce worked like crazy to put it all together which included securing customs permits, shipping from India, delivery, etc. The wood came from Gopel (I think) which is where there was another group buy from not long ago (I think). We all got some great wood but I haven't seen anybody complete a guitar with it yet.

Cheers!

John

Gopal kiln dried ours. I don't remember it being 22. I do remember it was 110 sets with tons of headplates, fingerboards, bridgeblanks of rosewood and ebony and everyone to a man was pleased with the wood.

Mainly because it was unpilfered wood, straight from the cutter in India. I remember wrecking my truck slightly picking it up in Little Rock, still wrecked. Grin.

[QUOTE=John Elshaw] Here are the details: The sets came from a group buy Bruce put together over 2 years ago. When it was all said and done, we all got EIRW back and side sets (kiln dried) like you see for about $22 bucks a set. Also included were some killer bridge-blanks and headstock veneers. Bruce worked like crazy to put it all together which included securing customs permits, shipping from India, delivery, etc. The wood came from Gopel (I think) which is where there was another group buy from not long ago (I think). We all got some great wood but I haven't seen anybody complete a guitar with it yet.

Cheers!

John[/QUOTE]

That looks great. Does anyone have any pics of the sets that they got from the group buy John put together. IIRC the second one was for master grade sets. I would be curious to see the differences. This set has really excellent color. I love the purples in EIR.

Brock Poling38932.3280555556

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

That wood is stunning! I'm sure any guitar made from it will be awesome.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

[QUOTE=Brock Poling] That looks great. Does anyone have any pics of the sets that they got from the group buy John put together. IIRC the second one was for master grade sets. I would be curious to see the differences. This set has really excellent color. I love the purples in EIR.[/QUOTE]

I got 6 sets from the group buy that John put together, but they are all stacked up under my bench for seasoning as they were not ready to build with when they arrived, and I like to keep it like that for a while before I use anyways. The sets I got had nice even grain, similar to the ones in the pictures above but I can't be sure of the colors until I start working with it.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I have been waiting to see who would be first to post pix of a finished instrument from that wood. The EIR I got is still stickered and sitting on the shelf. This will probably change in the mext month, when I'll start bringing the sets down and getting them closer to finished size.

What I mostly remember from the adventure is that it was accomplished primarily because of Bruce's persistence in the face of complications and unexpected setbacks. The rest of us contributed patience and a leap of faith, but Bruce did the heavy lifting!

I'd say the wrinkles in Bruce's truck are a badge of honor!




881 pounds of safely packaged rosewood in the rain ... $3966.75
One squished Mazda Miata ... $3,2221.16
Going the extra mile on behalf of your friends ... priceless!

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D..

Dennis, I thought those pics were gone forever. I was getting a quote on insurance for my home and cars a few weeks back.. The oldest left the nest. The agent pulled up the accident report. Mazda repairs were $4500, the medical payout to two guys in the car who refused to even be checked by the Paramedics in the ambulance $9300. We wonder why insurance is so high..... and rosewood... grin.

How do you determine whether woods are dry enough to stack, build?

Nice looking wood, John! I still have mine stickered after 2 years but was planning to use it yet this year.

$22 a set!!! I seem to remember around $35 a set. I also got some from John Hall's master grade group buy. Both efforts were the kind of deals we are fortunate to be able to participate in from time to time.

Thanks again, Bruce and John!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Bob J, it's amazing how quickly you can dry sawn sets, especially if you put a fan in front of the stickered sets.

Natural air dried wood seems to be much favored by luthiers of yesteryear. I'd bet now though much of the wood available is kiln dried.

Dry wood and seasoned wood are two different things. I bet you could build with some air-dried woods soon after cutting. But wisdom calls for us to wait.

The old rule-of-thumb is one year air dry for each inch of thickness. I bet thin wet wood stickered and stacked in front of a fan would reach dryness in a matter of days, not years. Of course I dry my wood in an Air Conditioned shop with RH of 45%. I've stickered wet wood without a fan and it drys so slowly compared to forced air drying. Dry flat wood is happy wood.

[QUOTE=JJ Donohue]
$22 a set!!! I seem to remember around $35 a set. [/QUOTE]

Hmm, you might be right JJ. I couldn't remember the exact amount, but I'm pretty sure I got my 10 sets, plus a bunch of headplates and bridgeblanks for less than $300. That also included kiln drying and shipping from a new company called DHL if I remember right. Remember Gopel was going to sell Sapele back and side sets for $6 bucks each? I can't remember why that didn't work out.

John

It was the other guy with the cheap sapele, when we got up to 300 sets he balked and raised the price to ten bucks. Then we switched to Mr. Gopalinski. Nice fellow. He emailed me recently and was inviting me to meet him at NAMM. Needless to say I didn't make it, I believe it was January in Los Angeles.....

I finished a parlor guitar last year that used this wood for the head plate, fretboard, and bridge. I'm using the ebony for a fretboard for a current build.

It's great stuff. Thanks again, Bruce!