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This is a noob question of the first degree

Can someone talk to me about the color of East Indian rosewood? I've always built with mahoganies in the past, but I'm thinking rosewood for my next. I have in my mind that EIR iss almost always a purplish color, but it seems like I've seen pics of guitars claimed to be EIR but looking much more brown and black than purple and black.

Knowing that most woods have a range of colors, how common is that brown-and-black EIR relative to the purple stuff? Assuming the color exists naturally, for a place like Allied that uses color in their grading scheme, is that brown and black considered more or less desirable than the purplish color? If the brown-and-black doesn't really exist, what's the finishing trick to subdue the purple and make it look brown?

Thanks,

Jay

EIR fades quite a bit over time. The purple color turns brown/tan. Overall it gets a lot lighter in color over time. Especially if it is exposed to light.

Personally, I like the really dark purple or reddish stuff.... it has the richest look under finish. I try to avoid the stuff that has a brownish or greyish color.

Mark

I completely agree with Mark. In fact it has been my experience that the darker/purple stuff is harder to find and I prefer it.

This one was very purple prior to finishing and after finishing and about a year it just got dark and richer looking.

I've seen some wilder variation than that, as well. One of the builders on here I've made bridges for (who may choose if he wants to be identified) has a batch of bridges I made from IRW. One of them for sure, maybe two, is as red as cocobolo is orange. And, yes, definitely not a misidentified blank (I know my wood-machining-smells pretty well at this stage )

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

The EIR sets I have (I import directly from India) indeed range from tan brown to rich purple. I don't grade the sets on colour but rather on the colour and grain match of the back and sides. After that it is just let me know your preference and I will see if I have it.

Shane

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Canada

I'm with the darker/purple crowd...even the light purple stuff looks like a deep chocolate bar under finish. It just pops and is beautiful. The light browns and tan don't look as nice to me.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Personally I like to have a mixture of color in my IRW sets i like to see a mainly dark purple but with a 20-30% intermittent Coffee and cream color for interest. I find the light gray green color set just plain ugly and solid purple boring.

Here are a couple examples of what I like to see in IRW I grabbed these shots a couple yeas ago from off the web some where but they were handy and are great examples of what I consider top shelf IRW

My favourite color tones for EIr is the olive/brown (reminds me of leach patterns for flyfishing for rainbow trout)

Here's what I'm talking about.

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Michael, the colors in the pics you posted are exactly what I'm shooting for. If I send a pic like that to LMI (or any of our other friends) and tell them I just wipe on shellac for a finish, you reckon they could pick out a set for me that would end up that color?

I am sure they will or you can spec out to them that you are looking for a set that is dark chocolate to purple but with a 20-30% mix of coffee and cream color variation.