Official Luthiers Forum!

Great discussion. I've been interested in Brazilian Rosewood for many years. I've owned several BRW Martins and have a 4/4 X 8" X 48" slab of quartered wood I've been dragging around for years. I bought it from a sculpture supply studio in New York City in 1972—I still have the receipt. Some day I will build a guitar from it, or trade it to a luthier with the skills to make the most of it.

I currently play a BRW Santa Cruz I bought in '87. It's back is slab cut and has developed cracks in the fat slab sections. It sounds nice, but I find myself picking up an old oak parlor just as often.

Tease...... You owe me some paper towels that I used to wipe off my screen after reading this and drooling...........

I've made at least several dozen guitars in Brazilian rosewood over the years and I have to say that though its superiority is debatable, I have not used any other wood that I thought exceeded its appeal both in tone and visual aspects.
Albeit well loved (like one's own children) being responsible for Brazilian rosewood is not as enjoyable as the initial thrill of that first coat of finish.
Brazilian rosewood guitars bear the double jeopardy of being considerably more expensive than their counterparts, and far more likely to crack............two factors which can make for very unhappy customers.
I will still buy old Brazilian boards when I can find them affordably and have sets milled on a very limited basis, but in general, alternatives such as East Indian rosewood and Cypress have become much more attractive to me in recent years.

Tight guitar dimesions, hopefully not planed, not squared up yet, and not badly cupped or twisted. May take some carefull consideration when it comes time to resaw backs and sides.

A little off topic, but if you want to see as much BRW in one place as you're ever likely to, google "Orchids at Palm Court" and have a look at the photos of the bar and dining area. It's all Brazilian. The hotel, which is a National Historic Landmark, is just a monument to French art deco. Food's great, too.