Official Luthiers Forum!

there are so many wonderful and enticing woods around, it get almost
intoxicating...but plain old mahogany seems to be in mighty short supply.
Since it is "the old reliable", and makes such fine guitars, I'd love to be able
to lay some in, but - where to get it?

I've checked the board sponsors (pretty carefully, I believe), but costly,
highly-figured stock is all I seem to see (PLEASE correct me if I'm mistaken!);
I found an outfit called Northern Tonewoods seems to offer it - and in bulk,
too! - but they provide no pictures & so far they don't answer their email.

I imagine it seems odd to be asking specifically about low-zoot materials,
but has anyone a line on mahogany they'd care to share?chmood38654.8571064815

Hi Charlie. I'm pretty sure I have some plain honduran mahogany. I can see what I have.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
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The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Email Ed Dicks at AC woods (see link above) He has some 2nd grade Cuban Mahogany for $23.00 per set. (I think that he gives 10% discount to OLF members too.)
I bought five sets and am very pleased. They have a couple of very small knots, but I like wood to have some character.   

I'm fortunate to live in New England, where a company that is the largest importer of mahogany has a large business. The other part of their business is somewhere in the Atlanta area, and they supply mahogany to the big companies like Gibson and such. I can go there and get all kinds of sizes of nice lumber. They regularly carry 16/4 lumber as well. But it's getting harder to find, even for them.

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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.
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Bob, that Curly Honduran you have posted is beautiful stuff (and by the
way, did I mention to you how nice that sapele set is that I bought from
you? it's much appreciated) - I'd love to know what you have behind the
counter...and thank you for looking! (Feel free to email me with what you
find)

Bruce, I will certainly get in touch with Ed, and thank you for the
suggestion - the Cuban I've seen (only in pictures, sadly) has been
yummy stuff...almost TOO good for an absolute beginner like me. It's a
strange thing: it never occurred to me to just go ask Bob, Shane etc - but
I certainly can!

Not that I'm after crummy wood, you understand: I just figure my first
umm...dozen or so projects will mostly about me getting familiar w/ the
woods, the tools & the techniques (and, of course, how to redo, repair &
hide). Because of that, I plan to focus on learning some skills for the first
year or so, and out of respect for the wood (try to) keep my hands off the
zoot until I develop chops worthy of such a fine display.

Hey, I made it to Groupie already!   

Charlie I will e-mail you. That sapele is nice wood. Actually for the money it's pretty hard to beat.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

CH, I have also had tough times tring to contact the people at northern. I ended up calling them, and he told me that it had been a while since updating the website. This was two + years ago, so I don't know if they are still in business or what, you could keep tring or, just find someone else like our own Captain Zoot.

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Check Allied Lutherie for regular Honduran and African mahogany.

Also keep your eyes peeled for their specials. I picked up some "opportunity grade" E.I. rosewood back & side sets for $18 each (qty price for 10) a while back. I actually like the stuff quite a bit the more I look at it. Here's one of the sets I just started on. I'm kind of in the same boat, I want to learn my skills on less expensive stuff. I don't know if they'll run that special again or not, I think they sold off that stuff pretty quickly.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

LMI has Honduran in jumbo sizes for about $50/set. Not bad really.

I received a commission last week from a client who wants mahogany back/sides. I was planning on ordering from LMI or Allied, but I decided first that I would check out a local hardwood retailer. I dug through the stacks and found a 7' long 1x10 of S4S Honduran. Nice straight, even grain. Perfectly quartered. After resawing, it yielded three sets. Cost was about $75.

Best,

Michael

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I bought a few sets from someone on ebay. I think his website is Blue Mountain Acoustics. I think I paid 30-35 bucks a set for honduran mahogany. Pretty plain stuff but cheap and good to start with. His name was Kevin Murray I believe. You can search Blue Mountain Acoustics on yahoo or goggle and get him

I just read earlier (@ Allied Lutherie) that Brazil has banned export on
mahogany as of this month (Oct) - I knew it was being considered for some
kind of restriction...this would certainly inhibit supply (tho the impact on
other mahoganies would be accelerated depletion, not export (I guess) ).

Is this NEW news, or am I just now catching up?chmood38657.3200925926

For you Euro folk, Maderas Barber (and Madinter if African's OK) have very competitive prices on Mahogany. Something in the region of 26-27 Euros for Honduran, Sapele for about 14, Khaya for around 11. Bit less for classical sizes. They don't guarantee it's ready for use, you won't get photographs out of them, and it comes in nice and rough, but it's certainly affordable.

This said, what I'm really wanting to get is a bit more Cuban. And I'm suddenly wondering what the status is on Colin's lab benches..

Actually Brazil had started a self imposed ban of harvesting and exporting Magogany two years ago this month! I have seen two warehouses full of huge boards here that IBAMA will not let them sell. They are keeping very tight control of the inventory and come back on a regular basis to make sure the companies haven't sold any. After all has been stripped from the central american sources..you will probably see the prices skyrocket and the sources dry up. After all as small as Cuba and Honduras are...how much more mahogany can they have. I strongly believe Mahogany will be on CITES next hit list.

From what I understand about hondo mahogany it is likely that we will set back and side sets available at reasonable prices for quite a while. What is going to get hard to come by is neck blanks... particularly qs ones.

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

There are definately ways around the whole mahogany problem. Have any of you looked at what they build their pallets out of down there?? Find pallets cut to the right size from the right place and you've found a pretty good supply for laminate neck stock. One of my current works in progress has an electric body with 1/4" spalt top and a 1/4" walnut back. The core is mahogany I rescued from a pallet burnpile. The neck will also be recycled from a pallet.

BTW I realize that sounds like a pretty hideous body You don't see what I'm envisioning! A nice black burst will tie it all together and you won't even know the mahogany is hidden in there

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[QUOTE=Brock Poling]
From what I understand about hondo mahogany it is likely that we will set back and side sets available at reasonable prices for quite a while. What is going to get hard to come by is neck blanks... particularly qs ones.

[/QUOTE]

Brock,

Folks might have to start doing what I do -- and I'm sure others here have done -- cut up the flat sawn mahogany, rotate it 90 degrees and laminate it back together. Works great -- for necks, at any rate.

I've been hearing that mahogany is destined for the CITES hit list for two years now. But it is also my understanding that it is "farm grown" in some areas?

Best,

MichaelMichael McBroom38657.7376041667

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Yes. I lam my necks too. That is a big help. I suspect the whole market will go that way... whether they want to or not.

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