Official Luthiers Forum!

I just was on this web page: https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/shop- ... -side-set/

And it says, "With StewMac's recent acquisition of Madinter, Europe's premier tonewood supplier, we've secured one of the world's largest supplies of CITES-approved Madagascar Rosewood."

Well I'll be darned.

Well that’s pretty interesting.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

They’re selling off some of Madinter’s Brazilian stash too …


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Writing was on the wall for this one - Eric Coleman’s social media feed showed that he’d spent a portion of last year working in Spain so it looked like something was in the works …

I was quite surprised what they are asking for that stuff. I'm not saying that SM is gouging or asking to much, I honestly didn't know. I would not build with it. It looks like stump and flat sawn wood to me. Makes me wonder what the few sets left that I have which are beautiful straight grained cut 50 years ago are worth. After that I'll probably never use BRW again.

But anyway... I digress.

If you hold onto it long enough, sky is the limit really - these days it seems there’s a small segment of the boutique guitar market that is totally price-insensitive and it’s not hard to imagine one of ‘em stumping up mega bucks for a primo brazillian guitar from one of the big name builders. I’ve also noticed a nascent trend over here of non-luthier guitar collectors buying up high dollar tonewood with the intention of either supplying it to whoever they choose to build them an axe, or even just as an investment….

I'm glad I stocked up on wood a number of years ago, and I'm glad I did. The prices being asked by most suppliers are getting to be outrageous. Fret-boards I paid $5.00 for are around $25.00 and up. Ebony fret-boards are up 2 to 3 times the price of just a few years ago. It also pays to be able to resaw. I have an old cast iron Delta 14" bandsaw with riser block to resaw up to 10". Good wood doesn't just grow on trees !!

I was surprised by the BRW prices, but personally, I think that's a fantastic price for mad rose and presents a tremendous value relative to the BRW.