Official Luthiers Forum!

Is Patagonia Rosewood suitable for fingerboard and bridge (and bridge plate)?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I smell an upcharge... Plaster a Fitz Roy decal on there and start making some big deposits!

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Patagonian rosewood (A.K.A. curupay, cebil) is a trade name used by the flooring industry for a semi-tropical south american hardwood.
It's harder than ebony and shrinks less, so as long as you find a nice stabile piece and don't mind working with a wood that dulls cutters ( don't many alternative fingerboard woods) it should - probably (weasel word alert) - be fine. If you are picking through flooring boards try to find a nice quartersawn piece.

Woodcraft sells this stuff and has it on sale. Not sure I'm interested, but I thought I'd check to see what folks thought of it...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Ipe (brazilian walnut), jatoba (brazilian cherry), curupay (patagonian rosewood) - the flooring industry dresses them up with fancy names which others adopt. If you look at the woods for what they are and are not put off by the sales tactics they have some pretty nice qualities. As long as there were woods that were easier to mill they were not commonly used but with the scarcity of the usual hardwoods and the common usage of carbide tooling they are coming to market. When I run low on fretboard stock I will certainly give them a second look.

I've been using it for years as my bridge plate material. I don't think I would ever use any other wood as it is perfect for what I'm after.

It's got a nice tap tone as well.

Hmm. I’d love a better bp material than maple.

Can you just find this stuff at Ye Olde Floore Shoppe?

Hi Ed,
This might get you a small stock of brigeplates to try:

www.brazilianhardwood.com/products/samples/

Thanks!

OsageE orange for bridgeplates? Plenty available cheap.

Ed

Here are the samples from the company linked above. The longer ones are 7 inches long. Losing the T&G and the bottom grooves leaves a piece about 2 5/8 wide and 5/8ths thick - enough for a few bridge plates or a couple of bridges. The wood is attractive and looks like it could make nice back and side sets.