The tonewood formely known as Colombian Rosewood
Jul 3, 2015 16:29:16 GMT
ocarolan, brianr2, and 3 more like this
Post by davewhite on Jul 3, 2015 16:29:16 GMT
This is a story of the fascinating process of identifying and giving the correct botanical names to tonewoods used in guitar making. This is a precarious enough process for botanists identifying and naming different trees in the wild, but even more so for tonewood suppliers and guitar makers who don’t have the living tree to examine but just wood cut from it and also the confusing and often misleading common names of woods used in the lumber trade. Being of a “nerdy nature” and also a gardener interested in botany who has been a subscriber to a number of seed collecting expeditions by plant hunters in the Himalaya, I have a definite interest.
Tonewood suppliers in the UK who know their wood and their trade are scarce national treasures and as far as I am concerned are people to look after. In 2009 I was given a set of “Colombian Rosewood” by Joel Thompson who was trying to establish himself as one which he had acquired from Bob Smith – the master – of Timberline Exotic Hardwoods in Kent. Bob had tentatively named it “Colombian Rosewood” (dalbergia tucarensis). Tragically Joel died a few years later at a very young age and I used the set he gave me to make my first and the first ever UK Road Trip Guitar, “Samhain Taistealaí” for members of the Acoustic Magazine Forum – which also died and was re born as the Acoustic Soundboard Forum. The Colombian Rosewood was a delight to work with, looked fabulous and more importantly sounded amazing as a tonewood – great clarity and projection with the trademark Rosewood in built reverb. It had small pores took a finish beautifully and had a spicy smell that reminded me of Kingwood (dalbergi cearensis). I didn’t take any pictures of that wood set but here’s one of the back being joined – the guitar now lives with our very own Mark Thomson:
I got in contact with Bob Smith to see if he had any more sets and he had one slightly “funky” one with odd holes and sapwood marks:
This set became the back and sides for Keith’s (OCarolan) octave mandolin “Ceol Binn Mór”. Again the sound was amazing and I was hooked but Bob had no more sets and was not likely to get any more. Every time I order from Bob I ask on the off chance but no joy . . . until last week. Bob has recently bought the stock of tonewood from another business that “dabbled” in the tonewood business and decided to focus elsewhere and luckily for me in this stash was a number of back and side sets of the same “Colombian Rosewood”. Bob also told me that having done more research his best identification now is “Coyote Wood” – Platymiscium polystachyum. Platymiscium is an interesting genus (for those of you interested in the taxonomy read more here ) that also contains “Hormigo” the favoured wood of marimba makers also called “the wood that sings” that has caused a lot of interest in the guitar making world and also Macacauba. I’m now the happy owner of all five sets and they are of outstanding quality – quatersawn with some gorgeous curl and an amazing musical ring. These are going to make some special instruments and are the equivalent of my “director’s cuts”:
Some have suggested that given the “traditional” views held in the world of handmade guitars it would have been better to have it still identified as a rosewood but I’m happy that there is a more accurate attribution, love the name “Coyote Wood” and as a maker am more interested in the musical properties of the “wood in hand” and the wide diversity of wood species that are musical – this is exceptional tonewood.
Tonewood suppliers in the UK who know their wood and their trade are scarce national treasures and as far as I am concerned are people to look after. In 2009 I was given a set of “Colombian Rosewood” by Joel Thompson who was trying to establish himself as one which he had acquired from Bob Smith – the master – of Timberline Exotic Hardwoods in Kent. Bob had tentatively named it “Colombian Rosewood” (dalbergia tucarensis). Tragically Joel died a few years later at a very young age and I used the set he gave me to make my first and the first ever UK Road Trip Guitar, “Samhain Taistealaí” for members of the Acoustic Magazine Forum – which also died and was re born as the Acoustic Soundboard Forum. The Colombian Rosewood was a delight to work with, looked fabulous and more importantly sounded amazing as a tonewood – great clarity and projection with the trademark Rosewood in built reverb. It had small pores took a finish beautifully and had a spicy smell that reminded me of Kingwood (dalbergi cearensis). I didn’t take any pictures of that wood set but here’s one of the back being joined – the guitar now lives with our very own Mark Thomson:
I got in contact with Bob Smith to see if he had any more sets and he had one slightly “funky” one with odd holes and sapwood marks:
This set became the back and sides for Keith’s (OCarolan) octave mandolin “Ceol Binn Mór”. Again the sound was amazing and I was hooked but Bob had no more sets and was not likely to get any more. Every time I order from Bob I ask on the off chance but no joy . . . until last week. Bob has recently bought the stock of tonewood from another business that “dabbled” in the tonewood business and decided to focus elsewhere and luckily for me in this stash was a number of back and side sets of the same “Colombian Rosewood”. Bob also told me that having done more research his best identification now is “Coyote Wood” – Platymiscium polystachyum. Platymiscium is an interesting genus (for those of you interested in the taxonomy read more here ) that also contains “Hormigo” the favoured wood of marimba makers also called “the wood that sings” that has caused a lot of interest in the guitar making world and also Macacauba. I’m now the happy owner of all five sets and they are of outstanding quality – quatersawn with some gorgeous curl and an amazing musical ring. These are going to make some special instruments and are the equivalent of my “director’s cuts”:
Some have suggested that given the “traditional” views held in the world of handmade guitars it would have been better to have it still identified as a rosewood but I’m happy that there is a more accurate attribution, love the name “Coyote Wood” and as a maker am more interested in the musical properties of the “wood in hand” and the wide diversity of wood species that are musical – this is exceptional tonewood.