Lashing Guitars

Lashing Guitars presents

Brazilian Rosewood Gallery

We get questions about Brazilian Rosewood all the time. This gallery presents some of our private stock. Rather than explain what premium Brazilian Rosewood looks like - one can now see for themselves. Brazilian Rosewood comes in many variations of color. From a Brownish orange to dark chocolate brown. The "rose" smell can also vary somewhat. It smells much like the bubble gum that comes in baseball cards. At times with a spiciness or, at times, a slight hint of "punkiness". Dependant on where the tree grew, nutrients received, how large it grew, storage, etc. The basic smell remains the same and is different than close cousins of Brazilian, which can have a similar smell, just not "it". The aroma has an overall calming effect and thus is an ingredient in many top selling perfumes.

Because of its rarity due to CITIES, good cuts of Brazilian are hard to find and very expensive. Both these aspects will only increase over time. Good examples, like we present in this gallery are very rare. Today guitars are being made from mostly flatsawn stump material. While not a bad thing - these cuts of Brazilian would never have made the grade on instruments which made Brazilian so popular in the first place (such as old Martin flat tops). Premium grade Brazilian is not swirly and curly. Quarter sawn old growth Brazilian tends to have a rather straight grain with the character coming from the color variation and dark "ink" lines.

The best way to educate oneself is to study old instruments and wood collections like this one. Unlike many things for which salesmen make the claim - they truly are not making anymore Brazilian Rosewood. The good stuff came from trees standing many decades before the people who came to cut them down.

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