The end is nigh!

Koa is more expensive than Brazilian rosewood
 
And that is why BR is sort of valueless because who wants an instrument you cannot travel with?
 
And that is why BR is sort of valueless because who wants an instrument you cannot travel with?
It only matters if you are a totally honest guy....when I was in industry as an engineering QA inspector officer ..one of the golden rules was "never volunteer information" .
 
Probably most people who read these threads in the Luthier Lounge got the last newsletter from LMI about rosewood so already saw this. In case not, I've pasted it below. Personally I'm not sure it clears a lot up. In short: Things are confused but might clear up soon. Or not.
CITES - One Year Later

LMI Sales Manager

A year ago the lutherie world was rocked as CITES, which regulates the trade of endangered species over international lines, ruled that all Rosewood species (including the staple Indian Rosewood) would now require accompanying CITES paperwork in order to be shipped internationally. Shipping Rosewood or any instrument made with Rosewood now requires lengthy (3 months +/-) paperwork processing and a fee of around $100 per shipment. No fun!

What have we learned in the last year?

LMI can help you understand. Email us at service@lmii.com and we will send you several documents that will acquaint you with the ruling, the new requirements, how to comply and how LMI is leading the industry in CITES inventory management and tracking.
Everyone is learning. The new ruling gave very little time for exporters and government agencies to implement new processes. At first, the process was chaotic, but slowly things have become more predictable.
Every country has different processes for import of CITES goods. This is the hard part. You need to learn the requirements of each county you are importing into. There is no standardization and no manual for this.
The supply chain has been disturbed. Some suppliers (like LMI) have had to step in and help customers whose regular/prior Rosewood vendor was stalled by the new regulations. This, in turn, impacted our inventory levels. These imbalances will be worked through in the coming few months. Fortunately, supplies from India are still strong and the quality is good. Concerns about India participating in CITES have been assuaged.
Builders are embracing new wood choices. Of course, as lovers of wood and having a long history of championing the attributes of ‘alternative tonewoods’ LMI sees this as a welcome phenomenon. The old tonewood orthodoxies are starting to relax! In addition, LMI has introduced several synthetic/alternative wood products with an exciting set of properties which has been enthusiastically accepted by our customers. This came as a welcome surprise. Keep a lookout for an amazing new Rosewood substitute in the coming month or so!
 
This is more about educating the buying public. It's a difficult task because you are essentially contradicting decade upon decade upon decade of the rosewood (or koa) mantra. There's nothing intrinsically special about koa in terms of sound but of course it's taken on a very desirable quality, partly through association and partly because of rarity and expense. When you really analyse the timber properties you will no doubt find that it varies within the species and that other species can have properties that are near identical. Spruce is spruce but it can vary enormously dependent on which particular piece you happen to pick up, so in fact it can be more like cedar at one extreme or a lightweight hardwood at the other. All woods can be somewhat like that but it's just easier for people to view it as though it's all like a certain type of plastic i.e. an identical homogeneous material that never varies and therefore all of it will sound the same. It's a dangerous and simplistic way of approaching things. Even studies like the Leonardo research is having very little impact on perceptions.
 
Incorrect.
Most people who own a hand built BRW instrument don't won't to travel overseas with it -
If i were to travel, id buy a $200 uke/guitar so i could bang it around and not care.

Yup......I bought a Blackbird Farallon for traveling. I have a few instruments with rosewood and they all stay home
 
Top Bottom