VIDEO - Royal Blackwood : The most important product in luthiery?



Ebony forests are in danger, and that Royal Blackwood makes for an excellent ebony substitute, it is probably the most important product for luthiery that I can think of.

Purple heart tree is twice as big as a Gaboon ebony tree.
Also, purpleheart is roughly twice as stable (ie it shrinks/expands in all directions half as much) as Gaboon ebony. (see picture a few posts below)

To give some perspective, most solo Luthiers like me make 10-15 instruments a year. We don't pose an impact on ebony forests. However, Gibson make approx 170,000 a guitars year, Fender 208,000 (in 2007), Taylor 130,000, Martin 107,000 (based on serial numbers 2018-2019) PRS about 15,000 a year. According to The Music Trades website's industry census of the United States guitar market, there are about 2.5 million guitars sold each year in the US.

It is only when these large factories move towards ebony substitutes will the inevitable loss of ebony forests be diminished.

Hey Beau, do you have any feedback about this wood in practice since its been a couple years? Mahalo
 
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