Indian Rosewood is better than most exotic Rosewoods

[DHart]

Originally Posted by John Arnold

In spite of the new CITES rules, I don't think IRW will ever be considered as exotic as other rosewoods. IRW has been planted to shade tea plantations for over 100 years. As long as people drink tea, the supply should be there.
If you like deep bass, then you should like IRW. I prefer brighter sounding guitars.

80/20 strings on EIR = deep bass and sparkling highs!

[jaymarsch]

Originally Posted by min7b5

When Richard Hoover and I were working on specs for my model 00 guitar years ago I had the green light for any wood combination I wanted. And though I did go with cocobolo for reasons I can detail later, I kept coming back to Indian rosewood over everything else, including, if not especially, Brazilian rosewood. Good old Indian rosewood is very special indeed.

Now I don't proclaim to be any kind of expert, but my own *opinion* is that the backs and sides' contribution to "tone" is pretty tiny, at least in the classic EQ sense. I personally think it's more about how the note "behaves." For example mahogany seems very quick responding, the notes just immediately pop right out fully formed. Maple seems to have much quicker decay, etc... Within that line of thinking, what I truly love about good Indian rosewood is how the note seems to bloom -it's a little slower, but with nice long sustain that seems to warm as it develops. Playing slow lyrical single note lines on a Indian rosewood can be just sublime...

I have experienced this with Indian rosewood as well. I have both a guitar with spruce/cocobolo and one with cedar/East Indian. They each have their special attributes and I would not part with either one.

Best,
Jayne