Cocobolo Tone - Just the facts

[Hurricane Ramon]

¡ Oh heck yeah !

I have :

• 000 resonator all mahogony
• 000 single cutaway nylon cocobolo
• Tenor cocobolo ukulele
• Soprano blonde koa ukulele
• Dread cocobolo with a solid spruce top
• Dread single cutaway Madagascar rosewood w/solid one piece Alaskan bearclaw Spruce

The koa rings with great powerful clean highs , mids on the soprano ukulele
The cocobolo tenor ukulele is bright and clean nice tonal range for what it can offer like the soprano .
Koa , cocobolo & rosewood all seem to have similar sounds to me .


The mahogany guitars all have a full rich spectrum but are not as bright as the Madagascar rosewood or the cocobolo .


The Cocobolo stand up nicely with the rosewood IMHO . The 000 nylon Spanish classical & dread cocbolo are sweet and
full range sounding . Great highs/mids/& low Hz .


The 000 nylon cocobolo is my fav to noodle on , before it was the single cutaway dread Madagascar rosewood .


You can't go wrong with cocobolo period . Besides the great tone , it looks stunningly beautiful .

EZ :

HR

[mercy]

Ive played 100's of Eir and they are sound bassy to me. I suppose because theyre copying the Martin sound. I dont like bassy but I think that a builder could make it sound more balanced. Im thinking of a Pono Eir that sounded just wonderful. If you are thinking of Martin building your guitar go with Coco.

[Bruce Sexauer]

As a rule, Cocobolo is proportionately stiffer in relationship to dimensions than most of the similarly dense tonewoods we use. That means that in order to get the response SOME of us favor, it needs to be thinner. Unfortunately, it is also relatively brittle which means if thin it is easily cracked if roughly handled, again compared to other similar tonewoods. In this regard, it isn't all that far off Brazilian. EIR is one of the safest materials we use regarding crack resistance, but has a less interesting sound IMO.

[sakar12]

Originally Posted by sayheyjeff2

I don't know how to give you 'just the facts' here. Can tell you that it was one great day when I had the opportunity to buy a Lowden F with coco back and sides (spruce top). The sound is rich and full as can be. Can't personally distinguish for myself how much of the sound is Lowden design/build and how much the coco adds. I was looking to buy a Lowden in my price range and am sure I would have been happy with one with rosewood or even walnut, but I really believe this is special. My favorite Taylor (belongs to a friend) has coco as well. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a coco guitar.

Jeff

As someone with a Lowdern Coco / Sitka on order, this quote makes me happy

[iim7V7IM7]

Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) can be a visually spectacular, dense and glassy Central American rosewood. Aside from African Blackwood and Kingwood, on average, it is both the densest and hardest of rosewoods. It is a very stiff rosewood as well, but is exceeded in this regard by Honduran Rosewood.

I consider Cocobolo along with African BW, Kingwood, Amazon RW, Honduran RW and Tulipwood to be "dense" rosewoods (averaging 60-80 lb/ft^3). It shares more in common to these rosewoods than it does to Brazilian or Indian RW. Brazilian RW, Indian RW, Madagascar RW, Boise de Rose and Burmese RW to be "moderate density" rosewoods (averaging 50-60 lb/ft^3). The "light density" rosewoods are Sissoo and Yucatan Rosewood (averaging 40-50 lb/ft^3).

Cocobolo is an oily wood that can present some gluing challenges, but people who work with it have techniques to overcome these challenges. Many builders have allergic sensitization to it and absolutely cannot work with it, but some can handle it without reaction. Keep in mind that the vibrancy of its colors when new tend to darken with time due to oxidation.

Builders need to account for these physical properties when working with it. It is about 25% denser than BRW or EIR, so yes you can take the back plates thinner, but there is a limit to that. It also is about 25% stiffer than BRW and 40% stiffer than EIR on average. So if a BRW back is say 0.080"- 0.090", a builder needs to take it to 0.060"-0.070" to respond like a less dense and stiff rosewood (or perhaps use a flatter back dish).

Like ANY tonewood, it is as good or bad as the person working it. The "tone" is confounded with the guitar as a system and hesitate to characterize it with homogenous sound. If you choose a builder who knows how to work with it, it can be a fine sounding, albeit heavy guitar.

[jimmy bookout]

^^^^^

Well stated.

[Montesdad]

Originally Posted by Authentic

It's marketing speak. Years ago Bob Taylor in Wood and Steel described Walnut as Rosewood on steroids. Go a bit further back he described the GS shape as a GA on steroids. I guess Arnie was the Govenor of California at the time.

I think maybe Arnie was Ronnie - on steroids

[Hurricane Ramon]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

As a rule, Cocobolo is proportionately stiffer in relationship to dimensions than most of the similarly dense tonewoods we use. That means that in order to get the response SOME of us favor, it needs to be thinner. Unfortunately, it is also relatively brittle which means if thin it is easily cracked if roughly handled, again compared to other similar tonewoods. In this regard, it isn't all that far off Brazilian. EIR is one of the safest materials we use regarding crack resistance, but has a less interesting sound IMO.

My beater is a dreadnought Washburn has a cocobolo body , solid spruce top and mahogany three piece neck .
I got it from a thrift store in need of a lot of TLC .


It was bowed on the top and had unacceptably high action - fixed that , the general condition of this guitar was bad
with tuners gone bad , frets buzzing , and dirty as a pig in dry mud .


It was bruised and beat up and no cracks anywhere or broken pieces , I mean this guitar was really beat up .
But the finnish under the beating's of dirt , paint splatters and dents showed a beauty waiting to be restored .


Plays really nice now since I lowered the action and I put a JLD Bridge Dr. It's loud and punchy , clear and clean
ringing highs and mids and a low end that's quite decent . I like it , it's a beat up keeper scuffs and all .

Koa can also get brittle due in part to the relative thickness having to be thin as well . The tones of the
Koa / Brazilian rosewood/East Indian / Madagascar I love and find similar characteristics in walnut and cherry .

IMHO In contrast , maple seems a lot louder over all and quite bright in comparison and not as balanced overall
tonal wise .

EZ :

HR