Do YOU think Pernambuco is beautiful?

[Bruce Sexauer]

Originally Posted by pfox14

Certainly not the nicest looking wood I've ever seen, but hopefully the guitar sounds good anyway.

Hopefully you voted against it in the poll!

From my view this is the best Pernambuco I ever expect to see, and since I see with my ears to a fair extent, it looks mighty fine! Perfectly quartered and close to absolutely straight, free from any form of degrade, with a mild flame running through it, air dried for 30 years, AND the most expensive wood I personally have ever purchased.

I actually sent Steve a guitar similar to the one we will likely build in order that he can be sure of his choices. The Pernambuco on the one I sent is of a lower quality than the wood pictured here, but the guitar is right in there as far as the P tonal signature is concerned. It is also in the same size category (big) as I wanted to be sure Steve knew what kind of ergo's he is signing up for. Pernambuco will never be as popular as it deserves as there simply isn't enough of it. The trees rarely get big enough to make guitars, and 90%+ of the old growth was cut in the 1700's! I consider myself VERY lucky to have quartered material big enough for a 16" guitar's 2 piece back.

[Rodco]

The sound is the the thing, but a plain or ugly guitar can a little bit of a downer.

From the pictures it isn't ugly to me, some were a bit on the plain side, but something orangey and variegated would be nice especially on a smaller instrument.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I haven't read through the thread lately, so I may repeat myself when I say: It is hard for me to find fiery Orange/Red plain. Especially when it has brown/yellow/purple streaks running through it. What it isn't in most cases is interestingly detailed from across the room, not counting the fiery thing. Fortunately, like many woods, the closer you look at it the more interesting it is. When flatsawn, wood like the stuff Steve and I are about to use is actually pretty interesting looking, it just that it becomes less suitable for guitar making, from my point of view.

For instance:

[Shawnglory]

How does it compare to adirondack in terms of sound? I loved my adirondack top guitar to death but sadly its aged alot having followed me to everywhere I've went. Am in the market for a new custom

[Bruce Sexauer]

Assuming you mean combine rather than compare, I can comment. My first ten Pernambuco guitars all used EuroSpruce as I had the idea that Adi's crispness combined with P's clarity might be a bit much. But then I tried it and the results were absolutely beautiful to my ear, with none of the brashness I feared. As I have often said, the thing about Pernambuco is how much treble overtone it is able to produce without crossing over into edgy unpleasantness. Truly in a class of its own.

[Felipe Nacif]

Bruce,

I have a 000-12 with P/Adi combo and it is dead on with your description. I'd say its like turning the presence knob up to 12 while keeping the treble at 6 or 7. Lots of clarity and no harshness to the tone.

I might try to get something like a SJ with Pernambuco and throw a cedar top to the mix. Could be a winner too.

[alohachris]

Aloha,

I think Pernambuco is very pretty, in a part of the color/grain spectrum that doesn't provide a lot of tonewood choices, but is not that striking to me.

However, should we even be discussing the merits (& thereby creating more desire & need for it) of yet another rare & endangered equatorial rainforest wood that is on the CITES list?

When BRW went on that list, I sold off a decent stash of really old sets to the great Robert Ruck. Why? Because it's on the CITES list.

The documentation of these endangered & rare tropical hardwoods was always sketchy at best & not trustworthy at all today. That's one reason why I used to deal with the late great Hart Huttig - he researched the documentation.

Pernambuco is exactly the same as BRW in terms of availability, marketability & rarity. It should be left alone, IMO.

Yet, we luthiers continue to act as if the laws don't apply to us "little guys." I think that's wrong. So I won't vote on Pernambuco here.

I sell hundreds of thousands of BFT of hardwoods every year for a living. I've also loved the tone of guitars that I & other luthiers have made from rare tropical rainforest woods like BRW, MRW & Honduran Mahogany. But the CITES listing of those species is no joke to me, nor is what it represents. So I'll let others sell it & make instruments from them.

I suggest that we leave some Pernambuco for the bow-makers who really NEED it, no matter how pretty it is.

alohachris

[alohachris]

Duplicate Post - Sorry!

[Bruce Sexauer]

In part I agree with you, Chris, about taking more responsibility for the diminishing resources, but in a couple of ways not so much. For my part, the Pernambuco I have came primarily from two sources, in both of which I have between 30 and 40 years of historical knowledge, so I am not feeling a lot of guilt. While I would not like to be partly responsible for for another surge of Pernambuco lust, I think it is unlikely because there simply are few if any trees of adequate size anywhere at all. Both of my scores (one for five guitars worth the other for 17 guitars worth) have been trees cut long ago, in one case lumber languishing in California in an out door wood pile, and in the other case a section of a log left in the corner of a mill in Brazil for longer than the current owner has had the place, at least 30 years. The latter is the stuff Steve will have in the next couple of months.

My other beef is that while BRW and Pernambuco are fairly high profile materials, the truth is that all of the trees on the planet are circling the drain as we speak, along with nearly any other resource we can name. We are using it up like there's no tomorrow. I don't have a solution for this situation, but to point at any one element is to miss the big picture.

[roberts]

So, is there any attempt to preserve or "re-forest" P, or is the sad truth that, while it may be of interest to our limited community, it's of little consequence to the rest of the world - due to what's likely its limited use for most of the things people need wood for....

[Richard Mott]

Not sure about Pernambuco, but there is an organization that is dedicated to reforesting African blackwood, the so-called "music wood" long used for clarinets and bagpipe chanters, and lately in demand for guitars.

[frquent flyer]

Bruce, Good Morning, Thank-you for your vivid explanations of this pernambucco as well as others that you provide. You are generous and quite thorough in your explanations and descriptions. You provide a real education and an interesting answer to each and every query. Thanks , Tom Martin