Where is the best place to get the best prices on lutherie wood?
 

Anyone know of the best mail-order or internet-order places for the cheapest prices on tonewoods and any other woods associated with building acoustics?

I'm only looking to build my first acoustic now, but I've found allied lutherie to be very good largely because they have very decent shipping (I live in Canada though, so depending on where you are in the world you might find the best prices are somewhat dependent on what it costs them to ship to where you live).

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. There is a lot of stuff on eBay that sells for pretty cheap - most of it I wouldn't go near but if you aren't too picky about quality, then you can probably find some very good deals.

Some more respect tonewood and lutherie suppliers are:

www.lmii.com

www.alliedlutherie.com

www.rctonewoods.com

www.hibdonhardwoods.com

www.gilmerwood.com

and one of my favorites: www.colonialtonewoods.com


Best of Luck,
Simon

Simon gives good advise. The cost of materials for an average guitar are such a small part of cost compared to the work. Don't short change yourself with cheap wood that may not work for you.
Tom

At Guitar shows like Woodstock, A.S.I.A No shipping fees, discounts, and you get to tap the tones right there.
The Classifieds on OLF is a great place to look. You pay 11 a year to go there. But, private deals save you dough.
Example; I contacted a seller and scored 2 Extreme Bear Claw tops that were a perfect size for my upcoming Tenor guitar builds. Because they were small tops friend went $20 a pop on them. Allied (who I like and buy from a few times a year) would have been $90ish very likely.

http://www.tonewood.ca/acousticguitar.htm

This is a Canadian company located in Newfoundland.

Towards the bottom of the page, you can find the kits. Haven't bought one yet, but I believe they only sell the wood. The prices range from $180 for an entry-level kit to $320 for a master-grade kit.

Kits include:
1x Spruce or Cedar Guitar Top
1x Board Foot Master Grade Bracewood
1x Master Grade Sound Hole Reinforcement Square
8x Master Grade Unshaped Kerfing Strips
1x Back & Side Set (your wood choice)
1x Spruce or Cedar End Block
1x Guitar Neck & Heel Joint Blank (your wood choice)
1x Acoustic 3/16 Hex Key, 15" Adjustable Truss Rod
1x Master Grade Headplate Veneer (your wood choice)
2x Master Grade Binding Strips (your wood choice)
1x Master Grade Fingerboard Blank (your wood choice)
1x Master Grade Bridge Blank (your wood choice)
1x Master Grade Pickguard Blank (your wood choice)
1x Master Grade Rosette Square (your wood choice)

Just sayin'...

+1 for LMI - There is also Hanover Brazil http://www.hanoverbrazil.com/ Where CITES certified Rosewood is available but it is expensive and a lot of it appears somewhat slabby -

Bob Rigaud, my employers has quite an inventory of side and back sets, fingerboard blanks, bridge blanks, etc. available in BRW, Fiddleback Mahogany, Claro Walnut that he will sell - Again, they are not inexpensive, but as an earlier poster pointed out, scrimping on materials can be a false economy when hundreds of hours of labor are at stake.
Here is an example of a Braillian fingerboard blank
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4079/4...741d8e42_z.jpg
BRW sets
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6...e3627887_z.jpghttp://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6...cdfc09d5c0.jpg
Claro Walnut
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7007/6...bf86b16e_z.jpg
Mahogany
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6...77a9086d7b.jpg

[email protected] or PM me for a phone contact

Good Hunting...

Bob