Quote:
Originally Posted by Wade Hampton
A lot of the allure of Brazilian rosewood (BRW) is its mystique, but that mystique is at least partially based in fact. BRW has a different treble response than Indian rosewood, with a "glassy" sound to the trebles that Indian can't match. So in a dreadnought-sized instrument BRW can give you some sparkling high end response that you probably won't get from Indian rosewood.
That said, not all BRW has that glassy, chime-like quality to its treble response, not even in many of the highly sought-after pre-WWII Martin dreadnoughts made with straight-grained quartersawn BRW. I've been fortunate enough to play a lot of old Martins, Gibsons and Larson Brothers guitars, and I'd say that those desirable BRW tonal qualities are present in maybe half of the old guitars made from it.
With modern day BRW instruments, it's present in about a third of the guitars built from it. If that.
Those BRW guitars that don't have that amazing three dimensional quality and glassy high end sound pretty much like any other rosewood.
So not all BRW guitars are instant classics worth every penny it costs to buy them. Some are merely middling, and not all that special, frankly.
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller
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I agree with everything Wade said above. I have played a number of vintage BRW guitars and have come to the same conclusion about the trebles.
I'll also add that, at least for my builds, I find EIR to have slightly more bass response than BRW. Not a ton more or anything but I have noticed it on every IER guitar that I have built.