How would you grade the sets?

[ObiWanSymbian]

Hi,

I just read the thread, where the OP requested his set be graded.

Can you grade the sets from the link?

From your experience, do they seem to be worth so much, they would contribute to building a EUR 3000 instrument?

http://dowina.eu/choose-your-unique-...de-instrument/

[dekutree64]

Those all look like B grade to me. But cocobolo's humidity expansion is very low, and not bad even when flatsawn, so I think they'll still make fine guitars. I wouldn't pay any upcharge for them, though.

[Howard Klepper]

Almost all are flatsawn with wild grain and lots of runout. One (D3) is straight grained, but undersized with wide areas of sapwood--it might make a good parlor size set. Since the usual grades don't go lower than B, I'd give them all a B. Maybe an A grade to set 01, if you got rid of the pieces behind it and avoided the knot.

[JoeCharter]

I wouldn't assume that a EUR 3000 guitar comes with primo woods as all things considered EUR 3000 really isn't that much for a custom guitar. That's about the price of a fancy Taylor -- on which it wouldn't be unusual to see flatsawn cocobolo (I owned one myself, it sounded great FWIW).

Also FWIW, I've seen some really nice highly figured flatsawn cocobolo -- but those on the website all look uninteresting/non book-matched/hideous to me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though.

Here's some nice cocobolo sets that I've found on the web:

http://petrosguitars.zenfolio.com/p203535497

[H165]

6 appears possibly quarter-sawn to me. The rest; no thanks.

[printer2]

Other than one or two built into a small guitar I would not feel right about using any of them other than for pieces in a rosette or headstock. Rather use a plain A grade EIR.

[LouieAtienza]

As Mau pointed out, most flatsawn wood would not have 100% bookmatch, because of the nature of the cut. That said, cocobolo is a pretty stable wood, and provide you glue it up fine, the guitar itself should be fine as well. I take their "open pore" finish to mean satin with no grain filler? It's not easy at all to find well-quartered cocobolo in billet or board form, so I don't mind the use of flatsawn wood (I have a set myself). These might not be the best examples, but there are a few diamonds in the rough there...

I watched their factory tour and it's kind of impressive, actually. I think however for the price you're looking at a high end Stonebridge/Furch which looks to have higher build quality/quality control.

[lizzard]

http://www.lmii.com/wood-grading

I would say AAA YOMV!

[Blitz49]

Here in the raw wood before going to finishing. Joel was very pleased with this set and I can't wait to see it finished. This is pretty much the top of the scale for straight grain book matched cocobolo.

[Tim McKnight]

Sets 6 & 10 are the only two that I would even consider giving a second look up close. The rest are flat to rift sawn which I would not consider building with.

[Howard Klepper]

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[ObiWanSymbian]

Thank you for all the replies!

As a happy owner of a Dowina, and a player who has tried an axe or two from their higher end, I must say they do a great job building solid-topped instruments.

The all-solid instruments... Nah... Not so fancy.

[printer2]

On the site they seem to use better wood in their examples of their builds.