Devil Face Rosewood ???

[Leocino_2804]

Hi Guys,

Following the advise of some member in the forum. I visited quite a peculiar custom Shop called Quyet Guitar in Nguyen Thien Thuat street in Vietnam. I have visited all guitar shops here in Nguyen Thien Thuat street and across the country but I have never been in a shop that has this much of extremely (and I have to stress here) EXTREMELY gorgeous exotic tone woods for guitar. It really felt like I am in another world. The owner Mr. Quyet was very kind and passionately shared with me his private collection of exotic tone wood and very cheerfully discussed how each tonewood create certain sound.

I ended up choosing the below set of Devil Face Rosewood (Tracwood or Dalbergia Cochinchinensis) and going to have this combined with a set of master Canadian Cedar for my 9th guitar and I cant stop myself from sharing it here because I am really happy . According to the top local luthiers here in Vietnam this tonewood produces a the best sound, on par with Brazilian and Cocobolo and is very rare. My guitar in finishing soon. Any member has had experience with this kind of tonewood please do share and tell me that I have made the right choice



Below are some progress pictures from the luthier. Everything seems to going great. Cant wait to try out the sound and share here




When I was in the shop, I was shown a beautiful set of the same tone wood that looks like a painting of a American Eagle in a desert flying towards you away from the sun above. I was really thinking about buying this over the one I have chosen. But one American bought this already. There are many out of this world sets of Cocobolo and Ziricote as well.

If you guys love guitar and happen to pass by Nguyen Thien Thuat Vietnam. I say a visit to Mr. Quyet GUITAR shop would be great idea. Their guitars sound great. They speak OK English. Their Facebook is here:

https://www.facebook.com/guitarsquyet.pham

[Mark Hatcher]

I agree the wood is gorgeous but I wouldn't get caught dead with that in my shop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalbergia_cochinchinensis

m

[Leocino_2804]

Wow Mark, you build gorgeous guitars !!!. Very original rosettes!

On the Dalbergia Cochinchinenis, its legally harvested here in Vietnam and is used for very high end furniture as well. I guess its more restrictive for Western Shops

[iim7V7IM7]

Welcome to the forum.

The concern with flatsawn rosewood sets such as the ones that you are sharing is not that they will not make a beautiful guitar nor a fine sounding instrument, it is their physical stability.

Dense, stiff, glassy flatsawn woods tend to more readily crack due to this when exposed to environmental swings. This why luthiers prefer to use quartersawn timbers in instrument building, particularly when the woods have a high differential. Take a look at the difference between the radial and tangential shrinkage percentages (one is 2.5x the other) to get a sense of the asymmetric shrinkage.

https://www.wood-database.com/burmese-rosewood/

I know that you are excited about your new guitar and I am sorry to rain on your excitement, but you asked if you had made the “right choice”.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I do have sets of that species in my woodlocker, and it does make excellent sounding guitars. Mine is not nearly as exciting looking as the wood you have been seduced by, but it is nearly perfectly quarter-sawn all the way across the back and the sides. Mine resembles the part of your back that IS quartered in appearance, being a light reddish brown throughout, almost pink.

I have made just one guitar from it, though I have more sets:

A Sexauer Mini-D.

[Leocino_2804]

Hi guys,

I am no mean knowing much about guitar construction. I really cant tell if my set is quartered-sawn or plat-sawn. There are many threads on this topic in the forum and the topic is actually quite deep.

Your input concerned me though, but I had strong reassurance from the luthier that the guitar is not going to crack because the wood would be carefully processed. I guess I can hold on to that.

Having that said, what you guys said is true though cuz back in the days I had a roommate with a low end Taylor GA with a Sapele back and side and there is a crack at the back of the guitar that I swear would grow bigger during the Toronto winter (when it can get down to as low as minus 20 Degree Celsius) or smaller depending on the season.

But I hope with careful maintenance, there wont be any crack on mine

[Guitars44me]

Beautiful wood, and you are in the right place for information here, for sure

Hope your new axe brings a ton of musical fun!

Happy 2023

Paul

[fitness1]

Originally Posted by Leocino_2804

But I hope with careful maintenance, there wont be any crack on mine

Yes, going from Vietnam to Toronto winter will be a challenge.

I think CAREFUL would be the operative word. I'd definitely tell you to keep it cased all the time and use (and maintain) some very effective humidifiers in your case.

I think some of it depends on what type of humidity the wood has been stored in, for how long, and what RH he keeps his shop at.

[warfrat73]

It also seems that Vietnam has banned its harvest and export until at least 2027 per the CITES website.

[warfrat73]

As seen here: https://cites.org/eng/news/viet-nam-...gered-rosewood

[Fast Jimmy]

I expect to hear you posting some Black Sabbath tunes on here for us.

Beautiful wood, I hope the guitar sounds as spectacular as the wood.
Fast Jimmy