What is Kauri wood and what does it sound like?

[Rosewood99]

Saw this special edition Breedlove ($45K!) and never heard of this tonewood.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Breedlove-Ka...item19e7fd54f3

[guitargarden]

Kauri grows in New Zealand. Most of the Kauri used for guitar-making appears to be Ancient Kauri, a according to several luthier's websites. There is a distinction between Kauri and Ancient Kauri, with the latter being much, much older and having harvesting protections.

From the Tonewood Data Source (http://tonewooddatasource.weebly.com...ils-h-l.html):

"Kauri Agathis Australis
The species is endemic to New Zealand, and belong to the Araucariaceae plant family. .. The logs are below the surface of what are usually farm fields and ranch lands. When a site is identified, permission is secured and expert operators of heavy equipment carefully expose and lift the logs out of the prehistoric bogs. They are immense, and raising the logs to the surface is just part of the job: moving them to a location to begin the milling process, and the milling itself, has necessitated some innovative equipment designs and plain old lumber man's ingenuity. It can be worked with normal woodworking tools, in the same ways you are used to working with other species. One notable difference: when finishing Ancient Kauri, special rewards await the woodworker who sands Ancient Kauri to 600 grit and higher. The wood grains and textures seem to come alive when polished to these levels. Radio carbon dating places the age of the Ancient Kauri trees that are being excavated from the northland of New Zealand at 50,000 years old. This is the maximum limit of radio carbon dating, it is probable that this wood is even older. Kauri is a warm wood with tonal qualities similar to Mahogany. It often exhibits spectacular "flash" under reflected light.

Our critic Kenneth A. Hintz says, 'Ancient Kauri has warm tone? maybe compared to a spooling turbojet engine! It's tone is so bright and harsh which is the main reason it does not sell like they wished it would!'"

At least one luthier, Laurie Williams of New Zealand, builds guitars with Ancient Kauri. There are examples and sound clips on his website.

Here's a series of postings related to a Laurie Williams' Ancient Khauri guitar owned by an AGF member, drcmusic7:

http://acousticguitarforum.com/forum...d.php?t=259104

Here's some historical and other information about Kauri and Ancient Kauri:

http://fennerschool-associated.anu.e...fh2boswijk.pdf

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathis_australis

Finally, here's a Breedlove made with Kauri:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ4GbXlpp7U

[gotgas]

There are a few videos of Simon Fox playing his Laurie Williams guitar on YouTube. Worth checking out for the talent, but the guitar sounds great also. Danny Combs has one also, and his guitar sounds really good too. They are not cheap by any means, but when I see/hear players of their caliber playing a Williams Kauri guitar, it's enough for me to take notice!

[PTC Bernie]

I have a pen made from "old wood". There was a forest discovered that had been covered by a bog for the last 10000 years. Bogs are anaerobic, that is an oxygen void environment. No oxygen, no rotting, no deterioration of the wood.

As to the tonal properties, I'll leave that to others to comment.