Handmade guitars from Enrique Rodriguez Galvis

dwmte7 says on Oct 8, 2009, 05:13:

of course his rosewood from brazil is not from brazil when you order your guitar.

patriarch

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FreakyG says on Oct 8, 2009, 05:38:

LP what are you looking at getting? Acoustic? steel or nylon string? etc. What is the reason for non-brazilian rosewood? I used to have an early 70s all brazilian rosewood fender tele ala George Harrison -tone monster.

Thank You Eversomuch, and then some

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yummyj says on Oct 8, 2009, 07:58:

Considered the guy on the highway near the turnoff to Guatape?

Just because you have been to Colombia, that does NOT mean that you are anywhere near an expert on the place. Sorry. Truth hurts.

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jman73 says on Oct 8, 2009, 09:15:

Real Brazilian Rosewood is on the endangered species wood list. None of the major US guitar manufacturers use it any more and its getting harder to come buy and expensive.

"Anyone who thinks that Colombia is a gastronomical paradise needs to have their head examined." jman73

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FreakyG says on Oct 8, 2009, 12:04:

Jman, I have a friend who does a lot of my luthier-level mods/repairs to my guitars and he works with old-growth brazilian rosewood from time to time when a client is in need. This is nearly 80 year old wood (beautiful tight grain, fully figured) cut into planks that he bought before the ban. I know of a few more guys that have a supply of it and will let some go for a few hundred dollars just for fingerboard blanks. There are some Gibson Historic Les Paul gold tops that left the factory with brazilian boards in 2003 and those are some rare birds so to speak -I would love to find one. I have wondered how they pulled that off without getting in trouble. I love the old brazilian rosewood boards on some of my earlier made gibsons -it truly makes a difference in tone. I guess if you find a small luthier who has some brazilian stock, you could have it built with that type of wood but I would want to know it is old growth wood and not some newer crap they cut down a few years ago.

Thank You Eversomuch, and then some

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jman73 says on Oct 8, 2009, 13:18:

Yea, like you said I know guys are still able to get it and sell Brazilian fret board blanks etc... I would like to get my hands on that 80 year old stuff your friend has, it sounds really nice.

In regards to the fretboard wood itself making a big difference in tone, several years ago I had a small luthier out in California (Scott Lentz) who hand builds guitars make me a Tele copy/replica out of some really nice, light, old swamp ash. I wanted a rosewood board and at that time he offered either Indian boards or Brazilian boards for an up-charge. I went over to the shop and had him bolt on both the Indian and Brazilian rosewood necks to the guitar and I honestly couldn't tell a difference in tone to be quite honest, not to my ears anyway.

You mentioned some of your earlier ( I assume you mean 1960's) made Gibsons sounding great and I agree 100%. However I think this is due more to the fact that the bodies then were made out of old growth Honduran mahogany and not so much to the fretboard wood. In a nutshell if the guitar body is made out of a good piece of tone wood then it will sound good regardless of what wood is used on the fretboard IMO.

In regards to the 2003 Gibson Brazilian board LP historics they also put the boards on flame tops as well as goldtops. They are actually not that hard to come buy if you know where to look. In fact a dealer I deal with ( www.marksguitarloft.com ) has two flametops in stock with the Brazilian right now.

"Anyone who thinks that Colombia is a gastronomical paradise needs to have their head examined." jman73

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FreakyG says on Oct 8, 2009, 13:58:

Jman, that old brazilian wood smelled so nice and he has a nice pile of it. You had a Lentz made? I have to say those type of guitars really speak to my soul!! So much better than mass produced stuff. I bet that tele is a killer -do you still have it?
I have noticed the fretboard wood makes some difference on acoustics but I too have a hard time telling much difference in between the types of rosewoods on necks when playing electrics. Now comparing an ebony board to a maple of rosewood, I can tell the diff.
The Gibsons I have that have the brazilian boards on them are a 1960 and 1965 LG-1 acoustics, a 1961 ES-330 hollowbody, and get this, an early custom shop edition 1986 ES-335 Dot -big neck and brazilian board with the tim shaw buckers in there (played through a super reverb is just heaven). I have a few older japanese made guitars with the brazilian boards but these are pretty low end guitars but are great players. You are right on the old growth mahogany -I would bet that is where the majority of the sound comes from.
I love Marks guitar loft and check his site a lot. There are a lot of people who have said great things about that place. Are you a member of MyLesPaul.com? If not, go and check it out. Great group of people and a few celebs who play are on there. Hey Jman, what kind of guitars do you play?

Thank You Eversomuch, and then some

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dwmte7 says on Oct 8, 2009, 16:37:

that's why i said none of the guy's brizilian rose wood is from brazil.

patriarch

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