Woods Page


I have on hand all of the basic woods I work with including curly and quilted maples, flamed claro walnut, figured and plain mahogany, Indian and Brazilian rosewoods, Madagascar rosewood, lacewood, figured bubinga, Koa, and Oregon myrtle. For tops, I always have excellent fine grade Sitka and Englemann and have access to German and Adirondack as needed. I use only fine or master grade woods except the Adirondack, which is only available in medium grade material. My brace stock is hard Sitka I cut from my own billets. On this page, I wanted to show some of the more interesting woods on hand in case you want something out of the ordinary and were afraid to ask. For example, the guitar to the right is made from a two piece burl walnut back (something no other builder would attempt to do) with flamed sides (since burl cannot be bent).	Custom Burl Walnut D I am willing to try almost anything on an experimental basis if the customer is also up for the challenge. This guitar not only looks amazing, but sounds great as well.

	Here is a close-up of the burl on the back of the D pictured above. This represents a 5 X 6 inch patch of the two piece book matched back.

Brazilian: I stock Brazilian sets and have since the late 70's when I bought out Martin's warehouse stock. My current stash has some stunning pieces. Even the least of the material is very fine. Prices are based on overall color, figure, and degree of quartering. Prices reflect current market. Call me for a quote and I can send jpg's or hardcopy photos for you to choose from. Go to my GalleryPage for a look at a really fine Brazilian jumbo. The images below are represenative of the color and figure available. In most cases I have more than one set which matches what you see here. Actual size of area photographed is 4 X 5 inches.	A small pile of some of theBrazilian on hand.

medium dark Braz.

Bittersweet chocolate Braz.

medium light Braz.

dark brick red Braz.

light/ medium tan Braz.

Madagascar RW

Brazilian rosewood FX-Custom

A sample of the dark Brazilian

The Brazilian FX-Presentation on the left features the dark brick red Brazilian with lots of spider webbing. It has the look of materials used by the Martin company for the top of the line 45 series in the 1930's. While I am not convinced that Brazilian is the "ultimate tonewood" as many claim, it does have a characteristically dark, woody sound and is, of course, rare and beautiful (not to mention becoming more valuable with time).

As you can see from the images above, the color and figure of the Madagascar rosewood is very similar to Brazilian, only a little more red and orange.

I am happy to work with you on picking out the rosewood which best suits your taste. As it all sounds alike, it is mostly a matter of choosing the color and figure.


Lacewood One of the woods I really like for both looks and sound is Lacewood or Silky Oak. It is a unique tonewood in that it is super stiff, yet very light like mahogany. What makes it so outstanding is the tonal envelope it creates, regardless of body size and top material. The sound is big, quick, articulate, woody and has a pre-war sounding punch I have never heard in any other wood, new out of the box. Every guitar I have made with this wood (including my own FX) sounds like it has been played in for 50 years, even three days after first stringing it up. Great for flat-picking it also works well with a light setup and finger style.	The back of my personal FX-Custom in lacewood.
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Click for More Rosewood images and close-ups.

Woods Page

	John Greven, luthier