Official Luthiers Forum!

Sure, maybe some find EIR to be too "plain and boring" because just about every single guitar makers and manufacturers use them, but the wood is so nice to work with!

It bends so well one said you could practically bend it into a cutaway cold and it would not break (although I do have a junk EIR side that I got from another luthier that her apprentice broke. No idea what happened there). The wood looks pretty good, smells ok, and isn't too difficult to plane or cut. It's also fairly stable too. The set I got practically wants to bend... And to top it all, it's pretty cheap, anywhere from 60-100 dollars depending on grade from LMI, and could get it cheaper from Allied or others as well as local manufacturers if you don't mind using the Indonesian stuff. As for sound I can't comment... as 90% of the sound comes from the soundboard anyways.

It is being sustainably harvested from India from what I read meaning it won't go the way of BRW.

Who else here loves EIR?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I like it myself. I like working with it but I also like the way it sounds. There it's s reason so many factory guitars are made from Sitka/EIR. Because it is a good sounding combo. And yes the pricing thing helps too.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I've only ever used it once for backs and sides. I have to say I am not crazy about it but it's probably because it is used so much. But it's good enough, looks good and as you say is easy to work with though takes a lot to pore fill.

I love it. I think it looks great, easy to work, cheap, sounds great. What's not to like?!

Hauser loved it, Fleta loved it, Romanillos (Jose' and Liam) loves it, Martin loves it, so who am I not to?!

I think the worm will turn when it's no longer available in nice wide, dark straight grained and quartered stock.......people always want what they can't have.........meanwhile I've been laying in a supply for the long term.

I'd just improve the smell..

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I think it's one of the best woods available and believe it's underrated because it's so readily available.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I agree with Jim Watts and others. That some don't like it is
due to psychological reasons for the most part.

It's also due to psychological reasons that many are so
enamoured with some pretty crappy looking, flat-sawn Brazilian.

I think from the site the luthier said (I forgot which one) that if it weren't for the legendary/psychological status of BRW, no one would use the stuff.

By the way Bubinga is another underrated tonewood... it's cheaper than EIR (according to LMI that is, for what it's worth) but it's not too hard to bend although slightly harder to sand/cut/plane. It actually looks so good that it blows even the prettiest EIR away, and we're talking about plain (not figured) Bubinga.

I guess I should change the title of this thread into "most underrated tonewood"...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Bubinga is OK, but a bit dry on the sonics side. Does not give the same quality of sound that you can get from EIR, IMO. Not saying it's bad, just not as complex.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

that's subjective though... because I've built bubinga guitar that sounded great, however I don't know good compared to what... I suspect you may be hard pressed to tell in a double blind listening test...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I love IER, the smell... wow! I could plane it forever!

Sometimes I wish everyone from India smells like EIR...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I like it also. Funny thing is the best is the plain looking straight grained quarter sawn stuff, just like BRW use to be before the supply ran out. Now everyone wants the highly figured stump cut stuff.

My favorite these days are cocobolo and pau ferro and of course EIR

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I will probably never work with Cocobolo... I don't need allergies.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I don't even know how luthiers manage to accumulate a huge stash of wood... my stash consists of some soundboards and low grade wood, barely enough to build 2 guitars.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

That is probably true. In fact in my first post I admitted it's true for me. It's ubiquitous and hence sort of waters it down a bit. Of course I'm of the opinion that it matters not for tone hardly at all.

The comment was based on my experience with the two different woods in guitars I have built.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

no one ever said I was in my right mind......

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Brian, that is awesome! Looks like some kind of mural. And nice job on the book match!!

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Pat

Tai, sounds like you got a case of the "guitar buildin' blues". Proceed directly to ukulele and play C Am7 G7.

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Pat

It seems classical strings have a warmth of their own and and lack sparkling highs (overtones)......so maybe that is why no one wants a classical guitar with Mahoagony back/sides and instead have a preference for rosewood. Adds a bit of sparkle to the tone. Steel strings have much stronger overtones and pair well with mahogany. Of course they sound good with rosewood as well so it seems you have more choices for back wood with a steel string guitar.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I would agree with Daryl in that the denser woods are far more sought after than something like mahogany for the classical guitar where a bright singing treble is the response that is the hardest to achieve.
African Blackwood is considered by some to be the ultimate closely followed by Brazilian, Indian and the many other rosewoods. Cypress is a wonderful traditional choice and the denser of the sets can be quite similar to Indian rosewood in response. Maple (the "bird's eye" variety) is the least dense of the acceptable choices (for me anyway) and requires different thicknessing (as all the choices do to some extent) to achieve the mass which works best with my approach.
Maple is currently my favorite partly due to it's visual interest, nice contrast with darker trim materials and ease of polishing (no pores!).

Maple is just a pain to bend...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

...........The curly stuff for sure but not the "bird's eye"............