Official Luthiers Forum!

First off, totally new here. I'm a relatively new builder but the bug has bitten hard so i'm off to another build. Anyway, a guy that deals in tonewoods works out of the same building where I've been building so I have decent access to wood. The last build (I'm finishing up now) is a cocobolo dred. I'm thinking I want to make my next one out of ziricote. I'm kind of torn between two sets he has ready now. I've attached photos. I like both of these for different reasons. The tighter grained set is really nice, seemingly quartersawn wood. The other set... well that beautiful figure! Would you go for the wild figure set or the quartersawn set? I'm sure both will look beautiful in a finished guitar. Might the quartersawn set sound better tonally?

Second Set...

you won't loose either way, IMO.

First set for me

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Buy 'em both. That's the OLF way!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

What Alex said

They're both gorgeous, but in a pinch, I'd choose the first one as well.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

First one if the price is similar. I just love that figure

2nd set for me.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I second the second.

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

You should use the first set... and give me the second one

Both look good to me...1st set..a very little bling guitar, no backstrip, plain end graft, let the wood speak for itself and set 2 a bit more ornamentation to compliment the wood. Just my opinion and I would buy them both. (and use the 1st set for myself)

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Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

2nd one. It's getting rarer.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Set 2 for me.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Like all great tonewoods, Mexican Crackwood, aka Ziricote, is getting more and more difficult to buy with time. Grab what you can, while you can.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thanks for the replies so far guys. I wish I could afford to get them both. I'd need to dip into the retirement fund if I did. If the one I DON'T buy is still available in a few months I just might pick them both up. Unfortunately, I've gotta eat.

One thing I should point out, the first (heavily figured) set is about 1.5X the price of the lesser figured set. If the prices were the same I think I'd go for the heavily figured set first. The price difference seems to be adjusting my opinion.

Set 2

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

First set is a beaut Clark!

I just went to check one of my favorite ebay sellers to see what he's charging for ziricote these days, and there was your first set right near the top of the list Way overpriced. Go check out our forum sponsor Hibdon Hardwood. They have a bunch of great sets for $315-350, which is still pretty pricey, but not totally crazy. RC has some even cheaper, but not very visually impressive. Colonial has some too.

Yes, the first set is on Ebay now, which is what prompted me to want to see what else he had. I knew he had some wood that he brought back from Mexico and had cut it but wasn't ready to sell yet so I had just been waiting to see when it was going to be ready. I had several sets brought out to look at and this is where I've been stuck -- torn between the crazy figure and the nice quartersawn set. I committed to the quartersawn set earlier this morning. I may still get the other one though. I'm going to look at it again and see if it "speaks to me" any louder than it did the first time. I thought the figure would have sold me on that set as soon as I saw it. It was nice, just not so nice that I knew immediately I wanted it, especially with the price difference.

2nd set. sometimes the lighter color like the first has an ever so softer feel- you can feel the diff when you resaw.