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Has anyone had business dealings with Exotic Wood Zone in St. Lois Mo.

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I have, yes. Good shop IIRC…

Cheap discount wood. A lot of there stuff is B grade. They used to be better but I haven't bought anything for years as the quality went way down. Look at Elitetonewoods.com Mikes prices are great and he's a very knowledgable Tonewood dealer.

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Same experience as David. A few years ago, I could count on them to have really good East Indian Rosewood at great prices. I think they aren’t offering as high quality wood any more. But the buying experience is fine. No concerns about their business dealings.

Another thumbs up for Elite Tonewood-great wood at fair prices!

David, Thanks for turning me on to him.

I've never had a problem with them, Dave. I don't buy the high dollar stuff, but that's okay. They are good about combining shipping, too.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Read all the reviews you can. I'm not going to dis' them but they don't have a stellar reputation in my neck of the woods (St. Louis). A lot of their wood is seconds and thirds. A lot of their wood is pretty wet- they have started noting that in the description.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I got some ebony head plates from them that were mostly gray and didn't match the picture in the auction at all. I used the Contact seller through Ebay and never got a response. Ebay provides the option to request a refund so I used that and they did refund my purchase.
Kent

It been pretty well documented that these guys are shady and sell poop wood. Why would you buy from them when you can buy from a great resource like Elite Tonewoods with the same pricing. For instance they have master grade FB for $35 each. Allied and Stewmac are trying to get $75 each for the same FB. Which isn't even as nice as what Mike has.

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I've purchased about 15 EIR dreadnought sets from Exotic over the past couple of years, including two "lots" of 5 sets combined. I had previously bought three StewMac sets, and they were not all that great considering the price - one back ending up cracking in storage. I had realistic expectations when considering the Exotic purchases.
- I was not looking for premium, super straight grained sets - like we might see on the typical Martin or Taylor.
- I build as gifts as a music ministry endeavor, and the folks I'm building for really enjoy looking through the sets to choose one that speaks to them.
- There is a lot of variation in the appearance of the sets. I agree that perhaps some would consider them seconds or third quality, but for me and my "clients" we like the resulting funky and unique look.
- I stickered the sets for a few months in my climate controlled shop just to be sure on the moisture content.
- I paid in the range of $90 per set
- No issues with checking, cracks etc, and everything is well-behaved in the luthiery processes (sanding, bending, etc)

I'll definitely check out Elite in the future.

Yes, exactly. I bought a bunch of indian rosewood fretboards from him and they were gorgeous!. I also bought some from another (well known) suppler and they were not nice at all....