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I've been sourcing Indian Rosewood B/S from an exporter in Mumbai. Been great stuff and he recently asked if I wanted some Rosewood neck blanks. This is some dark oily stuff at about 15% moisture but just beautiful and nice quarter sawn.. Will be using sometime later. I imagine it will be hard to carve but I love the look. Anyone with experience working with this for acoustic I'd appreciate some commentary, am I looking for trouble?

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Just a box with strings https://www.facebook.com/wadesguitarshoporcas

Personally, I'd be wondering if it was real rosewood.

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

If you can carve a maple neck you can carve rosewood. I’d personally be more concerned about weight. Honduran Hog is about 37lbs per cubic foot, sapele is about 41lbs and rosewood about 56lbs.

My 2¢, M

There's a long history of intricately carved rosewood furniture and Warmoth has had rosewood as an option for necks for a long time, so I wouldn't expect it to be much of a problem to carve a neck from it.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Wasn’t there a George Harrison fender with a one piece rosewood neck, or something like that?

I've built 2 acoustic guitars (12 fret) with very dense and hard Padauk necks at Sg = 0.9, similar to EIR and did not have a problem with them.
Admittedly they were 12 fretters which have a bit less tendency to neck dive and they were 16" lower bout EIR bodies, but they worked well.
Parlors and 14 fret might be a bit more tricky -?
But I would go for it, in fact I have a dark purple/black rosewood neck blank on the shelf ready to go.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Yes, the whole telecaster was EIR I believe.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I've built numerous banjos with rosewood necks and a couple of guitars. I got a big stash of EIR neck blanks from LMI decades ago and have used them here and there. It carves fine and smells great (even through the mask--the dust is the biggest issue). It's heavy for an acoustic but sounds nice. It's one of my favorite woods for banjos--gives a really bassy tone with a lot of character. I think these neck blanks were originally milled as blanks for table legs or the like.

I've had numerous 19th century banjos with Brazilian Rosewood necks--a lot of the higher end instruments had these, as did some high end jazz age tenor banjos.

Weight is an issue as Michael said and I got rid of PRS ten top because of the rosewood neck. The guitar would dive out of your lap because of the neck weight.

Could I hear any difference from a rosewood neck? Seems very subjective to me but tell that to Carlos Santana

I do question its suitability for an acoustic being in the camp that less massive instruments accelerate quicker, Newton might weigh in here.

It is real rosewood; I have purchased quite a few B/S as well as fingerboard blanks and have seen pictures of the trees being milled. The sapwood is just gorgeous on some of the back plates. Anyways, I'm also in the camp of less density. The OM I finished (still need to post pics) is as light as a feather with well-seasoned hog and is surprisingly bright and plenty of volume. You just can't beat tried and true hog. Just looking at aesthetics. I'm working on an Englemann over american cherry OM and haven't decided on a neck wood. I have a purple heart or a maple in mind. If I do use the Rosewood in future builds, I will keep in mind the weight and pair it with the same back and sides, fun to experiment. It would be a gamble to order without being able to actually handle the stock, but I could always use it for a 3 piece neck. I also love walnut and have a neck blank. I love the contrast of very dark and light-colored woods together. Update: At $285 for 4-piece, Aruns rosewood neck blanks are too rich for me

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Just a box with strings https://www.facebook.com/wadesguitarshoporcas