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OT: the beauty of the brazilian rosewood
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cuthbert |
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Joined: April 2004 Posts: 103 Location: Verona,Italy | I've seen that there are some threads about "different" guitars, so I'd like to share some pics of my first brazilian rosewood guitar, a BC Rich B-38 that arrived today. Very few people know that B.C. Rich used to make acoustic guitars back in the 70s and early 80s, and most of them are stunning instruments because they were made with the best woods available: it happened that Mr. Rico Sr. used to build high end Flamenco and Classical guitars, when his son inherited the activity and started to build acoustics in the craze of the folk revival he could use the ebony mahogany and brazilian rosewood his father had stockpiled. This particular guitar is a B-38, a rough equivalent of a Martin D-41, a very decorated instrument without being excessive: [SIZE="1"]Uploaded with ImageShack.us [/SIZE] [SIZE="1"]Uploaded with ImageShack.us [/SIZE] But the back is the most interesting part of the guitar: [SIZE="1"]Uploaded with ImageShack.us [/SIZE] [SIZE="1"]Uploaded with ImageShack.us [/SIZE] This instrument was built in 1974, it's far from being mint, there are some cracks (on the heel, the herringbone strip in the back...) but nothign serious, it has been badly treated and my guess is that it wasn't played for a while, I changed the strings, removed the dust and the other slugging into the woodbox and I'm playing it. It scares me that it doesn't have a truss rod and it's a spanish heel, so resetting is impossible, this is also my first old (vintage?) guitar, so I'd like to have some advice, like humidifiers and stuff like that... | ||
nikon4004 |
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Joined: September 2008 Posts: 1281 Location: Ohio | That is some pretty wood...... | ||
Patch |
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Joined: May 2006 Posts: 4226 Location: Steeler Nation, Hudson Valley Contingent | Originally posted by nikon4004: Can't argue with that. That looks like a nice find. Congrats!That is some pretty wood...... | ||
stephent28 |
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Joined: April 2004 Posts: 13303 Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Stumpwood has some really cool patterns. | ||
titti |
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Joined: January 2011 Posts: 343 Location: Italia, Zianigo di Mirano (Venezia) | is quite a sight, really beautiful :cool: | ||
ProfessorBB |
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 5881 Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Very pretty, indeed. I didn't know anything about Brazilian RW until the Tak EF75 models came out a few years ago. After a few of us picked up one, there were a few threads about this rare wood and many of us became a bit more educated. One of the things that I learned was that there can be a difference between the beauty of the grain and its resonance. The theory was that the wider the grain, the more beautiful the wood, but at the expense of resonance. Wide grain patterns more dramatically show off the natural swirls and grain patterns, particularly when a bit lighter stain is used. Yours is particularly stunning in this regard. On the other hand, Brazilian RW with a much tighter and possibly more dense grain pattern is not nearly as beautiful and dramatic, particularly when it has a dark stain that masks the grain variation, but it supposedly has better resonance. This may be akin to the theory that a tighter grain on a spruce top generally produces a more resonant top. Having only one Brazilian guitar, the EF75, I don't know if any of this is true, and if it is, I'm sure that I personally couldn't hear the difference. Nonetheless, I'd be willing to bet that the difference in resonance between tight vs. wide grains on a Brazilian bodied guitar is nowhere close to their difference in relative beauty. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but given the options, I would choose beauty over resonance, again because the compromise in resonance would likely be negligible to my ears, but the additional beauty of the wide grain pattern would be dramatic and very desirable. This one posted by Cuthbert is stunning, and the lighter colored stain really shows it off. Thanks for posting. | ||
titti |
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Joined: January 2011 Posts: 343 Location: Italia, Zianigo di Mirano (Venezia) | Tanck you Professor good lesson | ||
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