Master Class: Brazilian Rosewood notes from Richard Hoover 

I’m fortunate to have a 1963 José Ramirez classical guitar with Brazilian rosewood sides and back. I doubt I’ll ever own another Brazilian rosewood instrument so I often marvel at the perceived depth of the wood. It is an extremely light instrument with a voice like none of my other guitars.

Just a small insertion. It was the Portuguese not Spanish. Also the most desirable was Kingwood that grows side by side with Rosewood but were rarer and way more expensive thats why “King”. Both are Dalbergias and Rosewood was also quite expensive. Both are unique to parts of northeast and southeast Brazil.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Hoover years ago. He's a very kind and humble gent indeed.

I was lucky enough to get a personal tour of the Santa Cruz workshop by Richard a few years ago. I had only been making guitars a couple of years at the time and he was so open in sharing some of the 'secrets' that make SC guitars so special. It really is a true custom shop he runs and his knowledge and experience is second to none.

Thank you Mr. Hoover! Love all the information and all your 50 years of experience and wisdom 🙏you're also so very kind to all!

Man oh man, this is an absolutely wonderfully informative video. Thank you very much sir, and thanks for always making such great products! Go SAGC!

Excellent video. Thank you.

Nice video. I like hearing you speak the truth about dalbergia nigra, based on years of experience. I have a bunch of the really BRW. I recently cut some up, and I think the sides of this stuff will be really difficult to bend. It's incredibly stiff compared to the BRW I have used in the past. Not sure why. Maybe it's too old.

Fascinating stuff Richard and yet like you said Martin used the straight grain stuff. I been with a friend today who is so talented at building things and is interested in making his first guitar. His father used to design high end bars in the eighties and he had a bunch of examples of exotic woods like Zebrano, maple with figuring, Purple Heart woods.

🎉I saw you at NAMM, but a only video! But you came across as one of the sanest contributors. I watched this video for rosewood, but it's much more, a philosophy, which clearly translates to your instruments. One of which one day I shall buy. I live in the UK, but lived a year in SF ('80-'81). And visited both Muir Woods and a grove of Sequoiadendron giganteum in Yosemite. Such a stupendous experience that I've always said that people should hop on a plane just to see these wonders once in their lives. Victorian travellers brought SG to the UK, where they are known as Wellingtonia. Astonishingly it's now been found that there are something like five times as many SG as in California, though not as big. Our damp, cool climate. Only 853 views for this video, compared with the last one I watched, with 50K views for some nonsense. Dear me.

The Spanish or the Portuguese? Enjoyed the video.

thank you!

Thank you very much for your insights. I am a big fan of the SCGC. Love these guitars very much.

Hey Richard, It was great to hear your talk on Brazilian Rosewood! Made me really miss our great conversations - there at SCGC and with our friends. If I ever make it back down to SC, I'll see if we can spend some time together...

interesting stuff indeed, thanks

Very professional . Thank you

I have collected a half dozen early Washburn guitars with Brazilian Rosewood and Adirondack spruce, looking for a good luthier to work on them

Well, never made instruments, but I am a wood aholic.... I am wondering if you have reacted to the rosewood yet? I haven't worked with it much, since local woods can be easier and cheaper to find.

Good video. It’s fair to say that “sapwood” or “figured” pieces like we see here would pretty much have been thrown in the dumpster back in the day. But that was then, this is now, it’s all builders have left to use. Hence marketing has kicked in to convince buyers it’s now more desirable or beautiful than straight grain. Richard’s not doing that here, but you see it A LOT with boutique furniture. IMHO straight grain beats “figured” or “sapwood” any day!

Are their cites restrictions with stump wood ?

Hi, When you say, Brasílian Rosewood, are you talking about all species from Brasil, or just Dalbergia nigra? In Brasil, each area has its own Rosewood and they don’t distinguish it from others ( ex: kingwood). I’m sure that you also know, that even among the same genetic species, each sounds different. Some even sound dead..

Santa Cruz guitars are just waaay too expensive these days

It's a big shame that you can't ship out Brazilian anymore.

Spanish, Brazil? Portuguese maybe

Doesn’t the stump rot? How long can a cut stump last before it turns to mush?

Ya but at 30 grand its just not worth it. Wall hanger. But i do belive the scg make the finest guitars. Having worked on and building over 20,000 larrivee guitars i have pretty good idea what makes a good acoustic. Jcl would sell his bz guitars for around 10 grand...same wood

Brazil was colonized by Portugal, not Spain.

have to say you;re dead wrong about rarity, in s america they used it for pretty much everything and anything, decks, houses, you name it, cuz it was the majority of all the species, it was everywhere, so the locals used it for everything, you might tear down an old early turn of the century brick building and find this wood was used for supports, sills, you name it, cuz it has a good characteristic like cedar, fairly repellent, and long lasting.. its really the equivalent to cedar in the northwest, everywhere, so they used it for everything. i'm sure European greed mongers figured a was to claim it was a rare superior wood to Europeans, but meh.. I hear folks say how wonderful alder is for strats, I've lit more fires and burned more alder in my day that I can remember, red and yellow, spruce? yup grows everywhere and it makes nice fire wood, no one i know builds with alder, we smoke fish with it cuz its a nice smoke but yea if people find a way to sensationalize something anything to make a buck they will, and maybe alder does make a nice strat body, I sure as hale wont buy the rhetoric its valuable or RARE! alder grows like a weed in the pacific northwest clean up to alaska, lotta maple you name it .. go down to Brazil, get to know some locals, be kind to them, generous and they may reveal where an old building lies, or an old grove that has windfalls, buck it up and put it on a boat . . get your cites and you have plenty.. Brazil is a HUGE country and it grows all over s america, just cuz its called Brazilian rosewood doesn't mean it only grows in Brazil, nope it grows from panama to Argentina, however the massive old growth groves are in Brazil, tucked so far in no one wants to travel there, but if you were to just pick up wind falls you might cover a 10 square acres and find enough for life, old and new growth . . ever look at brazil on google maps? its MASSIVE, twice that of alaska, and rosewood grows everywhere in s america .. enough with this garbage all you've done is drive the cost up for the end user, like seeing $200 alder strat blanks that weight over 4 lbs.. that's firewood to me... a nice consistent grain 3lb blank now that's worth having, specially if it rings like a bell, don't try to sell me firewood and call it tone wood... lotta rosewood is firewood, not all of it is worthy for instruments, that goes for every species.. but down there you might find a chicken coup 100 yrs old built out of AAA .. yup just happened to be what was closest.. in the northwest natives would smoke with AAA alder as well, they still do . . . so much of this is BS to jump the cost up, $10k fora blank? I'm not your huckleberry now way, lotta suckers out there tho