African Blackwood, Jumbo sized set no. A7

Back and side set of rare AFRICAN BLACKWOOD (dalbergia melanoxylon), this is the best and most beautiful set we have ever had in our hands.

Flawless set with fully quartered sides and well quartered backs: main part of the back is excellent quartered if used with sapwood center, in sum an ultra rare find and unique set.

- Jumbo sized (template shows D-shape)

- origin: Tanzania

- wood cut 2007 and airdried since then

- set has full sapwood in the center, last 2 pics showing same set positioned for non-sapwood joining

Pics were taken with flash what resulted in a lighter (brownish) color than is in real: this is a black set!

Additional info about African Blackwood:

Website quote from world famous guitar maker Ervin Somogyi: "African blackwood has emerged as a popular alternative to Brazilian rosewood in the last few years: it’s a perfectly good wood, and getting quite pricey as demand for it rises." He´s of course right, but additionally the diameter of the available trees is going down.

As common with rosewoods, esp. African Blackwood dies from inside, meaning that a trunc may look large enough and good from the outside, but once cut you notice that the inner part is rotten. Lianas are growing up inside then, taking stones up the way, often resulting in ruined saw blades when processing a tree...

African Blackwood often grows twisted (an extreme pic you can find here) and due to it´s geometry it is impossible to get fully quartered b+s sets (see the pic here and here), notice that all trees have started the decomposition process in the center), even mall trees can show a hole inside as you can see here, qualifying such just for flutes or similiar (or woodturning).

When importing and processing African Blackwood truncs you must be prepared that you may get out of a full container of truncs finally less than 10 guitar sets due to the above described show-stopper. This may explain why African Blackwood is one of the rarest - if not the rarest - and most expensive (legal) rosewood used for guitars.