Rosewood rosewood blah!

[Danny]

  I like to take vanilla tapioca and plop a big glob on my chocolate creme pie and eat em together
                                   So I vote for a 00-09 FLAME MAPLE

                     This is how my mind works after the massive amounts of sugar hit me...I really did just eat tapioca on Chocolate creme pie, both home made btw.  Sometimes it's cool to have a hog, a RW and a maple playin at the same time. It's a neat concinnity that occurs.

[bluesman67]

  I like to take vanilla tapioca and plop a big glob on my chocolate creme pie and eat em together
                                   So I vote for a 00-09 FLAME MAPLE

                     This is how my mind works after the massive amounts of sugar hit me...I really did just eat tapioca on Chocolate creme pie, both home made btw.  Sometimes it's cool to have a hog, a RW and a maple playin at the same time. It's a neat concinnity that occurs.

...not much of a sweet tooth there. 

[Bruce Chiriani]

A lot of it has to do with construction, bracing and shapes. I'm not a huge rosewood fan (found that out, because I've owned so many of them and sold them before long), but I believe that rosewood shines in a smaller body. After all, rosewood's heritage as the premium wood for backs and sides began in era when all guitars were much smaller. I think that mahogany and maple tend to do better in a larger body. Most of the other woods are toss-ups. If you tend to prefer larger body shapes, you may not like the way rosewood sounds at all. Just food for thought...

[rpm60912]

A lot of it has to do with construction, bracing and shapes. I'm not a huge rosewood fan (found that out, because I've owned so many of them and sold them before long), but I believe that rosewood shines in a smaller body. After all, rosewood's heritage as the premium wood for backs and sides began in era when all guitars were much smaller. I think that mahogany and maple tend to do better in a larger body. Most of the other woods are toss-ups. If you tend to prefer larger body shapes, you may not like the way rosewood sounds at all. Just food for thought...

Bruce... now you got me curious. I wonder if that's not the reason why I did not quite like the sound of my Taylor 816ce (rosewood - smaller than a jumbo, bigger than grand auditorium). I sold it. I'm waiting for a rosewood in a smaller body. Thanks for this interesting piece of info and a bit of history too.  ricky   Here's some on me.

[count savage]

By the same token, Martin D45s, D28s and Guild D55s are all large bodied guitars with rosewood sides and backs. As is my Guild F 512  12-string.   Generally speaking, they sound great.....

[bluesman67]

I have heard and/or played Larrivee RWs in OM, L, and D size and I thought they all sounded terrific.  I used to have an rw OM and it was very sweet sounding.  Lots of overtones, very quick attack and lots of sustain.  Not to mention they look and smell great too.

[Bruce Chiriani]

Yeah, it's just a matter of taste, but I think that rosewood really sounds best with a smaller body, which is why I now own a Taylor grand concert with rosewood back and sides. Of course, the cedar top doesn't hurt either! I've owned Martin dreads (45s 28s 35s etc) and some auditorium sizes with rosewood as well, but they're long gone now. I am missing my Taylor 514 (engelmann/mahogany), so I'll need to acquire something like that in the future to round out my tonewoods - perhaps an OM-50....

[Broadus]

I need to find an L-03 so I can compare it to my L-03R. I really like L-03R for fingerstyle. Maybe I just don't know what "good" should sound like, but I love the complexity and overtones of my rosewood  when I [try to :)] play fingerstyle.

Bill

[C-10-4-me]

It's interesting to note how our preferences change with age. When I first started playing about 32 years ago it it didn't much matter what kind of wood the guitar was made of,I just wanted to play! In fact,my first guitar was a plywood epiphone and I still thought it was the greatest guitar out there.

Now, after owning Mahogany,Rosewood,Maple,and Ovangkol guitars from several well known makers I understand why to my ears nothing does it like Rosewood. Not only that,but it must be Rosewood and Sitka-not Engleman.

I guess what I'm saying is we all eventually tend to hone in on a particular sound that suits us best.

Ron

[Danny]

By the same token, Martin D45s, D28s and Guild D55s are all large bodied guitars with rosewood sides and backs. As is my Guild F 512  12-string.   Generally speaking, they sound great.....

And I have a OM-21 that is rosewood /sitka that sounds better than ...... a lot of others
      Couldn't figure out how to say it without sounding arrogant. It just sounds really GOOD.   SO THERE
                                            RW/SITKA          (but the others are blast too)

[rpm60912]

I guess what I'm saying is we all eventually tend to hone in on a particular sound that suits us best.

Ron

I sure wish I'll reach that blissful satisfied state soon. I enjoy GAS-ing and looking, but there's nothing like the pleasure of my arms wrapped around my favorite guitar.  ricky

[count savage]

>>I guess what I'm saying is we all eventually tend to hone in on a particular sound that suits us best.<<

I think that's the crux of it. One of can say such and such sound better, but it's a subjective 'better.'  At this  point I'm just not a maple or mahogany guy, I'm a rosewood guy. (Well, I do have a '64 Gibson J 50, which is spruce and mahogany, but that's like a relative that's been around forever.)  I've had similar discussions with Strat 'people.' I'm a Telecaster person, and it's just a personal thing, the look, the heft and feel, the simplicity. 

[Randy_R]

variety = the spice of life.   So says the gasman....   

[Bruce Chiriani]

                    And I have a OM-21 that is rosewood /sitka that sounds better than ...... a lot of others
      Couldn't figure out how to say it without sounding arrogant. It just sounds really GOOD.   SO THERE
                                            RW/SITKA          (but the others are blast too)

There you go - smaller bodies and rosewood just sound better together, right? In fact, I played an OM-21 years ago (when I wasn't really in the market) that blew away the Santa Cruz, Collings and other Martin OMs in the same room that day! It's a honey of a guitar!

[Danny]

   Thanks Bruce,

                      I was just playing a mahogany Lakewood D-1 that I restrung and cleaned the fretboard etc. for a friend. I thought I'd strum pretty hard for a couple of songs with my grandson. He said "I don't like the sound of that guitar" I said yea it sounds muddy doesn't it?
                      So I thought about this thread and went and pulled my OM-21 out of the case, strums just fine, nothing muddy there. Of course you can't just bang the cr** out of it like a SJ-200 but it won tonight in our little test.
My grandson likes my 00-09FM and my old classical best though.
                       My younger son also will pick up the old Japanese classical before all my other guitars. He would play the LSV though.
                                   Oh, btw the classical is ROSEWOOD.      Danny

[leftync]

My Seagull M6 made a mahogany fan of me, and my original plan for a premium guitar was a Taylor 310 or a Martin D-18. I'd always thought of Larrivee as one of the premium makes, so I set out to hear a couple. I played rosewood and mahogany Larrivees and to me there was no comparison. I thought the D-03R sounded exactly the way a guitar should sound. The only other time I heard one like that was a Collings dread. I've bought two rosewood Larrivee's since. But that's me. The main thing is that you buy what you like, and that it's well made of good materials.

[rpm60912]

leftync... I too started with Seagulls. But I got drawn to Taylors. I'm still trying to analyze why - I can only identify their proprietary pickup ES - Expression System is what made me buy them.

I started with a 410e-LTD which is a walnut dread with maple bindings matte finish. The usual 400s are ovangkol. The new 300s are sapele but used to be African mahogany.

Compared to Larri 03R - I don't know why I did not pay more attention to Larrivees sooner. This is Rosewood - the man Jean Larrivee flys around the world selecting the best of the best tonewoods - no other wood-species substitute!

Like I recently shared with one Forum-ite: I AM ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED THAT LARRIVEES ARE HANDS-DOWN THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK GUITAR!!!

ricky

[leftync]

You known, I liked the Taylor 310 and even got to play one that was left-handed. But it really didn't sound all that different from the Seagull, despite the M6's lam b&s. In fact, one of the things that drew me to Larrivee was reading comments from players who owned both Seagulls and Larrivees saying that they loved their Seagulls, but the Larrivees were in a different class. Like Larrivee (and Taylor and Martin, for that matter) Seagull engenders a lot of loyalty, and many of us are convinced that it's the best guitar short of Larrivee. Must be a Canadian thing. But the truth is, I used to play my Seagull every day and I almost never play it any more. I keep it, because I could never get enough for it to make it worth selling (although I did sell an M series 12-string) given how hard it is to find good lefties, and if I travel, I'll take it with me.
I'd already decided on rosewood when I started looking at Larrivees, but the Taylor 310 and the D-03 or maybe the D-03 SP would be an interesting comparison. I'd bet on Larrivee, but I am an admirer of Taylor as well. 

[bluesman67]

I hear what your saying about Seagulls lefty, best guitars for the $300 price range, but if I didn't have a couple Larrivees or they didn't exist, I would own a couple Martins or maybe even a Taylor before buying a couple Seagulls.  Plus, cedar tops sound nice and warm for general playing but they can easily be overpowered strumming.

[count savage]

At the risk of sacrilege by bringing up a competing brand and guitar, I got my new Larrivee D-03R at the same time I got my new Guild Tacoma-built F 512 12-string, a guitar I've wanted for 30 years and that I've always considered to be a gold standard in great acoustic 12-strings. Anyway, I tried out the Guild F 412 which is maple, and the F 512 rosewood.....just won.  Of course, it's all about personal taste, but the point is, the complexity of the rosewood tone got me.