Monkman Guitars
Available Guitar Tonewood Sets
Available Tonewood Sets for Custom Acoustic Guitars
Cocobolo rosewood
Cocobolo rosewood
Truly one of the nicest sets I've had in my hands. Very Brazilian like tone and feel. Incredibly straight and true. Just beautiful to look at.
These pics are dry. Imagine this set with a finish on it.
Big enough for any size. The sides are not shown but are cut from the same billet.
Big enough for any size. The sides are not shown but are cut from the same billet.
Can only ship this wood inside the U.S.
Please inquire if you have an idea for a custom build with this wood.
Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian rosewood is all it's cracked up to be. No pun intended. Let me build your dream guitar out of one of these sets.
Unique in it's tone, feel and odor, guitars made with this wood are truly special.
As you can see this wood varies quite a bit in color and grain. Each set is genuine Dalbergia nigra. Stable and ready to build. Most sets have been cut fairly quartersawn which is more desirable. A few sets have wilder grain patterns which is slab cut. This type of slab cut wood is more prone to cracking over time. Still desirable but potentially not as stable.
Here are a few available sets of Brazilian rosewood. Many more are available but not shown. Contact me for more pics. Prices are reasonable and vary by set.
U.S. Shipping only
Wood for the top
I have several types of spruce for you to choose from
- Red spruce (Adirondack)
- Torrefied Red spruce
- Lutz spruce (Hybrid of White spruce & Sitka)
- Torrefied Sitka spruce
- White spruce
-Red spruce and Lutz spruce are my preferences.
-Lutz has qualities of both Sitka and Red spruce.
-I also have some torrefied Sitka which has a great vintage vibe and a broken in tone right out of the box.
-White spruce is of the same family as Adirondack. Very nice wood. Straight, narrow grain.
I use Sitka spruce for my bracing because that is what was used on pre-war Martins.
Torrefied Sitka bracing provides a very resonant sound while "fresh" Sitka gives a tighter more focused tone (all things being equal). Both are great, just a matter of what you're looking for tonewise.
Red spruce = Adirondack spruce
Torrefied Sitka Spruce
Very fine Eastern Black Walnut
Great tap tone. Very stable wood.
Very fine Eastern Black Walnut.
Great tap tone. Very stable wood.
This is Macacauba aka Coyote wood. From Central America and Northern South America. Comes in a few varieties depending on location.
Very nice sounding wood. Looks almost like Teak wood when finished. Not quite the tap tone of Brazilian rosewood but it's a step closer than Indian rosewood. I have many smaller sets of this wood. Some sets have nice contrasting sapwood.
Sinker Mahogany has become one of my favorite tonewoods to build with. Very stable, light and full of tone.
So-called “sinker mahogany” has its origins in the Central American country of Belize roughly 300 years ago when the British felled massive, 250-300 year-old trees ideal for shipbuilding.
The enormous logs were floated downstream to be processed near the port where they would be exported. Along the way, the oldest, most dense logs would settle on the bottom of the floating mass. Some would become trapped by obstructions, while others would take on enough water to ultimately lose their buoyancy and sink to the bottom of the river. Once trapped underwater—often at great depths—the logs became somewhat “preserved” by a relentless barrage of river silt, algae, and lack of oxygen.
The wood’s density is a luthier’s dream. Read more
Sinker Mahogany Dreadnought
Many more sets available. I will post more pictures as time permits.