Every time I make a guitar like this, I worry that I'm shooting myself in the foot by telling the world, putting the wood supply under stress and forcing up the price. Actually, I dont mind it being expensive if that feeds back to the source, but in most parts of the world that has not been happening, it just results in illegal logging and awful waste . Africa still has huge resources of timber that are not (yet) being over exploited, and there have been new plantings and conservation measures in place for quite a long time, so I have hopes. Bubinga is known as African Rosewood, its a very big tree, and it grows plain or pretty. It is sold as a commercial hardwood but is a little hard for most furniture work. which means there may be more for guitar makers.

This piece is really wild grain, but it is quarter sawn, which doesn't happen often. Not the easiest to handle, but worth the work. I used a piece of purpleheart for the neck lamination to get a good colour match