GUITAR WOODS: COCOBOLO

Cocobolo (Dalbergia Retusa), also known as Granadillo, grows in the center of America from Mexico to Panama. The tree grows to an height of 20/30 meters with a one meter diameter. Weight may range from 990 to even 1200kg/mt3.

When cut, cocobolo shows a wide variety of colours from orange to a very bright red and lot's of lemon yellow to dark red stripes. After a few hours, due to oxidation, the wood starts to show a dark orange shade with larger and narrower dark brown stripes

Due to its high oil content, Cocobolo is a pretty hard wood to work with and to glue and its powders may cause breathing problems. Cocobolo features almost the same stiffness and hardness of ebony but delivers a darker tone due to the higher oil content.

Used as a top plate on neck through body basses Cocobolo slightly softens the high end and increases the fundamental clearness and sustain.

Galeazzo Frudua

As a luthier and guitar making and repair teacher, since 1988 he has built making more than 350 boutique guitars and basses priced from 2,900 to 5,600 Euros and repaired and customized thousands of stringed instruments. His instruments and amplifiers are used by flagship artists, such as Chick Corea, Peter Gabriel, Ennio Morricone, Carl Verheyen. He owns two YouTube channels—where he teaches music—that count up to 40 millions views and almost 200.000 subscribers.