African Blackwood (which is a Dalbergia; a member of the Rosewood family) has long been recognized by classical guitar builders as the “holy grail” of tonewoods. With a strong responsive taptone that surpasses even Brazilian Rosewood, it can contribute great volume, power and brilliance to a guitar.
Now many prominent steel string builders (among them Kevin Ryan and Marc Maingard) are building with it, with equally impressive results.
It is difficult to work and can be hard to bend (using the Universal Side Bending Machine, page 101, and sanding the sides down to .080 or lower will help ), but it is strikingly beautiful and polishes to a high luster. It is very fine grained, it is quite stable when dry (more stable than most Ebonies), and glues satisfactorily.
