WHY Do Tokai & Tokai Sellers List Jacaranda as Brazilian

[guitar hiro]

Yikes. Messy.

We use the word "Jakaranda" in Swedish, and just for fun, I looked it up in the Swedish-language version of Wikipedia, which has it as trade name for a range of hardwoods used in fine woodworking. The highest quality supposedly comes from Jacaranda brasiliana and J. mimosifolia, but wood from the Dalbergia and Machaerium species are also sold as "Jakaranda". It also states that Dalbergia nigra is also known as "riojakaranda", i e "Rio Jacaranda", which kind of works with "Brazilian Rosewood".

Seriously, looking at it from the lumber trader's viewpoint, it makes sense to lump several similar species together under a single trade name. It would make them less dependent on a single supply chain and ensure a steady stock of "the same" wood. If the lumber trade used the same blanket terms globally is another matter, though.

I don't know, but my luthier says that the only way to tell (what he calls) "brazilian rosewood" is by how it smells when you work on it. I don't normally deal with super-high-end guitars (out of my price range - especially these days), but there have been a few random cases of rosewood fretboards being quite fragrant when I've cleaned them up, and not always in higher-end guitars. I'm kind of wondering if the Japanese manufacturers necessarily could always tell the various specii apart themselves, or just went with good-looking pieces of the wood their lumber supplier sold to them as "jacaranda"? In other words, do we even know if the term "Jacaranda" as used by Japanese luthiers denotes a single type of wood?

The truth, as always, is out there, I guess.

putting the 'umbrella term' Jacaranda aside a term as you say is likely used to describe multiple species of dalbergia and Lord knows possibly what else, it would seem that so called 'experts' have some major difficulties in discerning true D nigra samples.

The link I posted in my earlier post #16 states that in a specific study there were over 1/3 false positives for D nigra when assessing differing genus dalbergia lumbers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2794071/Just think that if some yahoo at your friendly customs office 'decided' that your guitar/whatever item contained some amount of D nigra when it was actually Indian or Madagascar rosewood and confiscated your purchase?
The article in the link is the most informative article that I have read to date on the subject of discerning the difference between true D nigra (Brazilian) and other genus dalbergia (non Braz) samples.
The article certainly looks a lot further down the Brazilian road than anything I have ever read before.
Great info for those that are truly interested.


Now, as far as the term 'Jacaranda' being used in the lumber trade my own belief is more aligned with your opinion; the term is likely used for trade supply chain issues and basically has no regard as far as species.
That is a personal opinion and nothing else but I don't believe there will ever be a definitive explanation of the use of the term 'Jacaranda' to pen point any particular species.
I believe that will always be a mystery.

 

[superlead100]

This makes wonder if importing a guitar with a jacaranda fretboard would be problematic in customs? Does customs consider jacaranda as the same as Brazilian?

 

[guitar hiro]

This makes wonder if importing a guitar with a jacaranda fretboard would be problematic in customs? Does customs consider jacaranda as the same as Brazilian?

As far as your question I couldn't say.
I have imported ~200 guitars, most with rose' 'boards, into the US over the past ~20 years and have never had a single guitar held up in customs for any species issue.

I can tell you what they are not looking for: they don't seem to be real keen on collecting any customs duties as I haven't got hit for any import duty in many many years.

I hope they keep that going. LOL

 

[superlead100]

I think you’ve been fortunate! I got hit with import fees on two separate guitars from Japan, both from fed ex. Two others I didn’t get hit with customs fees and they came EMS / USPS.

 

[guitar hiro]

I think you’ve been fortunate! I got hit with import fees on two separate guitars from Japan, both from fed ex. Two others I didn’t get hit with customs fees and they came EMS / USPS.

In 2006 I imported about ~40 guitars and I got slammed by customs on about 1 of 3 of those; all EMS. So, basically ~20% of all the guitars I imported over the past ~20 years I imported in one single year. Crazy

Over the years my buying has slowed to a grind (I keep telling myself to go a full year with a purchase ) but I only purchased 5 fiddles this year and there is still days left.

I use EMS or Fed Ex depending on what is cheaper but I haven't had a customs import duty in so long I can't remember how many years it has been; likely around 2015 I believe.
That has saved me some scratch for strings and booze.

I also often have guitars that are shipped without a case: recently had an split head stock Explorer shipped with no case and it arrived just fine. The guitar Gods have been very good to me.

 

[Sigmania]

1982 JB120 spec’d with a jacaranda board.