Re: looking for kamagong...

Been looking for this also. Heres what i found.
In what i heard there are 3 category
The original kamagong which is pure black
The "bulong ita" which is dark in center and some are reddish
The mabolo which i think also is kamagong, this is white outside with flare of black in any grain sometimes...

But when you search the net mabolo is kamagong, the black portion is derrive from how old the tree was. The older the tree the more black portion you got.

Pricing
Original kamagong 170 bft
Bulong ita 120bft
Mabolo 60bft
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Re: looking for kamagong...

i love the stuff! can be unstable, and looking for decent planks is hard these days. i like the sapwood contrast

Re: looking for kamagong...

Nice... How does it sound? Is it better than langka and manga lumber?
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Re: looking for kamagong...

well, it's a lot denser than langka or mango. better looking too. hehehe

i really don't like to get into the wood's tone, esp if it's only used as fingerboard material. too subjective (even if most tone "experts" say otherwise) in acoustic guitars the top, not the back and sides dictate the sound. the back and sides only reflect the sound waves the top produces. in electric guitars so much talk on the tone of the woods they conveniently forget that most guitars use high output pickups, negating the wood's contribution to tone. i think in electrics wood contributes little to tone.

i just use it for the looks and for its density;)

Re: looking for kamagong...

Pricing
Original kamagong 170 bft
Bulong ita 120bft
Mabolo 60bft
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That's darned cheap! If you can find me kmagong at those prices, I'm going to buy a roomfull!

Re: looking for kamagong...

Joey,

Where can you buy these?

Thanks

Been looking for this also. Heres what i found.
In what i heard there are 3 category
The original kamagong which is pure black
The "bulong ita" which is dark in center and some are reddish
The mabolo which i think also is kamagong, this is white outside with flare of black in any grain sometimes...

But when you search the net mabolo is kamagong, the black portion is derrive from how old the tree was. The older the tree the more black portion you got.

Pricing
Original kamagong 170 bft
Bulong ita 120bft
Mabolo 60bft
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Re: looking for kamagong...

Nueva ecija, baler, casiguran, gabaldon, and dinggalan... But take note theres a total log ban in effect as of now. Reason why supply is very limeted. Before you even get this wood in low land, denr already in the mountain confiscating thier chainsaw and stash.
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Re: looking for kamagong...

thanks joey
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Re: looking for kamagong...

sarap sana if you can actually get prices like this in manila.

we made fireworks at TANAY kagabi and just got back kagabi,aside from doing fireworks i was there to plant Mabolo (kamagong) seedling which i bought from Manila Seedling Bank, hopefully my son (when i have one na) after 40 years will be able to work with the same wood as i had the pleasure of working with.

the prices of the seedlings are actually not bad, i bought the mabolo for 20 pesos per seedling, i think they sell yakal for 10 pesos per seedling.

can you imagine, if ganun lang naman pala price ng plants, its really pure greed why loggers would just cut all the trees and not plant replacement for the one they took from the forest. pure KABIG lang ng KABIG mentality. and i bet if maramihan pa ang kuha you can buy it cheaper.

my goal now is to plant 10-15 trees every 2 weeks. (thats when we go Tanay) why 10-15 lang? because i still have to plant them and leave plenty of time for me and May's NAP TIME under a tree after a good hot lunch with hot chocolate after... yummmmm!!!!

Re: looking for kamagong...

kamagong at 230 per bft
different kinds as Jbarot said,
from those that are almost pure black, blackwood, macassar, to the one they call tiger which is mostly light colored with lots of black streaks, a friend from batangas also gave me the quilted variety

i use to get them really cheap at around 60 per bft but 2nd shipment was a bust the guy run away with my money hehehehe so now im fine with paying 230

Re: looking for kamagong...

Sorry to hear that telecaster, it's really a gamble.

Btw, :welcome: back from hibernation 😀

Re: looking for kamagong...

I see some guys are into guitars. For me, it's been on the backburner cause i've been spending my extra time and energy improving on SFIV, pitting myself against others in the arcades.

Anyhoo, for the classical crowd, there's the annual philippine guitar going on at CCP this weekend. Pics from last year:

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Schedule is in here: http://www.philippineguitarfestival.com/p/schedule.html

Not sure who the exhibitors will be for this year, and they're mostly classical guitars, but i'd sure like to see those japanese asturias again, exemplary examples of craftsmanship they are.

Re: looking for kamagong...

@jarod hehehe yeah the experience was a major bummer but its ok, been lurking and not posting for a long time

@Owyn,

Jbarot makes lovely nylon string guitars and he'll be attending the guitar fest might tag along with him 🙂 hope to meet you in the event

Re: looking for kamagong...

So you guys did go to the event? Tomorrow's d last day.

Incidentally, Jeffrey Yong -the malaysian guy who appears to be whom the usual luthiery channels get their southeast asian woods from is in attendance. And the malaysian blackwood rosette, backs/sides of his guitars doesnt look anything like the marble-y mabolo variety. It doesn't look jet black like the african variety used as say, in Imai's guitar either. Hmmmm.
Basta, ebony is just hard to come by in good sizes. Losses due to cracks (heartbreak!) are part and parcel of getting big pieces to resaw... Jbarot really did good in acquiring those pieces.
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Re: looking for kamagong...

i couldn't attend. sayang. i met jeffrey 3 years ago at a guitar festival. he is the one that introduced woods like malaysian black wood and monkey pod to western luthiers. he does great work.

yeah, decent kamagong in big pieces is hard to come by. while its true that i come across huge planks of the stuff, i turn them away because i can tell that they're messed up inside. cracks, checks. wormholes and such. you have to look at the grain and the ends and you can more or less tell that the plank is bad. knots in kamagong is bad. and don't trust a good looking plank, kamagong tends to lie. so whenever i buy a plank and have it resawed i cross my fingers hehehe.

then they like to move. they'll warp the first chance they get. i seal the ends right after resawing to minimize checking and put weights over the planks to prevent warping. but its not foolproof. kaya ang yield sa isang plank minsan maliit.