Amazon Rosewood

Family: Fabaceae - Order: Fabales - Class: Magnoliopsida

Scientific name: Dalbergia spruceana.

Trade name: Palissandre Para / Amazon Rosewood

Also known as Saboarana (Brazil); Jacarandá-Pedra (Brazil); Jacarandá-Da-Caatinga (Brazil); Jacamin (Brazil)
Origin: Brazil

Instrumental uses:
Guitar back and sides, fingerboards, bridges, head plates, bindings, peg heads, turnery and woodwind parts.

Tonal properties:

Amazon Rosewood is a superior tone wood with a great look and acoustic properties. Very responsive, highly dynamic, very good separation of notes, slightly more pronounced on basses than the mids and trebles. Amazon Rosewood is perhaps the closest replacement of Brazilian Rosewood, generally they are very similar sharing the same great visual and acoustic properties. Amazon Rosewood has equally a balanced warm sound with full round basses and crystal trebles, however due to the higher density the notes tend to come out more clear piano-like with great separation of voices.
One of the few differences is precisely the higher density compared with its cousin Brazilian Rosewood; people normally distinguish it by the light rose-like scent and by the slight different appearance. This species of tree is small, so it is difficult to get quarter sawn backs. It is not an endangered species yet, however today Amazon rosewood is rare and has become difficult to acquire.

Due to its density it can be as difficult to work as other rosewoods like Cocobolo but it turns and finishes well and can be polished to a high natural lustre.

Average dried weight Density: 68 lbs/ft3 (1085 kg/m3)

This rosewood is a small to medium size tree. It grows in the Amazonas and Para states, also in Amapa and Rondonia. It tends to be orange or reddish brown with darker contrasting streaks while the sapwood is lighter yellowish clearly demarcated from the heartwood.

CITES status is protected under the Appendix II. Is not reported on the IUCN Red List.