Its's highly recommended and it is usually the case, that wholesale buyers will determine one or more prospect grades based on price and or quality description and then request a sample shipment or trial order. This sample shipment or trial order will serve to establish the quality of each grade and serve as the basis to make larger or ongoing orders.
Timbre Tonewood will deliver soundboards from its "in-house" grades, or we will grade to your company's quality specifications. There is no extra charge for this "custom" sort.
Pricing for a custom sort is based on which in house grades are utilized to make the custom sort. For example, if a custom sort utilizes 50% select A grade and 50% low AA grade and disallowed all bearclaw, the price would be an average based on the price for select A grade and low AA grade with a small premium for not including any bearclaw that would normally be allowed in the in house grade.
Please note: All wholesale prices are negotiable, wholesale prices are not listed in the price guide section, prices will be discussed on a one to one basis with bonifide wholesale buyers. The final price for any wholesale transaction will be based on grade considerations, volume of order, whether the order is repeated etc. Retail prices are the actual prices for the items.
Grading: General Comments (Objective/Subjective/Stand Back Approach)
Wood will always be graded according to both objective and subjective criteria. An example of an objective grading criteria is the number of grain lines per inch. Objective means a criteria can be measured and everyone will agree on the measurement. Subjective means that individual judgment is used to determine the degree the criteria is present. For example, the presence of “color” in a soundboard is a down grading criteria. A grader must determine if the amount of intensity of “color” in a soundboard is slight, mild or strong or somewhere in between. Then the grader must determine which grade will allow that degree of color and be consistent in these judgments.
Graders making inconsistent subjective decisions will not be able to deliver consistently graded shipments. It is impossible to grade wood to objectively veritable standards because there are too many subjective criteria. In fact, if too much dependence is placed on objective criteria, soundboards will be graded inconsistently.
Because of this dilemma, Timbre Tonewood graders will often use the "stand back approach". This approach means taking the focus off the individual qualities (criteria) of a specific board and focusing on the board as a whole. The question is then asked, “How does this board look?” A grader with a deep understanding of how guitar manufacturers value a soundboard will be able to grade the board appropriately. The key phrase in this explanation is “deep understanding”. The high volume of soundboards produced and high number of customers we serve world wide has given us the ability to clearly understand how guitar manufacturers grade wood. We have broken down the range of quality produced into nine grades.
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Our grading system
Timbre Tonewood has developed an in house grading system to accommodate the needs of the wholesale and retail market worldwide.
This system has developed over a four year period in response to market requirements. Today the standards for each grade are well established so that our graders can easily maintain consistency of grade from one shipment to the next. This is not to say that there will not be disagreement as many subjective judgments are made in the grading process.
In the case of the Western dreadnought and classic sized soundboards (Engelmann or Sitka Spruce) we offer nine in house grades (see grading criteria), ranging from B grade at the low end to Master grade at the top end. In addition, we offer to any customer the service of preparing shipments graded to your own custom specifications. This is commonly done at our factory as we specialize in grading to each customers individual requirements.
As a rule, the higher the grade the more difficult it is to find, the more demand and hence the higher price. Generally the soundboards are graded for visual and structural characteristics, such as color, stiffness, grain spacing, straightness of grain, evenness of grain, compression wood, winter growth etc. Because all the soundboards produced by Timbre Tonewood are cut to exacting edge grain and run-out standards “stiffness” and edge grain do not enter into the grading criteria until the grade reaches an AA grade standard. From AA and higher soundboards are evaluated for finer degrees of stiffness (dependant on quality of quarter grain cut) and run-out. All boards AA or higher are sanded on the face with 100 grit paper prior to final grading to insure the grade is properly assigned.
Classic sized soundboards are graded to the same standard as Western dreadnought soundboards. The only difference is the soundboard has been sized to accommodate the classic guitar template.
Cedar guitar tops are available in both Western dreadnought format and classic format. For both sizes the grading is the same. Cedar soundboards are graded into 6 in house grades. The grades range from master grade at the top to #4 at the low end. Please refer to Grading Criteria for a detailed description of the Cedar grades.
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