Grading Process

At our workshop, every top begins with a meticulous selection process. Each block is hand-picked directly from the tree by our team of skilled professionals.

From harvesting to grading, every step of our process is done by hand, ensuring a level of care and attention that only experienced craftspeople can provide.

We are committed to offering our clients the highest quality tonewood available on the market, tailored to meet the exacting standards of discerning luthiers and builders.

All of our tops are individually inspected for stiffness, grain orientation, straightness, and the number of grain lines per inch.

We also carefully consider species and color variations to ensure you receive exactly what you expect — no surprises, just consistent excellence.

MASTER

MASTER GRADE

Master grade is an elusive term that may apply to one in a thousand tops. Thus, we will not use this term and instead, if you are looking for our very best, please choose our AAA option.

AAA

AAA GRADE

Tight, even grain across the board, very stiff with quarter near 90 degrees. No run out and Minimal to no striping or color changes across the width. If all other aspects of a top are of AAA quality, we may allow a micro pitch pockets on one side (on the underside or outside the template area).

AA GRADE

Similar to AAA but less stiff with slightly wider grain pattern. Even across the board, sometimes with a bit of 'striping' present. These are wonderful tops and will satisfy the vast majority of builders, creating instruments of incredible quality and presence. Micro pitch pockets or other flaws may be present on the underside or outside the template area.

A GRADE

A grade tops are functional but less stiff, may have imperfections you need to work around and are less consistent cosmetically than the higher grades. They may have striping, a bit of color change and micro pitch pockets.

PAINT

PAINT GRADE

While we hand select each block we cut, wood is wood and sometimes we get a few tops with cosmetic flaws (color, lines, striping etc) that are just unacceptable on the higher grade tops. These are usually still very stiff and will make great tops for builders using color in their finishing processes.

Please note, dimensions of our tops are generally 8.5 x 22" x 4.5 mm