Herb, What others have mentioned is accurate. In addition, those who build are always on the lookout for different sources. Recently, I've seen someone on ebay advertising bookmatches sets of wood suitable for use as lute ribs. They show up once in a while when doing a search on 'lute' in the musical instrument category. Haven't bought any and therefore, don't know what the quality is. Back 20 or so years ago when I was building a few instruments, I bought some nice spruce for a soundboard from a fellow in Washington DC. In his tiny shop, I recall seeing woods appropriate for classic guitars, violins, violas, and dulcimers. I believe his name was Joe Wallo. Don't know if he's still around or not. Got some funny looks getting on the plane with a piece of spruce about 1/8 inch thick, about a foot wide, and three feet long, but it got home with me OK. About that same time, I had contact with someone, whose name completely escapes me now, based I believe, in Sheboygan, WI. My parents lived there at that time, so while up for a visit, I made arrangements to see the guy. We met at his warehouse-- a former factory, I believe. He had small log-cabin style stacks ebony and rosewood fingerboard stock for guitars, other similar stacks for dulcimers; the stacks were about 18 inches to 2 feet tall. All the ends were waxed. Each stack was about 4 - 5 feet away from any other stack-- plenty of room for air circulation. He also had several stacks of laminated rosewood guitar back stock as well as solid book matched rosewood back stock. I believe he had quite a selection of bridge blanks also. Don't recall seeing any mahogany, spruce, or violin/viola-shaped chunks of maple. I believe he was doing business under a name that had the word 'Viking' in it, but I don't think I'd bet a quarter on it. I might have bumped into both the foregoing guys from something I read in a Guild of American Luthiers publication. One day, while in a local lumber yard, I spotted a piece of fine grain, quarter sawn redwood. It was a plank about a foot wide, 12 feet long and a nominal inch thick. Had to saw it in half to get it in the car. It eventually contributed a soundboard and back to a hammered dulcimer I built. Bottom line-- There are suppliers, but tone woods can be where you find them. Twenty years later, I'll bet 30 seconds of Googling would net you at least a dozen suppliers, probably lots more. Best, Steve
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