The dataset "Materials used for classical music instruments" assigns 82 musical instruments (including the string instrument bow as one instrument) and their parts to plant or animal species that provide the material used to build the musical instrument (see CSV "Musical instrument parts to species" and "Botanical species specifications" and "Musical instrument classification"). Many materials used for musical instruments are mentioned in literature only at the genus level or at the common name’s level. Therefore, a checklist “Common name-genus-species specifications” was created, which assigns the most frequently traded material names or references at the genus level to individual species. For each assignment of a particular species to a common name or genus, a reference is made to the source on which the assignment is based. The assignments are mainly based on nomenclatures and, if not found there, on other scientific publications or lists (see PDF "List of References"). In case literature indicated the use of ebony or rosewood (also referred to as palisander) for a particular musical instrument part, the indicated species were based on the following selection process: The ebony and rosewood (palisander) species mentioned by the Nomenclature of the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux - ATIBT) were used to specify possible species traded under these two common names. It is known that Madagascar ebony and Madagascar rosewood have been used frequently for musical instruments in the past. However, the wood of ebony and rosewood is still considered to be indistinguishable. Therefore, for the genus Dalbergia and Diospyros, all species from Madagascar were included in the list of species assigned to general material descriptions as ebony and rosewood (palisander). In the past the best ebony was known to originate from Mauritius, however, it is unknown from which of the native species the wood originated. Therefore, all Diospyros species from Mauritius were included when a musical instrument part was mentioned in the literature to be made from ebony. For references to ebony in general, only black ebony species were considered; species that develop striped ebony wood were excluded, as it is assumed that a uniformly black-colored wood is meant when literature refers to ebony used for musical instruments. The dataset is the result of extensive literature research summarized in the CSV and PDF files. It was produced as part of the PhD project “Forest conservation versus musical instrument making: Sustainable management of ecosystems to preserve natural and cultural heritage”.