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 I remember the day I received my acoustic guitar, and played it for the first time. In the moment, it seemed produced the most beautiful sound I had ever heard from an instrument of its kind. As my ears became attuned to more guitar music, I came to realize that the tonal quality of mine was nothing special. That realization drove me to delve deeper into the realm of acoustic guitar sound, and would help me find the right build for my next guitar a few years later.
As an amateur whittler and wood-worker, the beauty of wood is one of the reasons I think the acoustic guitar is such a neat instrument. Apart from maybe the body shape, the wood choice is the single most critical factor in determining the guitar's sound. What's more, different wood types can be chosen for each of the guitar's main body parts (top, back, sides, and bracing) to create a unique blends of look and tone.
Because wood comes from trees, which are living organisms, no two pieces are identical - each cut will have its own unique characteristics based on grain pattern, size, etc. A luthier (guitar-maker) must assess these characteristics to determine the musical quality of the wood piece for guitar building. Velocity of sound is perhaps the most important, and is a measure of how fast the wood transmits received energy. In other words, when you pluck a string, how will the wood respond to the energy of its vibration. Wood with a higher velocity of sound will generally have more colorful, lively, and accurate tones.
Characteristics like velocity of sound will vary by cut, but are also largely inherent in the wood based on its type (stereotypes of a sort, if you will). Different types of guitar woods (tonewoods as they are called) have different tonal qualities. The best tonewood for each musician will thus vary based on their playstyle. Here is an overview of some of the woods commonly used in guitar-making:
Spruce - Spruce is the acoustic guitar standard for soundboards, and comes in a number of species (Sitka being most commonly used). Spruce is a rigid, lightweight softwood with a high velocity of sound, and strikes a good balance of response for lighter and heavier playing styles.
Cedar - Cedar is a softwood with a balanced warm sound, and has a rich and quick response favorable to lighter playing styles.
Mahogany - As a topwood, mahogany (a hardwood) has a relatively low velocity of sound and high density, giving it a very mellow, warm, somewhat "punchy" sound suitable to country-blues music.
Koa - Koa is a hardwood similar to mahogany, with a solid tone throughout, with heavier emphasis on the mid-range.
Maple - Maple has a high degree of internal dampening and lower velocity of sound. This gives a heavy emphasis on the high range and a very bright tone, that contrasts well with the warm nature of finger-picking.
Rosewood - Rosewood is known for its high response rate, with a darker tone throughout most of its range, and a strong bottom end. It's broad range gives it presence in any style of music, finger-picking or pick-style playing.
The complexity of tonewoods goes well beyond this overview, as their are many more in this list I did not mention. In addition, the back, sides, top, and bracing on a guitar can all be made of different woods to create unique varieties of sound.
I'd be interested to hear what you fellow musician and/or woodworker CR4ers have to say. Do you own or have you ever made a wooden instrument? By sound or by application, do you have a favorite type of wood for your instrument?
Sources
Sweetwater.com
Davesguitar.com
Pantheonguitars.com
Tonewood Data Source
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Re: Acoustic Guitar Tonewoods
