Yay another topic about wood woot! Seriously though. Now I have been researching buying acoustic guitars but I often see sitka spruce (top) as being very desirable and I see references to maple, rosewood, mahogany, etc. sides and back.
What is a desirable combination of wood and why? What does spruce do, particularly sitka spruce, that maple doesn't, etc? Do they produce different tones or are just better types of wood to make acoustics out of? Why is a solid top better than a laminate, again, for the tone or it's made better if it's solid?
Sorry for so many questions, but I really want a great acoustic that will last me for a long while and sometimes trying to research this stuff online just gets you to biased opinions on particular guitars rather than what to look for in a guitar. Thanks in advance everyone :D
Here are a couple of words on acoustic tone woods from the Martin Guitar Co.
Brazillian Rosewood - Highly resonant with full, deep, basses and brilliant trebles. Very rare and expensive.
East Indian Rosewood - Very resonant, producing deep, warm, projective bass response.
Genuine Mahogany - Much lighter in weight than rosewood. Yields a surprisingly strong, loud sound with an emphasis on bright, airy trebles.
Figured Koa - Beautifully balanced and clear. Slightly less bass response than rosewood. Slightly less treble response than mahogany.
Adirondack Spruce - Very stiff and stable, yet acoustically brilliant. Selected for its fine even grain and clear appearence, it produces a powerful yet mellow sound.
Sitka Spruce - Extremely vibrant top wood. Ideal for any size or style guitar. Primary wood used for Martin guitars. Chosen for its straight, uniform grain, longevity, and strength.
My acoustic has a cedar top which is best suited to finger players (No pick).
I found this, so I'll just let you check it out.
http://www.sheehans.com/help/agtrhelp.asp?page=agtr
Ken :wink:
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
Hi :D
I'm back again.
Just wanted to touch on the 'other' wood parts of the guitar and what they do.
The Fretboard - On steel strung acoustics, usually the boards are rosewood or ebony.
Niether of these has a finish on them, although most times ebony is dyed.
Of the (3) common types of board wood, rosewood is the 'warmest' sounding. It also is most capable of producing
beautiful, if not intricate note swells and decays. Like soft fireworks or a flower in bloom.
Ebony by contrast is the 'coldest' sounding. And has the fastest note decay.
Maple (the other common board wood - usually found on electrics and has a finish on it) falls in between rosewood and ebony.
Usually the bridge is the same wood as the fretboard.
If I made rosewood sound great as a fretboard, thats because I love it for electric guitars.
I have an ebony board on my acoustic and am quite pleased with it.
Try 'em both an see which you like best.
As for the pins, nut and bridge saddle - fossilized ivory or bone are great choices.
I've heard of people getting inexpensive acoustics (ie. the Epi Hummingbird @$299.00) and changing the cheapo plastic out
for bone and saying that the sound improvement made it better than a Gibbo Hummingbird.
So that's a pretty important thing to have if you're looking for a long term guitar.
Also, in addition to finding one that's well crafted and sounds great - make sure it's comfortable for you to play.
Or no matter what, you wont enjoy it.
:D
Ken :wink:
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
Wow thanks! That site (and yourself) answered it all. Thanks again, that's a really great find - even covered the sizes, etc. :D
You're very welcome Eirraca.
Glad you found it helpful :D
Let us know what you decided on.
Ken
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
Set up and how you play it are key. Anywhere that the strings touch the guitar is very important. The harder the material the less sound is lost.
What pick you use can make a huge differance as well.
For what its worth I have a rosewood back/sides with spruce top and I love it. But any well made guitar will sound good and different. Go to a guitar store and try a bunch of different woods and find what tone you like the most.
"And above all, respond to all questions regarding a given song's tonal orientation in the following manner: Hell, it don't matter just kick it off!"
-Chris Thile
I will agree D. I felt understanding why guitars that look almost identical but are priced so different would help me out. "Ok, this has rosewood and is way expensive but what does that mean," etc. Obviously craftsmanship has a lot to do with it but I plan to try several and wanted to have a clue when I went to go and play with the toys. I picked up a 51 because everyone was raving about them here and I figured I couldn't go wrong. Now with an acoustic, I feel very differently and want to have a hands-on experience picking one out.
You should consider getting someone to play any "candidates" for you. Acoustics can sound very different from the playing and listening positions.
-=tension & release=-
Great idea Gnease. I definitely want to hear what a song sounds like vs me plucking chords/notes. Thank you! :D
You should consider getting someone to play any "candidates" for you. Acoustics can sound very different from the playing and listening positions.
+1
While I was browsing at a local store, a woman was shopping for a quality mid-priced ($1000 to $2500) guitar and had narrowed it down to five. She lined them up, and got the salesman to play each of them while she sat listening with her eyes closed. It was fun to watch and listen, and really interesting how different each guitar sounded. You probably can't get that kind of service at a Guitar Center, but a good mom & pop store might do it.
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
Guitar Center has done that for me. When I bought my Martin, they had 6 of that model in the store (Martin DX1). I narrowed it down to 3 that felt the best to me, and had the salesman, (Roy), play them all and I just listened. I picked the one I wanted blind on that input.
it's the best guitar I own.
Hi Brian
Its funny that you should talk about the Martin DX guitars in this discussion about guitar woods.
Martin, that is mainly known for their premium guitars of very good woods, has been able to make a very good acoustic guitar serie (DX) of a laminated material (HPL = my guess High Pressured Laminate).
And that shows once again that it is the top wood that is giving most of the sound characeristics (natural wood colored DX guitar has Sitka Spruce tops, painted ones HPL tops).
Even the necks of the DX guitars are of a special material = stratabond
http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/choosing/series.php?s=X
Kalle
Tanglewood TW28STE (Shadow P7 EQ) acoustic
Yamaha RGX 320FZ electric guitar/Egnater Tweaker 15 amp.
Yamaha RBX 270 bass/Laney DB 150 amp.
http://www.soundclick.com/kalleinsweden
yeah it's an interesting guitar. The top has a VERY thin finish, which allows for more resonance. It's a hand-applied finish, no gloss.
the back and sides are one piece of HPL Mahogany. Martin uses Mahogany wood fibers and compresses them into a hard and dense laminate, then they put a photo-finish on top. It's essentially formica, I guess, only not as thick as a tabletop. it reflects the sound well and, I think, maintains the characteristics of solid woods. That's just my opinion though.
the stratabond neck is plywood...with rosin injected into it. the finish is fused with the actual wood of the neck.
it looks pretty awesome, i think. very unique, but still with classic vibes.
Great site CitiZenNoir. Thanks for the link.
I think the dx1 tawny satinwood is gorgeous but that's about at my limit for what I want to pay (right now that is).
