Have You Chosen a Suitable Tonewood For Your Acoustic Instrument?

Posted by Alaska Woods on November 29th, 2018

Different tonewoods are used for different acoustic guitars and have different effects on the way a guitar sounds. With the gradual decrease in the availability of traditional tonewoods, manufactures today are considering the use of alternative species of tonewoods.

No two pieces of woods are exactly alike and their tonal properties vary- not even if they are of the same species because of a number of factors including environmental conditions, age and genetics of the tree, grain orientation, curing conditions, making styles, etc. In addition to these factors, another thing that can make woods look different is the different guitar models that they are used on.

A guitar is divided into different parts- the top or soundboard, the back & sides, fretboards, bridges, and the body. Each part is responsible for determining the tonal characteristics of the instrument.

• The top or soundboard affects the guitar’s responsiveness, its sustain, its overtone coloration, as well as the strength and quality of each note’s fundamental tone. It is commonly believed that the wood chosen for the top overrides majority of other things when it comes to determining the quality of tone of the finished instrument. The standard material for soundboards is spruce and some of the common species of this wood that are used in soundboards these days include Sitka, Engelmann, European or Silver spruce, Easter Red spruce, etc. Among these, Sitka Spruce is considered an excellent choice of topwood since it gives a powerful, direct tone that is capable of retaining its clarity when played forcefully. Other than spruce, Cedar, Koa, Mahogany, and Maple are also used for soundboards.
• Next comes the back and sides of a guitar that form the enclosure of the guitar and contribute greatly to the harmonic mix and the overall tone of the instrument. The tonewoods used on the back and sides of a guitar should be judiciously and carefully selected. Rosewoods, mahogany, koa, maple, and walnut woods are some of the common tonewoods used on the sides and back of a guitar. Guitars made of rosewoods tend to have a strongly pronounced low overtones, those made of mahogany and koa woods have relatively high velocities of sound, while those made of maple and walnut woods have a low velocity of sound along with a high degree of internal damping.

Soundboards are undoubtedly and unarguably the most important piece or part of any acoustic instrument, be it a guitar, ukulele, vihuela, mandolin, flute, or a clarinet. Thus, it is essential that the woods used for them is of high quality and is suitable for the kind of playing style and sound that the user desires.

Some of the best age-old specialty wood shops specializing in tonewood products have been supplying the finest Sitka Spruce instrument tonewood material for guitar tops to tonewood users, custom luthiers, manufacturers, and other builders of acoustic instruments since 1997. From Sitka Spruce to Western Red Cedar, Alaskan Yellow Cedar and double bass tonewood, they have been manufacturing thousands of soundboards annually.