Official Luthiers Forum!

What tone woods do you love to build with that are not BWR, Cocobolo, ABW? What tonal flavor does it have?

On the other side. What tone woods have you tried that you did NOT like?

Anyone build with Tasmanian Blackwood? What did you think of it?

_________________
_____________

EddieLee

My favorite -affordable- tonewood is veneer. It has allowed me to create back and side sets from beautiful woods for less than $50 a set ( including BRW, lauro pretto, monkey pod , amazon rosewood, kingwood, and a number of others.).

When I was building, White Oak. Hard white oak is straightforward and punchy.
Back is around 10-25% of the tone of the instrument, top wood and bracing being the major contributor to the tone.

Wenge and padauk. I don't particularly like working with them, but I like the results.

Steve

Of the 50 plus guitars I have made there was only one that I didn't like and it was made with cherry but it was also a double top and that's why I don't like it. I've made a few others with cherry and they were fine. I don't claim to have the experience to really know but I don't think the backs and sides are very important to tone. How they are braces, thickness, stiffness, laminated and so on might make more of a difference in tone then the actual species.

So far I have used walnut, cherry, maple, Imbuia, rosewood, mahogany, bacotti, white oak and probably something else I can't think of. The white oak guitars have been my favorite followed by Imbuia. But again... grain of salt and all that.

There are so many good ones....

I really like the guitars I get from oak; I just wish they were easier to sell. Cherry's nice too, and so is walnut, and Osage orange and black locust, and...

I have built with T'Zalam (Mayan Walnut) and have been pleased with the tone and the appearance. It can be had relatively inexpensively...

_________________
Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Lol... I would remove Honduras Mahogany from the "affordable" list now.. I was amazed to see that H Mahogany at Stew Mac costs within $10/set of IRW.... Crazy!

But.... For me - "affordable" is whatever I can mill out of boards or oddball stuff that nobody else is looking at...

So far - QS Oak, Cherry, African mahogany, Sapele, Birch, and walnut... These seem to be available in good quality lumber/sets at very reasonable prices....

But I have a few sets of oddball stuff like:
Jarrah and Wandoo
Sheoak
Australian native olive
Osage orange

And all that stuff was fairly cheap (when I got it) and I don't really see significant price inflation on it.

White Oak, Curly Maple, Black Locust, I enjoy using wood I've cut, dried and resawn.

Myrtle (Oregon Laurel or Pepperwood). It's easy to work and bend, sounds bright like Maple but has a nice balance, finishes easily (no open pores) and it's not expensive. I like the coloring, too, not at all boring.

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

How exactly do you make the backs? Do you sandwich the main back wood between two pieces of veneer? If so, which wood do you prefer to use, and do you find the addition of the veneer has any effect on the tone?

Thanks!

Narra, muninga, west African padouk. Gombeira, but it's hard to find. Movingui.
Hmmm... none of them domestics, I should go local.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Hi Braedyn,
Some time ago I aquired a few thousand feet of veneer that was surplus from a company that made veneered panels. It is sequence matched "leaves" that I reglue back together in the order they were cut. Some of the pieces were "extra" pieces that weren't needed and some of it was "off fall" - the left overs from veneering an eight foot panel from an eleven foot piece of veneer. Much of it is the old (60 yrs +/-) thicker veneers that were hoarded by someone, like myself, who hated to see beautiful veneers hit the dumpster.
3 to 4 sheets of matched veneer bring it up to the thickness of a back or side.

Mahogany is my favorite wood for both bodies and necks. I think my best instruments have been double side Mahogany/some kind of spruce combos.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Sapele, bubinga, and ovangkol.
All very reasonable at around $50.00/set unless you go for high figure.

Brent

Mahogany. Versatile, comes in a variety of figuring, and sounds good.

Eastern black walnut, for workability .availabity. price. smell , aesthetics, etc . I work with many other species of wood but it/s my favorite wood.

What glue are you using and what press method?

I'm using West System epoxy with the clear hardener and pressing over a form or between two sheets of smooth faced material with as many clamps as will fit. The other point I would stress when using this method is to dry the veneer before gluing as much as practicable. I also like to leave it in the form until cured (about a week). This seems to make the end product very stabile.

Ovangkol for me. easy to work and finish. I have built three with different top woods and all turned out as I figured they would tonewise. Cheap sets can still be found consistently.

_________________
Blue Ring Acoustics
blueringacoustics.ca

I recently added some Pau Rosa to my stash that I got a great price on. Never used it before
and can't find much info. Anyone here tried it ?

Brent

Khaya.

Looks nice, works great. Vey cheap in the UK/Europe.

_________________
nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com

Ernie, I like Black Walnut, too, and I don't mind the smell, but I think you could say it's an "acquired taste" - there's definitely an element of barnyard in the aroma....

It's funny how sense perceptions work in different people. I wouldn't describe it as barnyard at all. I love the sweet smell of walnut.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Can't go wrong with mahogany.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince