Tonewood - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, Robbie O’Brien and Taylor Guitars’ Eric Sakimoto discuss the tonal properties various tonewoods offer.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: What are the tonal differences between all the tonewoods?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour mailbag question comes to us all the way from Germany.
"Dear Robert, I'm about to choose a tonewood for my guitar, and would like to hear your opinion on the tonal differences tonewoods have to offer. Thank you for all your videos, Wagner in Germany."
Wagner, this is a very good question, and I'm not sure there's a very simple answer. All you have to do is take a trip out to LMI's website just to see the vast amount of tonewoods that are offered to us today. Some of them traditional, some of them not so traditional.
To simplify this a little bit for us, I'm going to narrow our choices down to either mahogany or rosewood for the back and side woods, and either spruce and cedar for the soundboard material. Now, why am I going to do that? Well, because the majority of the guitars built these days are made from those species of wood, and all of your alternative type tonewoods are usually compared to those.
Voicing
Let's talk a little bit about voicing. Everybody talks about voicing the guitar. This is a word I really do not like. For example, when you choose the tonewoods for your guitar and the body size and shape or the model, you've already predetermined the voice of that guitar.
A Sitka spruce dreadnaught with rosewood sides and back is never going to sound like a banjo. It's just not in its voice. Thank God. However, within that predetermined voice, you as a luthier have an opportunity to make it more or less responsive. So I don't really like the word voicing.
Now, back to your original question about species of wood and what they offer tonally to your instrument. Recently I had a conversation with Eric Sakimoto from Taylor Guitars, and we spoke about this very subject about what tonewoods offer tonally to the instrument. So let's listen in.
All right, Robert O'Brien from O'Brien Guitars here. I'm here with Eric Sakimoto from Taylor Guitars.
Eric Sakimoto: Yes, sir.
Robert: And Eric's going to talk to us a little bit about the tonewoods. I get a lot of different questions about mahogany, Indian rosewood, koa, and what each one does tonally to the guitar. So if you could give us a just brief explanation about that, please.
Tropical Mahogany
Eric: Yeah, well, tropical mahogany, Taylor gets it mainly in Honduras. It's a great tonewood for rhythm players or finger styles. It's a good broad tonewood, and what it's really known for is its balance and its mid-range warmth. So we had our three band EQ base, mid-range and treble. So mahogany had some base and treble, but you bump up the mid-range on there. So I was calling it a sunrise EQ on there.
And for the most part, a lot of people like it for finger style because of its balance. So you have the bass note and the thumb and the melody of the fingers. It equals out. One doesn't overshadow the other.
Robert: Sure.
Eric: But people like Neil Young, he plays a mahogany guitar and he plays rhythm on it. In general, it's a good tonewood.
Rosewood
Rosewood expands the frequency range out, adding more bass and treble, but the mid-range is scooped down, so it's a smiley face EQ. It's something I use in my car. I'll bump up the treble and bass when I get in my car.
Robert: Sure.
Eric: Also, a great all around rhythm tonewood, we focus on singer songwriters because it's just the guitar in your voice. That mid-range scoop will allow the voice to go right in with the rosewood on the bass and treble. Right?
Robert: Is there a particular player that likes one over the other? For example, a big bluegrass flat picking player over a finger style player. Do they prefer one tonewood over another?
Eric: In general, it has to do with preference. In the bluegrass setting, if you're the rhythm player, rosewood would be the choice. If you're a flat picker, Doc Watson, he uses mahogany.
Robert: Okay.
Eric: So if I help people find guitars and I, like "I play bluegrass." Okay, I have to watch him play and then I can narrow it down and go, "Okay, you flat pick, you need mahogany."
Tonewoods for soundboards
Robert: Okay. Great. Let's switch gears a little bit. Also, another question I get a lot from my YouTube channel is types of soundboards. Spruce, cedar, koa. Can you give us a little information about that? Tell me what that does.
Sitka spruce
Eric: Yeah. The most common tonewood that is used as the top is Sitka spruce. There's obviously other species that surround Sitka spruce. It has a really long wood fibers in there, so allows the guitar builder to cut it really thin and it's strong enough, but also flexible enough to give you the volume that you need out of a soundboard. So in general, Sitka spruce is the king of volume. If you're looking for volume, you put spruce on there.
Cedar
When you shy away from species of spruce, you're going to lose volume. So cedar, shorter wood fibers really soft, flexible, and so as a result you lose a little volume, but it get a lot of warmth to the sound. Cedar's really popular with light strummers or finger stylists because you get a lot more tone without adding the extra energy it takes to move the top.
Koa
Koa is a very unique wood cause it only comes in one place in the planet, which is Hawaii. And a lot of people love the beauty of it has that nice golden caramel look to it, but also a lot of curly figure or flame to it. In order to get all that look that people like, it has to grow up in the upper elevations 2,500 feet in elevation and that gives you that figure that you're looking for.
On the total spectrum, it's about wide as rosewood, but it's very balanced in across the entire spectrum. A little bit more high end on the treble side. There a lot of sparkles, almost like angels kissing when you hear it, when you play the guitar.
Robert: Nice description.
Eric: And when you use that as a top wood, you get less volume again, but you get a lot more mid-range warmth out of the sound. So an all koa guitar has nice chime, a lot of warmth in the mid-range and it sounds really pleasing to the ear. But the best thing about koa is getting on stage in the lights shining on it. People are like...
Robert: It's an eye pleaser.
Eric: That's a nice looking guitar you're playing on there. So a lot of people just love the look of koa and it just wins their heart just by not even playing. They're like, "Whoa, look at that guitar on the wall. I need that."
Robert: Sure. Well thank you very much Eric. I appreciate your time.
Eric: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
Robert: All right, thank you.
Eric: Yeah.
Robert: So there you have it Wagner in Germany. Thank you very much for your question. I hope you find this information useful.
Now you'll notice that Eric talked a little bit about koa. That's a word that I did not mention. I don't have a lot of experience with koa. Obviously Taylor Guitar does and that's why he threw that subject in. One thing he did not mention was maple. Now maple also makes a very good tonal wood for guitars. In general, and of course there's a lot of variables. But in general, maple in my experience, has given me a brighter response or a brighter sound to my instruments. I think it makes a great classical guitar.
All right, thank you very much Wagner. Happy building.
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