Thread: spruce, rosewood, mahogany - surely there are more: what & why?

Originally Posted by SawDustSniffer

i thought the best tone wood grows on the north west side of a 11 month a year snow covered mountain

then slowly dried ( while frozen )
perfectly quarter sawn , where the log was split in 4 then every thing turned to shaving apart from the bit you want ( to appease the tone gods )

But only on the quarter moon in February. Except of course if Jupiter is in conjunction to Mercury. A little known Stradivarius secret....

ROTFL as for radiata pine ROTFL

Except for Mandos by Peter Coombe.

Unfortunately a lot of the instruments we commonly play and make were designed to take maximum advantage of northern hemisphere timbers. I think a whole new set of design criteria will be needed to use the Aussie timbers. That the timbers are inferior per se is quite contestable.

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan56

But only on the quarter moon in February. Except of course if Jupiter is in conjunction to Mercury. A little known Stradivarius secret....

. I think a whole new set of design criteria will be needed to use the Aussie timbers. That the timbers are inferior per se is quite contestable.

yes the north side of a 11 month snow covered mountain was a quote from something i saw on a violin website , but dont forget when stradivarius was around it was the " little ice age "

last week end i milled veneer of "cape york iron wood" and laminated it to a high pore "boab tree " veneer , the epoxy takes at least 3 weeks to get to full strength ( i dont want to kin it ) , ??? just stuffin round 1mm cape york iron wood , 2 mm boab , 1mm cape york iron wood

Nearly any wood will work... Light and stiff is important for the top wood if you want it to be loud without amplification... But.. If you are interested in amplification or don't care so much about how loud it is - at that point, you can make the top out of more or less anything you want...

There was a fellow on another board who made a Uke 100% out of Ebony - including the top and all the bracing... He loved it's sound and said it was plenty loud... Yet another Pro-builder made an acoustic out of OSB - including the top... If that doesn't tell you that you can use anything you want - then nothing will convince you...

My primary concerns for wood used in building guitars are:
*They will take glue joints reliably
*You can work them reliably
*They don't warp and shift crazy once fully dried and seasoned... although careful cutting can help with this... Curly, flat sawn woods are the now quite popular.. and they are the worst for shifting like crazy... Ebony is quite popular, and violates this rule as well....
*Not too prone to cracks (Although, the most famous and expensive guitar wood - Brazilian Rosewood violates this rule.. as do a number of popular back and side woods)

Be careful with some of the literature out there on Wood properties... They commonly list shrinkage and stability ... but they are from Green... I think you have to take that information with a grain of salt when you consider the list and some of the most stable woods ever are on the "High shrinkage from green" list.... That information is more important to Sawyers to help them evaluate how much loss to expect and how to properly prepare the stack when milling the green log....

Since you aren't a Factory - you neither have to worry about commercial availability, nor market acceptance... That allows you to try out all sorts of fun things...

So... With this in mind - have at it! There really aren't many woods that are truly "Bad" for making musical instruments... especially if you are willing to make multi-piece tops and backs....

Thanks

John is spot on and I might add - do a little tap testing take a couple of blocks of wood your thinking about using and bang them together to they sing? or do they produce a thud? You'll be amazed how different wood from the same species of tree will sound based on how the tree grew and how it was sawn off the log. For example I've sawn a lot of yellow poplar out of all the logs I've sawn I've ran across only a few that I would consider tonewood. You know when your peeling boards off fresh fallen logs, if the boards ting when you stack them there is a good chance they will turn out some tone wood once the lumber is dry.

BTW - I'm really envious of you guys, you got such a section to choose from.Since I harvest and saw my own timber, I'm pretty much limited to American wood over here in the states.

Maximum fiber length is a key feature for the elastic/acoustic features of an instrument top. That's for the interstitial growth that I spoke of. Despite climatic variations, consistent water is something to look for. You can never match the fiber length of our northern white spruce, but still, there is not one cubic meter in a thousand which is tone wood.

Be really picky. Don't just grab the first board that "looks nice". Really good instrument tops are more or less featureless for a reason.

Australian conditions: south sides of hills & mountains, in ravines or gullies. Slow, even, regular growth. South side of the log should have fewer branches and less tension wood. This will do you no harm, no matter which part of the instrument is constructed.
Question: are there no tonewood prospectors in Australia? I'd guess that they all live in southern Victoria or Tasmania. If I went to Launceston and asked around, might I find anybody?

Local case in point: Western Red Cedar = Thuja plicata. Potential tone wood obviously needs to be knot free and straight grained. The north-facing side of the log is best. Any knot even the size of a pencil and the wood is garbage. Useless. They spent $3,000/hr to heli log the tree and the whole thing is crud= debris pile for burning in a few years.

So, there's forest rats like me who drag that stuff out for free stock for wood carving.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Any knot even the size of a pencil and the wood is garbage. Useless.

I get what you are saying Robson but I wonder if Mr Benedetto or whoever bought the guitar in this link off him would agree with those sentiments.......http://benedettoguitars.com/boutique/il-teredo/

Jim

Someone please turn up the Tele!

Thanks for the link! Bizarre but another good idea to try. At $52,500.00, if it sold, who bought it? I didn't read the whole thing. Wouldn't a book-matched top be elegant?

Those floating camps still exist by the dozens. One guy lives on his motorized barge, also his floating/mobile chainsaw repair shop. Any power saw with less than a 90cm bar isn't too useful on the coast. 60cm is common in the interior but feller-bunchers and forwarders/skidders have replaced the fallers where it isn't too steep.

I saw some table lamps turned out of Teredo wood. Maker said hitting the voids and bits of clam shell really wore his tools down.

I know from watching that building an instrument is a very long, drawn-out business.
Still, that's the only way to decide on the wood.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Thanks for the link! Bizarre but another good idea to try. At $52,500.00, if it sold, who bought it? I didn't read the whole thing. Wouldn't a book-matched top be elegant?

Not sure who bought it - but it's listed as "Sold"....

Bob Bendetto has a pretty good sense of humor and seems to like bucking conventional "Luthierie" norms.. He's not building pure "Art" pieces - they are made to be played. I have no doubt that it is a fine guitar. It certainly is striking to look at!

For example - he built the famous "Knotty pine" guitar out of knotty pine shelf boards... I hear he also built one (or is building one) out of a Cedar fence post....

If Knotty shelf boards, clam eaten stumps, and fence posts make good guitars... then we haven't even scratched the surface of potential "Tone Wood".....

Originally Posted by Jeff Mills

For example I've sawn a lot of yellow poplar out of all the logs I've sawn I've ran across only a few that I would consider tonewood. You know when your peeling boards off fresh fallen logs, if the boards ting when you stack them there is a good chance they will turn out some tone wood once the lumber is dry.

No doubt they will be good.. I would love to get ahold of some of that.... I am always amazed, though how some really nice pieces of wood tap like wet cardboard when they are green - and ring like a bell when they finally dry out... I have several guitars sets like this... Open up the box and tap them and they go "thwap".. but they are still soggy... Stick them in the pile... Check a couple months later and "TINNNNNNGGGGGG!!"

Thanks