Citation:
Wood Choice – There are alot of different options as far as wood choice. While no hard and fast rules apply, guitars usually come in a few common combination’s. Wood choice is a very subjective topic, so i will just do my best based on impressions of various guitars i have played.
Spruce is probably the most common top wood. It comes in many varieties; sitka, englemann, European and Carpathian, to name a few. Spruce seems to have that right combination of clarity of tone, yet is also warm and responsive at the same time. It can respond well to a light touch but also hold up to aggressive picking and strumming. Alot of this depends on the characteristics of an individual piece of wood, and how it is setup for a particular guitar. Two identical pieces of spruce can have a different density and mass, and each have totally different tonal properties. Englemann is said to have a warmer tone and be more responsive to a light touch than the other varieties of spruce.
Cedar is another common top wood for fingerstyle guitars. Its a much softer wood than spruce, and is easier to ding and bang up. The advantage of cedar is that it sounds played in right from the start, whereas some spruce tops may take a while of playing before they open up. It has a very warm and responsive tone, and responds well to a light attack, making it popular among fingerstyle players. Some say a cedar top does not hold up well to more aggressive playing, i don’t really have an opinion on that, having never been able to play a cedar topped guitar for an extended length of time. A cedar top with rosewood back and sides is a very nice combination for fingerstyle guitars, with a super rich, warm, and responsive tone.
Redwood is another top choice that you do not see around much. Its said to combine the responsiveness and warmth of cedar with the durability and clarity of spruce. I have only played one or two redwood topped guitars, and i must say they sounded great. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on another one.
Sometimes mahogany is used as top wood, as well as for the back and sides. All mahogany instruments are usually quite light, and have a nice responsive, somewhat drier sound.
Options for back and side woods include varieties rosewood, mahogany, koa, maple, as well as cocobolo and blackwood. Rosewood and mahogany are definitely the two most common choices. Rosewood is popular due to rich complex tone, with good volume and just enough clarity. Mahogany to me has a slightly drier tone with not as much sustain, making for good note clarity and separation. I can’t really comment much on koa or maple guitars, having only played one or two of them. They tend to have a bright and clear sound, depending on what top wood they are paired with. Maple is especially bright. Cocobolo is a very dense wood and similar to rosewood tonally. Blackwood is said to be somewhere between rosewood and mahogany in sound.
Some typical combination’s of the above include spruce as the top, with rosewood, mahogany, koa, maple, cocobolo, or blackwood as the back and sides. This varies from guitar to guitar, but a spruce/rosewood instrument will have a good amount of volume, with alot of richness and sustain. Its a wood combination that works well for alot of styles, especially ones like celtic or modern fingerstyle where you have alot of notes that blend together forming this rich palette of sound. Cocobolo and blackwood will probably be similar as well, with blackwood being a bit less complex. In contract spruce/mahogany might work better for someone playing fingerstyle blues, where you want a quick snappy attack, good note separation, and not a ton of sustain. Spruce paired with koa or maple will also tend to have a brighter, more snappy, somewhat drier sound. At least to my ear. Cedar is often paired rosewood or cocobolo. This will give a super rich, warm, and responsive sound. For fingerpickers that play very lightly this is a combination worth considering. The cedar top will allow the sound to bloom forth from a light attack. Cedar and mahogany will have a similar sound, though a bit drier and less complex than the rosewood or colobolo varieties.
http://www.rhythmstrummer.com/(...)itar/
