There are a number of different materials that are used for the purpose of constructing guitars. Let us take a look at a few of them.

Mahogany

When this wood is used as a guitar top, it has a low velocity of sound as compared to other woods, good density, and a lower overtone making for an overall solid tone with a response that is at the upper areas of the dynamic range. Guitars that use mahogany for a top have a punchy sound that is generally suited for country blues music. When used as a back and the sides mahogany has a high velocity of sound giving a lot more overtone coloration.

Rosewood guitars are generally thought of as metallic sounding; mahogany guitars are noted to sound a lot more wood-like. A mahogany back and sides has the tendency to emphasize the bass and treble notes. Mahogany for the neck generally creates a warmer tone, being woodier in the tonal ranges. This also tends to be true when mahogany is used as a bridge.

Koa

This wood has been used for the purpose of sound board creation since around the 1920s. This is a type of hardwood that features considerable density, a low velocity of sound and a low content of overtime. This allows Koa to produce a tone that is solid and sounds wonderful at the higher end of the dynamic musical range. Koa definitely offers a mid-range tone that seems to work well with rhythm guitar playing. Koa is a lot like Mahogany wood when used for the back and the sides of a guitar. It adds tonal coloration while still putting a midrange emphasis on the instrument.

Brazilian Rosewood

All rosewoods are capable of contributing to the tonal coloration of an instrument. Brazilian Rosewood happens to be particularly known for the high sound velocity that it offers as well as its broad range of musical overtones. Brazilian Rosewood is also known for being strong and complex. It offers strong mid ranges and high ranges, giving this type of wood a real richness in tone, especially for upper registers on the guitar. Guitars that incorporate rosewood also tend to have a reverberant tonal quality that is caused in part by the audible delay in certain harmonics and their natural onset. Brazilian Rosewood tends to offer a tremendous amount of clarity along the bottom end while sparkling along the top end.

Red Spruce

This is a relatively heavy type of wood that offers a high level of velocity of sound. It also offers the highest amount of stiffness along as well as across the grain out of all of the top wood materials. It has a strong fundamental overtone content, but it also has a more complex one as well. Tops are capable of producing the highest amount of volume, but this wood also produces a real rich fullness in its tone that retains its level of clarity at every single dynamic level. When it comes to top woods, it may be true that red spruce is the Holy Grail, at least as far as acoustic guitars with steel strings are concerned.

Photo Credits: Ctd 2005

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Categories:

Acoustic Musical Instruments, Guitars

Tags:

blues music, board creation, coloration, country blues, different materials, dynamic range, guitar guitars, high velocity, mahogany wood, mid range, mid ranges, overtone, overtones, punchy sound, rhythm guitar, rosewoods, sound velocity, upper areas, upper registers, velocity of sound