Your Guitar

Guitar Wood Description-Understand Your Guitars Tone And Beauty

Nothing is more beautiful than the sound of the guitar 
F. Chopin

Professionals known as luthiers built the guitars you own. What those experts know (among other things) that the beginner learns is the wide range of woods used and how they affect the overall sound of a guitar. You need to learn all about guitar wood descriptions to fully understand your instrument.
Which wood is chosen and for what part affects the style, structural rigidity and tone of the guitar. Though they often look as if they're made from one or two types of wood, look carefully and you'll see the complexity that makes up a fine instrument.

In order to produce a sound, very little thought is required. You may have noticed that it's easy to block light, but almost impossible to completely dampen sound. That's because nearly everything will vibrate to some extent, causing nearby air molecules to vibrate. Those oscillations set up patterns that reach your ear, which you perceive as sound.

But to produce just the sound you want from those complex patterns requires careful planning. Exactly how they're formed is the result of complicated interactions from the strings and woods. Denser wood, for example, will have a heavier tone, while lighter woods will typically produce a lighter tone.
Mahogany, for example, is a fairly dense wood with great structural strength, making it suitable for both body and neck construction. Vibrations from the guitar top resonate into the cavity, producing the full sound of, say, a Gibson. But considerable strength is required, too, for the neck and body in order to resist the tension of the strings. Mahogany is one of the few woods that can do double duty.

Maple is even denser, making it unsuitable for the entire body. At a certain point, the density dampens vibrations to too great an extent. As a result, it's often used in a laminate or in different parts with other woods to form a whole. Cedar is another common top wood. Its great advantage is a warm sound and beautiful appearance.

Alder is a common, light wood used in a range of Fender guitar designs. It produces a range of good sounds, with a particularly mellow tone in the higher ranges. Often finished to darken its bright color, it makes for a great sounding guitar.

A similar wood, ash, is also often used in Fender guitar history designs, where it produces a brassy sound in a lightweight package. Frequently used in electric bass guitars, the combination of heavy strings and bright wood produce a clean, lively sound. With its elegant grain, ash needs nothing more than a good sanding and a clear varnish to yield a beautiful instrument.

Those same woods are also often used for the neck, with Mahogany being a particularly good choice. Strong and stable, it resists warping. But it makes for poor fingerboard material, so the top of the neck is often laminated with another wood, such as Rosewood. One of the finest looking and sounding woods, it produces a warm tone and wears well.

Ebony is another common choice, where its extreme density and natural dark color give solid structure and great beauty to the neck. Though hard and dense, it has a bright attack, but can also produce fine lows. It also lasts forever, which is a good quality for an often-used fretboard.

These and other woods are used for the head and for bracing and lining inside the guitar. Every piece used imparts its own distinct character, with the whole assembly adding up to the final tone. As natural products, no two woods are exactly alike and along with the geometry as a result no guitars will sound exactly alike.

A luthier's product has all the uniqueness of a work of art and the selection of wood is one of the first choices made. Understanding guitar wood descriptions will make or break your instrument.