How Does One Know What Wood Is Good For Guitars or Not ?

[Jesse Matthews]

Mostly guitars are made of mahogany/rosewood/maple/ceder/sitka/etc...how can one know if a wood is good for building a guitar or not ?...lets say i have a uncommon wood that usually is not used to make guitars..how can i know if its good for making a guitar or not ?, another thing that i thought about is...any solid type of wood would be at least more "musical" then a piece of lets say plywood or laminated wood no?, at least its logical to me...maybe I'm wrong of course , that's why I'm asking you who actually know something about it :P,

Thanks,
Jesse.

[jwsamuel]

The only way to know for sure is to give it a try.

Jim

[Michael Watts]

Wood is simply a source of raw potential, not a guarantee of spectacular results in and of itself.

Some builders prefer to make guitars from certain woods because they feel they can tap into that potential to produce a guitar that will sound and respond like they want it to.

Some woods don't work from a builder's point of view because they:

1.crack easily
2.don't glue together well
3.cause allergies
4. won't be as easy to sell to a customer as an instrument made from more "accepted" woods

[Laurent Brondel]

Some woods are more musical than others, it's not always obvious (the taptones of most maple, or Honduran mahogany for example, are less than spectacular).
Weight-to-strength ratio is primordial for top woods, in that respect it's hard to beat the spruces, especially for longitudinal strength.
Stability in service is a very important factor, for example it's not by chance than Honduran mahogany is used for necks, blocks, linings, back & sides and so on. Also I am pretty sure that when factories switched to Indian rosewood it cut a lot of labour and waste, as it is one of the most stable tonewoods, and definitely more stable than Braz in general.
Availability needs to be constant, designs depend in part on what woods are used.
Quartersawn is usually the preferred cut, so trees have to grow large enough in order to produce big enough sets.
Appearance is another factor.
And finally tradition plays a big role: whatever was used to build steel strings before WWII will remain forever the woods of choice. As an example, a lot of "alternative" tonewoods are looked as "substitutes" for Braz, tonally and visually, instead of being considered for their own properties.

[wthurman]

I would say balsa is a poor choice.

[El Conquistador]

Originally Posted by Laurent Brondel

Some woods are more musical than others, it's not always obvious (the taptones of most maple, or Honduran mahogany for example, are less than spectacular).
Weight-to-strength ratio is primordial for top woods, in that respect it's hard to beat the spruces, especially for longitudinal strength.
Stability in service is a very important factor, for example it's not by chance than Honduran mahogany is used for necks, blocks, linings, back & sides and so on. Also I am pretty sure that when factories switched to Indian rosewood it cut a lot of labour and waste, as it is one of the most stable tonewoods, and definitely more stable than Braz in general.
Availability needs to be constant, designs depend in part on what woods are used.
Quartersawn is usually the preferred cut, so trees have to grow large enough in order to produce big enough sets.
Appearance is another factor.
And finally tradition plays a big role: whatever was used to build steel strings before WWII will remain forever the woods of choice. As an example, a lot of "alternative" tonewoods are looked as "substitutes" for Braz, tonally and visually, instead of being considered for their own properties.

This is the value of this forum. A great summation by a talented luthier.
LC

[Howard Klepper]

Start with the standard woods. You'll get a feel for it.

[Aaron Smith]

Designing a durable instrument is probably a matter of choosing well-quartered and well-seasoned woods. Most people would probably get that pretty well by sticking with the standard guitar materials.
Designing an instrument that's musical is a whole different issue; there are hundreds of variables, and only through experience does someone learn the "art" behind it. I'm guessing that most people's first builds turn out better than expected, but are still much worse than instruments made by experienced luthiers- regardless of the wood that's chosen.

[david82282]

Balsa probably is a poor choice for the guitar, because it has relatively high damping. But it also has a very high stiffness/weight ratio, and is generating some excitement as a potential material for violins.
“We had to admit that [the balsa violin] could do things that our own [violins] could not—things that the old Italians couldn’t do either.”
http://www.stringsmagazine.com/artic...ws&Notes-1.asp

Violins have continuous energy input, so the higher damping is ok for them, whereas it's more a problem for guitars. Still, I'd like to hear a balsa (or part balsa) guitar to see what it might offer. Of course, the top would have to be much thicker to be strong enough (but it would still be lighter weight at the same strength).