Classifying woods from Lightest to Darkest Tone

[gtr4me]

Originally Posted by Brock Poling

I know I am bucking the crowd here.... .

I think you are bucking less of a crowd than you think. I am with you; you get what you get when it is done and the number of contradictions to conventional wisdom make conventional wisdom highly suspect. I really like your "systems" comprised of architecture, geometry, wood, string, bone, glue... comment and would add what I think is the most important part of the system - the maker.

I owned a 00 adi/AB which was very even tonally but could never be described as having a strong or full bass, and I had a Goodall Parlor of very similar dimensions made of maple and cedar and the bass on that guitar was the most beautifully resonant and full as any guitar of any size I ever owned.

The standard descriptions as to how certain woods sound will forever continue, as will the significant number of contradictions to the standard descriptions.

[690MBCOMMANDO]

Hey Reags - Not sure if this was mentioned, but I would recommend doing a separate list for topwoods and those for back and sides. The reason I mention this is that same wood may fall on different parts of the scale of darkness relative to the peer set. For example I generally think of Mahogany as a "brighter" b/s wood, while as a top wood I would place it closer to the middle of the pack since it would be compared to the spruce family. Just a thought.

[reags]

Originally Posted by 690MBCOMMANDO

Hey Reags - Not sure if this was mentioned, but I would recommend doing a separate list for topwoods and those for back and sides. The reason I mention this is that same wood may fall on different parts of the scale of darkness relative to the peer set. For example I generally think of Mahogany as a "brighter" b/s wood, while as a top wood I would place it closer to the middle of the pack since it would be compared to the spruce family. Just a thought.

For sure, I'm actually considering that now more so thanks for the push over the edge, I think I'll take you up on that

It is indeed quite a challenge to classify woods and order them tonally as its so subjective according to each user. I guess that in itself is a fun part of guitar shopping, finding the tone that suits the individual.