This
is a controversial topic riddled with mystique and confusion.
Hopefully I can bring a little clarity to the topic or at least show you
the positions that I base my craft on.
In
Classical Guitars there are typically two options, Brazilian Rosewood and East Indian Rosewood.
I offer a third, Cocobolo as well. In
general I think of wood type as part of the tone recipe and I have reasonable
success in matching to the client’s ear as long as we have defined our terms.
As an example, if the client likes a “warm” guitar like a Ramirez,
then I know I’ll be building an East Indian/Cedar instrument.
If she likes the sound that Sharon Isbin is getting with her Humphries
Millenium then I’ll be working in spruce, but with Cocobolo unless her pocket
book can afford Brazilian.
Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia
Negra)
is generally considered the best tonewood by most luthiers as long as the
quality is up to standard. I agree.
Brazilian can yield a dark bell like sound that is both deep and
brilliant. I know of no other wood
that can quite match it. I maintain
an inventory of this rare wood that has been selected for tone reasons first and
aesthetics always. Handbuilders
like myself can with skill and luck still find very good Brazilian in very small
quantities. Most of what I have is
old growth, mostly very dark with great tap tone and mostly quarter sawn.
The old pre-war dark reds with black spider webbing is gone with rare
exceptions. Flat or slab sawn Brazilian will also make a great sounding
guitar although I prefer not to use it for sides unless they are doubled for
stability. I usually can send
pictures of various sets over the net to help in the selection.
I charge $1500 more for Brazilian and I won’t sell it in a guitar
unless I think it can make a difference.
East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia Latifolia)
is plentiful and available in excellent quality.
I hand selected my own inventory from over 2000 sets available to me.
I prefer dark, tight, close grain wood which I find gives terrific sound
and outstanding stability over the life of the guitar.
There is a reasonable consensus that Indian will give a warmer bassier
sound relative to Brazilian. It
is my standard wood as it returns the best value of all.
It is easy to work with, predictable and capable of making great guitars.
If Brazilian is like a hot date at an expensive restaurant then Indian is
kind of like dinner at Mom’s …..comfortable, satisfying and inexpensive.
Cocobolo Rosewood (Dalbergia Retusa) to my ear stands fairly close to Brazilian
in tone and a very beautiful wood with a lot of variation in figure.
It is somewhat warmer that Brazilian but it can still produce brilliant
guitars. It is a heavier, denser
wood than Brazilian with all of it’s faults in terms of workability.
Luthiers can develop allergies to the dust so I have to protect myself
more so than with other species. I
have a good inventory of excellent Cocobolo and the continuing supply seems
sustainable and of high quality. Cocobolo
adds $350 to the cost of the instrument. About
40% of my orders are for this wood.
Maple
is available in a variety of figure and it is an excellent tonewood.
One seldom sees Maple because it is not a dark wood and by definition,
classical guitars have to be dark………right?
Well, many makers like this wood and it was used often by Antonio de
Torres. I have European Maple that
has an ivory color and very tight curl, it makes a very beautiful and appealing
guitar. I also like Birdseye Maple
and have a small inventory of it. How does Maple sound? It
is very neutral and allows the top wood to bring out it’s own sound. It is
very capable of brilliance and less capable of warmth until it plays in.
It is best with spruce as the color with cedar doesn’t usually match
well in my opinion. By the way this is a great choice for a Flamenco.
Alternative
Woods are very capable of making world class classical guitars.
There is no doubt that any of the rosewoods can make a very fine guitar
and one can find luthiers offering Honduras, Amazon, Madagascar Rosewoods.
Among the less used woods for Classicals are Mahogany, Koa and Claro
Walnut. If you are interested in
any of these, please talk with me as I have some fine examples that would make a
very personal and unique instrument for you.
And I promise that the sound will delight.
Soundboard
woods are plentiful and offer additional choices in tailoring the sound in
that dream guitar you are thinking of.
European Spruce
typically from Germany or Italy. There
are several names for this wood such as Alpine Spruce; German Spruce, Silver
Spruce or Italian Spruce. Most of it is Picea ______.
What ever it is called, it is perhaps the best all around wood for
classicals.
At a recent luthier’s convention, four top classical makers in a panel
agreed that they have the best results with European Spruce!
The characteristic of this wood is to contribute a noble tone with
shimmering trebles and good strong basses……..but you have to pay your dues.
This wood takes time to play in and it can slowly mature over a period of
years until it will match anything that Cedar or Englemann can do and excel them
in overall quality. Now
that’s a strong statement and one with which other luthiers might disagree but
it comes from my own experience and I’ll stand by it.
Western Red Cedar has it’s long suit which that it sounds good almost immediately.
If you go to a show where luthiers are displaying their instruments,
you’ll probably notice that most of the instruments are Cedar.
That is because Cedar can make the new instrument sound it’s best right
away. The other good thing about
Cedar is the aesthetic of the dark appearance which matches up well to many
classical guitarists preferences. Cedar
often sounds louder to the guitarist while Cedar’s basses are typically huge
and impressive.
Cedar
Instruments do have a question about their long term lifespan from both players
and luthiers. I don’t agree with
this as I have played many 30 year old instruments that are doing very well
thank you. As a luthier I think
that I have to work harder to get decent trebles and the variability of them can
be a problem. But done successfully
the Cedar instrument is a joy and offers a tone palette that can differentiate
it from Spruce. This can be of
value in ensemble work.
Englemann Spruce offers a middle ground between Euro Spruce and Cedar.
It plays in very quickly and gives a spruce like treble.
It is a softer wood and will yield good basses right away also.
It is the most popular spruce used by American Classical guitar makers.
Englemann can come with “BearClaw” figure which gives some visual
interest and there is a debate about it’s acoustic effect.
I tend to believe that it lends some stiffness and therefore I work it a
little thinner. My inventory is
mostly from one super large tree here in Colorado at high altitude (12500’) in
the San Juan Mountains and I have selected from several hundred sets.
I also have some hard hybrid (with White Spruce) Englemann from Canada.
Colorado Blue Spruce grows in the same forests as Englemann here in
Colorado. It is a little stiffer
than Englemann and the grain shows more seasonal variability.
It is a beautiful white wood that is stiff and light, ideal features for
a soundboard wood. I use it a lot and it is used in some very expensive guitars
by some builders. Not a well known
wood, but one of my favorites, very similar in tone characteristics to Englemann.
I have an inventory from a single exceptional tree which is called
“Tree #7” by the sawyer and that wood has become
well known to local players because of the number of instruments
I have built with it. This
wood has a pronounced “curl” or wave and is quite distinctive.
Adirondack spruce is the fabled wood used in pre-war Martin guitars and is seldom used in
Classicals. It has one of the best
stiffness to weight ratios of all spruces and is very hard.
I have only used it on steel strings where it is my preferred wood.
I think it is a natural for classicals, but it is rare and expensive.
I have a small inventory from Canada.
Sitka Spruce is the default steel string wood which some classical makers refuse to
use while others such as John Gilbert have made the best guitars in the world
with it. While I carry this wood. I
don’t have a lot of experience with it and I would hesitate to
take any orders for it until I build some “spec” guitars with it
first.