Archive for December 10th, 2009
Do you play an acoustic guitar, or perhaps it’s an electric guitar, or even a bass guitar that is a solid color? Did you know that underneath that lacquer color your guitar is really made of wood?
Besides owning an on line music store I also have my own furniture and cabinet shop on my property in South Carolina, so my fascination with wood goes beyond the creations I build in my shop.
All woods react differently to sounds, hard woods have more sustain and therefore give up a brighter sound while soft woods have less sustain but but at the same time give you more mid-range tone and a fuller sound. Some of the woods used in guitar making are Ash, Mahogany, Alder, Bass, and sometimes you will find a maple veneer over mahogany, this gives you the sound from the Mahogany along with the beauty of the Maple which can be either straight grained, quilted or what they call a tiger maple. Quilted Maple or Tiger Maple occurs in the tree when it is growing, most times it happens when the tree is diseased, these types of wood are highly sought out by furniture makers because of their highly figured look, and when you take that look and apply it to a guitar you really have something special.