Taking a Plunge to Help Your Fellow Man!

“What is tone?” Webster’s Dictionary gives one definition… Tone: vocal or musical sound of a specific quality; musical sound with respect to timber and manner of expression. Tone is one of the most overused, misunderstood terms guitarists wrestle with around the globe. Tone is a sound/a musical sound that you hear which brings a sudden, profound, and defining impact on a guitar player’s life. In the next couple of issues we will delve into the mysteries of tone, and how different factors can affect the way a guitar sounds. This issue we will look at some different tonewoods and how they affect the sound of a guitar.  Acoustic guitar Soundboard The front or top of an acoustic guitar which generally has the sound hole in it. The sound board is said to be the most important part of an acoustic guitar. It transmits vibrations from the plucked or strummed strings. It has to be light enough to vibrate, but rigid enough to withstand string tension. Here are some examples of popular soundboardwoods:                    Spruce has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any woods, and is a typical choice for acoustic guitar tops. You’ll read names like “Sitka,” “Engelmann,” “Adirondack” and “European or German Spruce”. These are all graded by A to AAA rating. The higher-rated spruce is very good wood, but can make for a very expensive guitar. Some spruce varieties are hard to find today. NOTE: You will also come across the term “solid” or “laminated” top. A solid top is one sheet of wood cut to the thickness of the soundboard. “Laminated” is several thin sheets of wood glued together, much like plywood. There is a difference in the tone. The solid tops vibrate more and sound better. Of course, you pay much less for a laminated-top guitar. Truth be told, the laminates don’t sound too bad, and I generally recommend them for someone starting out. Cedar is a popular choice for many classical guitars. It is softer, and not as elastic as spruce. It has a warm tone, rich inharmonics and crispness. Redwood is mostly used on high-end classical or steel-stringed guitars. The tone compares to cedar, but possesses more of the qualities associated with spruce. It has a “punchier” tone than cedar. Cypress was the original wood of the Flamingo guitarists in Spain, dating back to the 16th century. It has a traditional tone, much like cedar. Backs & Sides The wood used to build acoustic guitar backs and sides must be resonant and be able to reflect sound. The side wood must also bend well, and hold its shape.                      Rosewood has long been a favorite for backs and sides because of its great projection, balanced tone with a strong bass response. Mahogany has fewer overtones, crisper and less bass response than rosewood. It tends to be very warm-sounding. Koa is a Hawaiian wood whose density falls somewhere between mahogany and rosewood. Koa is also used to make guitar tops, with nice results.   Electric Guitar Bodies The tonewood you choose for anacoustic guitar has a bigger influence on sound than the wood for an electric guitar, but electric guitars are affected by the different types of woods as well. Although much of an electric guitar’s tone is actually created after the signal leaves the guitar (pedals, amps), there are subtle differences that various types of wood can produce. Body woods on solid-body electrics are sometimes one single piece of wood, but often two or three pieces glued together. The single piece of wood is more responsive and expensive, although the two- or three-piece is stronger and more resistant to weather conditions.                      Mahogany is the wood used in a majority of Gibson guitars, and it’s known for its rich mid-range and punch. It’s a very easy wood to work with. Certain types of mahogany are getting scarcer because of over-forestation. Swamp Ash is the preferred wood for the vintage Fender-style tone. It has a firm base and rich, sparkling high notes. Swamp ash differs from northernash (commonly used for baseball bats) in that it’s softer, more porous and musical. Alder is another Fender guitar favorite. It is abundant and more widely-used than swamp ash. Alder has great punch, attack and slightly fuller mid-range than swamp ash. It has good high-end sustain.                      Basswood is very plentiful, soft and inexpensive. Its tonal response is not very complex, and the dynamic range is relatively limited. Poplar is often compared to alder, although a bit denser. It’s fairly inexpensive, and is now a stable use in many new Fender guitars. Poplar is found in a lot of beginner guitars. It’s unusually resonant, and has an exceptionally crisp sound. Poplar guitars are good choices for players favoring a clean sound with a snappy disposition. Maple laminated to a bottom tonewood, such as basswood, mahogany, alder or ash, can expand the tones of both woods used. Maple often comes in flame or quilted pattern. The original attack of the note will be more like theharder maple, while the resonance and decay of the note will be determined by the bottom wood. Les Pauls have used these types of laminates for years. The maple helps to brighten the mahogany bottom and gives the guitar the Les Paul sound. Neck Woods One word that you’re likely to come across when researching neck woods is quartersawn. Quartersawn is a term that describes a non-standard method of milling lumber, and more costly to produce. Quartersawn necks can be 50% stronger than standard slabsawn necks. For more information, check out . Cedar is a traditional choice for classical guitars, and is now growing in popularity among its steel-string cousins. It is stable and easy to carve. Maple is the most common electric guitar neck wood. It is strong, stable and less susceptible to environmental changes than any other neck wood. Its tone is highly reflective. Maple works well for bolt-on necks. Mahogany is a very even density and makes for a very stable neck. It is more responsive thana maple neck. Mahogany will compress the attack and the high notes a little. Rosewood is a heavy, oily wood. It produces excellent sustain, while smoothing out the highs. Fingerboard (a/k/a Fretboard) Woods With the exception of some Fender fingerboards, which are part of the maple neck, most fingerboards are laminated to the neck and the frets are set into that. The fingerboard wood can be as significant as the neck wood.            Maple is very bright and dense, and is highly reflective. It encourages higher over-tone. Many Fenders use a maple fingerboard with a thin layer of clear coat (lacquer or poly). Rosewood is the most common fretboard. It is naturally oily and doesn’t need to be finished. The sound is richer than maple and the stray over-tones are absorbed into the oily pores. Ebony is the brightest and smoothest of fretboard woods. It has a very snappy, crisp attack with lots of percussive over-tones. Pau ferro’s tones fall between rosewood and ebony: snappier than rosewoodand warmer-sounding than ebony. It is less expensive and easier to find. As you can see, most guitars are crafted from wood.  I say most, because there are some that are not.  Danelectro has used masonite (material used for making countertops) for the front and back of some of their guitar models. These do have a poplar frame, and the side is bound with cream-colored vinyl.  These produce a very bright, jangly-sounding guitar, much like a Fender Telecaster.                      Guitars are built using some of the most exotic woods on the planet. Many species are from fragile ecosystems, such as rainforests. Over the last 30 years, the quality lumber used for guitars has been disappearing at a pretty fast rate. The prices for these types of wood have gone up quite dramatically as well. Many varieties of this old-growth timber come from countries that are not very stable—economically, politically and with regulatory powers that are under-funded or ignored altogether. Gibson guitars, inparticular, were just recently the subject of a probe in which the US Government seized pallets of illegal ebony from Madagascar. Gibson, of course, still wants the wood back –but it’s still illegal wood no matter who bought or sold it to whom. This isn’t the first time Gibson was pinched for just this reason. As long as we are dealing with countries with a pronounced black-market crime element and the laws on our books, dating back a hundred years, we will have different interpretations and problems with illegal lumber. There is another element to the problem. Prized trees, like mahogany, rosewood and ebony, are “solitary growers,” which are hidden away amongst the other species. For loggers to reach the target trees, large areas of woodland need to be cleared. This leads to deforestation of a fragile ecosystem that won’t come back, at least for hundreds of years –if ever.   …or    Why the concern? Over three million acoustic and electric guitars are sold in the U.S. every year.  That’s a lot of wood.  What can I do about it? (I still love my guitars!) Answer: me too! There are alternatives to using up so much of our irreplaceable resources. The guitar manufacturers know these challenges well, and many of them have been working with woods not in danger of extinction. Taylor Guitars once had a small line of acoustic guitars built from the shipping crates in their warehouse. These were made of oak and soft pine, and called pallet guitars. Even though they still bear the impressions of the nail holes, these guitars apparently felt and sounded great. (Good luck finding one –very rare!) There are new eco-friendly guitars out there today. Bamboo seems to be a positive newcomer to the field. It is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. (With the right conditions, bamboo can grow 48” in a 24-hour period!) This abundant, renewable resource is actually harder than maple, with a bright, similar tone.            Of course, my favorite way to keep from using up ourprecious old-growth timber is recycling at its best. This is much like taking a trip to the Humane Society and adopting a new family friend instead of getting one from a breeder/pet factory. Used guitars are a good answer; buying a previously-enjoyed guitar for a fraction of the price of a new one is a no-brainer. I know there are many craftsmen out there building fine guitars, but there will likely always be someone with the funds to keep them in business. Many musicians, especially those just starting out, don’t have the wallet for an expensive guitar. With a used guitar, you can usually get a better-built guitar for the price. NOTE: For a newbie to guitardome, I recommend bringing a friend who knows a bit about guitars, because with used stuff there’s usually a “no return policy”. (Buyer be warned!) I have to say, in the many, many years in which I’ve bought and sold gear, that the positive transactions have far outweighed the negative ones. As you can see, there are many guitarsout there built with different varieties of wood. Some guitars use the same kind of wood, but have very different voices. There are other factors that go into building a guitar that help give it a characteristic tone. Ah –tone. That’s right, this is an issue about tone. Next time, we’ll look at some of the different variables other than wood that help shape a guitar’s tone. Til then, I’m going to chill out with our adopted muttley crew and play hard!