Introduction to guitar wood and production

Guitars can be roughly divided into acoustic guitars (folk/fingerstyle guitars, flamenco guitars) and electric guitars ( There are three types, such as standard electric guitar and bass electric guitar) and classical 6-string guitar (classical guitar). So, below is my introduction to guitar wood and production. You are welcome to read and browse.

Basswood (Basswood)

Basswood is a light-weight neutral wood. The white wood part of basswood is usually quite large, milky white, and gradually merges into light wood. The heartwood is brownish-red, sometimes with darker stripes. The wood has fine, uniform texture and vague straight grains. Basswood is highly machinable and easy to work with hand tools, making it an excellent carving material. The fixing performance of nails, screws and glue is still good. A good smooth surface can be obtained by sanding, staining and polishing. It dries fairly quickly, with little deformation and low aging. The shrinkage rate is quite large when drying, but the dimensional stability is good. The timbre is very stable, with a very mild tone and good sustain, but not very grainy. It is mainly used as the body material of electric guitars. It does not have high requirements for pickups and is suitable for pickups of various music styles. In China, it mainly grows in the northeastern region. Other main growing areas are the eastern United States, distributed in the northern states and Lake State. It is widely used in guitar manufacturing. It has good reviews for its good price and good quality.

Maple

The current use of maple can be roughly divided into two types: hard (northern hard or hard rock maple) and soft (western soft or bigleaf maple) . Hard maple is often used to make guitar necks due to its high density, ease of painting, bright sound, and good durability. However, the tone of maple is too bright, so you probably can’t see guitars with Maple bodies (except acoustic guitars). Most of the usage is to combine it with other materials to make the body. For example, PRS and Gibson often use mahogany for the body, plus maple for the surface. So maple can make up for the high frequencies that mahogany lacks, plus it has a very pleasing appearance. Soft maple (such as alder) grows in Washington State, USA. It is lighter in weight, has good sensitivity to the vibration of strings, and has a bright sound, but it is not as crisp as hard maple. Its wood density is lower, and it is not as crisp as hard maple. Fingerboards made of ebony can absorb more audio, and their sound performance is similar to that of rosewood, with a softer sound. In fact, whether it is so-called Flame Maple or Brideye Maple, there is no direct correlation between its wood grain and tone.

Water melon

Also known as chicken claw wood, it belongs to the Betula family and is a semi-evergreen or deciduous tree. The tree is about fifteen meters high. It is resistant to barrenness and stains, has ammonia-fixing ability and is fast-growing. In the woods of Xiangyang Mountain or by the water. The bark of this tree is gray, the trunk is straight, and it grows quickly. The wood is yellowish brown, with straight grain and fine structure. The wood is not easy to crack and deform, is easy to process, has a smooth cut surface, has the characteristics of wood, has a beautiful appearance, has a long dot-like texture, and the wood is softer than basswood. The timbre performance is more prominent than the mid-frequency. However, due to the fiber structure of the wood, the pores are larger, making it difficult to process paint, and the oil absorption capacity is large. After the piano body is polished and left for a period of time, after light observation, you will find that there are many paint sinking phenomena similar to the wood texture.

Sycamore wood

An ultra-light wood, used as the main material in our various folk music productions. It has good treble and mid-range sound, but unlike other lightweight woods, it has extremely poor bass. Sycamore wood is still used in small quantities to make the top of classical guitars, which has a large volume and good tone.

Fraxinus mandshurica

A deciduous tree, it is mainly distributed in the eastern part of the Greater Hinggan Mountains and Xiaoxingan Mountains in Heilongjiang, Northeast my country, Changbai Mountain in Jilin, and also in Qianshan in Liaoning and Hebei in the west. Yanshan Mountains, as well as parts of Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu. The wood of Manchurian ash is tough, the wood grain is beautiful and obvious, the sapwood is yellow-white, the heartwood is brown and slightly yellow, and the color of the wood is slightly light golden after sawing and planing. The material is medium hard, with smooth texture, beautiful patterns, good processing performance and paint performance, water resistance and wear resistance, and small deformation. It has good treble and sustained sound. The original wood color is very beautiful after polishing, and the texture is clearly visible. Due to the material characteristics, it is mainly used to make the body of bass guitar in the guitar manufacturing industry. However, during the manufacturing process, attention should be paid to the problem of material cracking and the problem of weak wood paneling. Ash is an ideal surface material and is widely used in making various furniture, musical instruments, sports equipment, vehicles and boats, machinery and special building materials.

(NATO)

A kind of wood similar to mahogany, with a wood color and texture similar to mahogany. It is heavier than mahogany, and the material is slightly brittle. It has more balanced audio in the high, mid and bottom sounds. It is mainly used to make high-end electric guitar bodies and necks, and is also widely used to make acoustic guitar neck materials and body materials. The wood-colored piano body is quite textured, and some are also antique-colored during production. You can refer to it.

Alder (Alder)

Because alder is light (a Strat model weighs about 4 pounds) and has rich and perfect sound characteristics, it is often used Used to make the body parts. Its tight texture allows it to be easily processed for surface polishing. The natural color of alder is slightly light brown or has no clear grain lines. Alder has been a mainstay in Fender body parts for many years. Suitable for sunburst or solid color polishing.

Mahogany

It can be said to be the alternative to Rosewood. The wood grain is quite nice, but it lacks the huge ringing effect of red sandalwood. However, due to its unique tone and low price, it has become one of the most commonly used woods for guitars. Mahogany is a heavier wood. Generally, the body of a Strat model weighs 5 pounds or more on average [GIBSON guitars are often 9 or 10 pounds, which is really heavy]. Mahogany is a wood with fine grain and natural musical qualities. The sound quality is warm and perfect, the tone is warm and rich in low frequency, and has very good sustain characteristics. Its unique texture makes it easy to polish (think of the wonderful pattern on the Gibson body), and although it may not look ideal for a clear polish, it is particularly suitable for a red transparent polish.

Poplar (Poplar)

This is another standardized body wood commonly used by major guitar manufacturers. Because it is gray or green, poplar is only used for solid color (that is, single opaque) treatment [such as many JACKSON pianos]. It weighs about half a pound more than alder (0.5 pounds more). The sound quality is similar to alder. Poplar is also tightly grained and easily polished.

Ash

Also known as ash, there are generally two types of ash - northern hard ash and swamp ash (southern soft ash). Northern hard ash is very hard, heavy and dense. A Strat model body usually weighs at least 5 pounds. Its high density gives it a bright sound and long sustain characteristics, which make it more popular. Ash wood is generally cream-colored, but can sometimes appear pink to brown. Its texture has open pores so it requires a lot of polishing to refine it. Swamp ash (southern soft ash) is a rare wood. There are many reasons. It is an inherently musical wood - providing an excellent balance of bright, clear and warm, thick sound characteristics. It is also very light, which is a major feature that distinguishes it from northern ash. The average Strat model body is about 5 pounds or less. Many 1950s Fenders were built from swamp ash. It is also cream in color and has an open texture.

Ash

Ash wood can also be divided into two types: hard (Northern Hard) and soft (Southern Soft or Swamp Ash). Hard ash is quite hard and heavy. Due to its density, its sound is quite bright and long-lasting. Although its color is cream, it will have a pink or brown color in the core of the wood. Its pores Larger, more procedures are required when painting. Soft ash is quite valuable. Most of FENDER's pianos in the 1950s used this wood. Because it is lighter, you can easily distinguish the two ash woods by weight. It has a fairly balanced brightness and gentleness. Sound characteristics.

Alder (Alder)

Alder is probably one of the lower-priced woods, but it is a guitar wood that many people love. Because of its light weight and rich sound, alder is widely used in making guitar bodies. Its tight and fine pores allow them to be easily painted. The color of alder is somewhat light tan. Most Fender guitars use this wood, especially the Stratocaster. As for the tone, you can probably tell a thing or two just by playing a good Fender. Of course, if you have a bad impression of Alder, it's because today's manufacturers just pick cheap ones, while those high-end handmade pianos only pick beautiful Maples. It's a pity that Alder, who is so good these days, has become neither good nor bad. As famous as Alder, I would probably recommend Ash. The reason is also because the famous manufacturer Fender uses it extensively in the body production of Telecaster. The Ash is quite heavy and has a very solid low end. Due to its good material properties and low price, alder wood is quite common in the production of musical instruments.

Introduction to guitar manufacturing wood

Headstock, neck

The choice of materials for the neck is not single, and also shows a process of development and change. Most guitars in the 19th century used European maple, and in the 20th century they gradually transitioned to mahogany from Central and South America.

In recent years, mahogany in Central and South America has been listed as an endangered species, so mahogany from Africa and red pine (Cedro) from South America or Spain with similar properties have become successors.

Experienced players who use electric guitars may have more say in the impact of the neck on the sound. They clearly found that a maple neck made the guitar sound brighter, while using mahogany gave the guitar a more woody warmth. Whether it is mahogany or red pine, it is obviously a hardwood, and it must be, because it and the fingerboard have to withstand about 70KG of tension from the strings without deforming; however, the paradox is here. , because it is the carrier on which the string tension at this end directly acts, it must have good sound conduction like the panel, and it must have good elasticity to form good resonance.

It is not easy to judge whether the wood of the neck is suitable. Flexibility, density, and weight vary widely among them, as do guitar builders' guitar types and weights. All in all, good resonance is the only goal, and only through meticulous observation and accumulated experience can this problem be overcome.

Fingerboard

The preferred material for the fingerboard is ebony, which is also a hardwood from Africa. The fact that the fretboard is made of ebony and stands alone as a component of this guitar is not a given. In guitars before the 19th century, the fretboard and neck were not separated. Makers directly slotted the frets into the neck plane to form the fingerboard function, and added various decorative patterns of the time (illustration). Its effective area is also limited to the surface of the neck and does not extend to the panel below the neck. With the joint efforts of the Austrian guitar maker Johann Georg Staufer (1778~1853) and other contemporaries, the fingerboard area extends from the neck down to the sound hole, and at 12 The position of the frets is aligned with the connection between the neck and the guitar case. It was around this time that makers discovered that the extremely stable ebony was ideal for the role of a fretboard. So it was planed into a very thin long strip, cleverly installed on the surface of the neck, and extended to the sound hole, thus ensuring the stability of the neck and intonation (see American Lutherie 4 for performance). Since ebony itself is very dense and has a large damping coefficient, the impact of the fingerboard on the overall sound needs to be considered from a comprehensive perspective. For example, a guitar with a smaller speaker, or a guitar with a less resonant body, will be more likely to be dampened by ebony. At this time, it would be more appropriate to choose rosewood with lower density and lower damping coefficient.

Panel

The panel is the sounding board, which amplifies the amplitude of the string vibration and radiates sound energy into the space. As the sound board itself, the material is required to have low damping, good vibration performance and a regular cycle. The actual effect tests our choice, and this material must meet these harsh conditions as much as possible. White pine, a coniferous softwood grown in Europe, has high vibration, good tone, and stable pronunciation. Because of its many innate advantages, it has been the only choice for making guitar tops for hundreds of years. It was not until the 1960s that the status was finally shaken by the challenge of red pine, another coniferous softwood growing in the Americas. Today, the use of red pine on guitars has been very common, as if it was born that way. This kind of rebellious behavior can be traced back to the first discovery of American red pine wood by Spanish guitar maker José Ramírez III (1922–1995) in the 1860s, and it has been widely recognized by many guitar makers. Application examples.

Back and side panels

The back and side panels serve as support for the panel and ensure the continuous effect of sound waves by stabilizing the acoustic space. This requires materials that are stable in texture and can supplement the lack of vibration in certain aspects of the panel. Rosewood, a hardwood broad-leaved tree, stands out with its stability, wide frequency response range, and outstanding tonal personality, defeating all opponents. After successive challenges from maple to cypress to Cuban mahogany, its identity as the chief successor has been tested for a very long time. Whether it is Indian rosewood, Madagascar rosewood, or Brazilian rosewood, they all successfully give the guitar a noble sound, comfortable and stable, complete tone and clear personality, forming the definition of modern classical guitar.

In 1706, Jean-Baptiste Voboam (after 1658–1731), a Baroque guitar maker in Paris, France, had already used extremely exotic wood-Violet wood (also known as Violet wood). It is called Kingwood, a type of rosewood), it is very thin and has a very high density. In view of the situation at that time, we guess that the maker chose this kind of wood for decorative effect. However, in 1878, when the Andalusian guitar maker Juan Pages used Brazilian rosewood as a backboard and it was inherited by subsequent Spanish guitar makers, we have to start to think that he may have already achieved this in terms of its sound effects. Gained experience in a certain area.

Over time, this wood was determined to be the best choice.

It is worth noting that the enthusiasm of manufacturers to try other woods has not diminished at all. Antonio de Torres experimented frequently with maple at the end of the 19th century, Francisco Simplicio (1874-1932) preferred Cuban mahogany for 30 years of his life, and Ignacio Frei Ignacio Fleta developed the use of flame maple around 1958. Other woods that have been tried include: Purpleheart, Ceylon Satinwood and Cuban Mahogany, etc.

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