What are some other woods?

[Jim Comeaux]

There have been the usual assortment of discussions about Mahogany, Rosewood, Various spruce species, etc., but what about a few wood types that are beautiful, but not so common? Many, many years ago I owned a classical guitar made of Escrito, a Central American tropical hardwood, that is absolutely stunning. I lent it to my brother who later sold it. Hey! Oh well, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. What other woods are out there that are flying under the radar? Do you have one that you wish someone would make a guitar out of?

[Mr. Jelly]

I shocked myself by enjoying my cherry wood back and sides guitar so much. I was and still am a mahogany fan. I don't care for Rosewood, Koa, Walnut, Oak or Maple. From my experience I could see allot of guitars being made and appreciated being made with cherry wood. The sound is somewhere between Mahogany and Maple to me.

[davenumber2]

A few off the top of my head that I know have been used but aren't all that common:

Ovangkol
Pao Ferro
Pearwood
Sapele (becoming more common)
Acacia
Paduok
Sipo
Khaya

[KevinH]

Breedlove is one of the few manufacturers using Myrtlewood.

[hubcapsc]

I've always wondered about a guitar with a straight grain heart pine top.
It is still possible to obtain wide river recovered boards, I had a real nice
sample once... this is just a two inch wide heartpine floor board at my
house, there's lots better material than this out there...



There's a big straight cherry tree down in my woods. I have a big old
wide (enough?) walnut board out in my pole barn. Cherry or Walnut
for the back and sides on my imaginary guitar. Or quarter sawn
white oak (Quercus alba)...

There's local stuff like dogwood and persimmon that's real hard and
stable. Dogwood in particular was used heavily in weaving machine
parts in industrial mills around here. Maybe it would work ok for
fretboards and bridges...

-Mike

[jjbigfly]

Myrtlewood makes a good instrument…

[The Watchman]

I thought Taylor uses Ovangkol a lot?

Maybe the question is what properties of wood make for good sounding instruments. There's a big difference between the structure of white oak and cherry for example, so what is more desirable? Or maybe the lesson is any wood can work for back and sides, other than appearance.

[RussellHawaii]

Myrtle, Osage Orange, Jacaranda (‘Indonesian Rosewood’) and Malaysian Blackwood have recently expanded my woodview. They sound great. Myrtle and Osage Orange smell good also!

[davenumber2]

Originally Posted by The Watchman

I thought Taylor uses Ovangkol a lot?

Maybe the question is what properties of wood make for good sounding instruments. There's a big difference between the structure of white oak and cherry for example, so what is more desirable? Or maybe the lesson is any wood can work for back and sides, other than appearance.

Yes, Taylor does and Eastman now has a couple models with it but I wouldn't call it widely used among the industry.

[The Bard Rocks]

There are hundreds of them - check out TonewoodDataSource.weebly.com Hundreds and hundreds of photos and useful descriptions.

Some are obscure, others just not commonly used. The world is before you if you choose not to use Mahogany or Rosewood (nothing wrong with them either).

In instruments that I have had (or still have) besides the BIG 2 woods, there have been Alaskan Yellow Cedar, Australian Blackwood, Bloodwood, Curly Ash, Bubinga, Ebony, Ipe, Koa, Macassar Ebony, Maple (Birdseye, flamed and regular), Myrtle, Port Orford Cedar, Padauk, Red Cedar, Sequoia, Sinker Redwood, Southern Magnolia, various Spruces, Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle, Brazilian Walnut, & Ziricote. And a couple on a Yang Chin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) I could not identify.

And there's a lot more I'd love to have experience with!

[Dru Edwards]

Most guitar tops have a type of spruce but cedar makes for an excellent top as well. Godin (Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Norman, Art & Lutherie) makes great guitars with a laminate wild cherry back/sides.

[redir]

Some alternative woods I have used:

Exotic:

Black Limba
Wenge
Bacote
Bubinga
Imbuia (a favorite of mine)

Domestic:

Catalpa
White Oak (another favorite)
Sycamore
Walnut
Cherry
Maple
Osage Orange
Myrtlewood (electric guitar)

That's about all i can think of but suffice to say any wood makes a good guitar if the guitar is made well.

[Skarsaune]

Black Locust is a fine tonewood.

[elephony]

Others have mentioned it, but I have an osage orange 0 bodied guitar that is fantastic. A great domestic rosewood alternative. I've heard similar things about black locust, and black walnut is supposed to be in the same neighborhood as but a bit different from maple in a nice way, but osage orange is the only one I'm intimately familiar with and have only great things to say about it.

[mikef]

Granadillo reminds me of rosewood sonically. I had a Martin with Granadillo back & sides. I believe Taylor has used it from time to time.