Grade your Guitar Wood

[M Sarad]

When I bought my guitars, no mention of wood grade was ever heard. I didn’t care about runout, A, AA, AAA,AAAA, or Master grade. I was interested in sound. Still am.

[rstaight]

Woodworking is one of my hobbies. Some of the furniture I build I look for those imperfections. When properly placed it can add a lot of character to the piece.

My Takamine GD93 and my Indiana Scout both have little blems for lack of a better term in the top. It's not much on the Tak and you need to look a little harder but I like the character. Wouldn't be surprised if they were both graded AAA.

To paraphrase what Wade said. If it sounds good the grade of the wood doesn't mean a thing.

[Bridgepin]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

I don’t and won’t grade the wood in my guitars: they’re not in school. Although I suppose you can say that I use the pass/fail approach: if they pass (sound really good) I buy them, if they fail I don’t.

While I appreciate the glories of gorgeous wood as much as the next person, to my mind the cosmetic appearance is actually irrelevant when it comes to judging a musical instrument. Yeah, I can enjoy the dazzling grain patterns of rare and costly oingo-boingo wood, but it’s not enough to make me buy a guitar.


Wade Hampton Miller

These are my feelings exactly, looking pretty is a bonus but the sound of the instrument is first and foremost.

[Otterhound]

Grading is for the uninformed and bling has no tone .
The woods that I harvest have 2 grades ; acceptable for luthery and not acceptable for luthery .

[Tnfiddler]

That’s the beauty of Bourgeois guitars, GREAT looks and KILLER tone!!

[Silly Moustache]

This is a term that I've seen frequently on websites.

I suspect that it means - "the one on the top of the pile".

[zmf]

Originally Posted by Tnfiddler

I’ll let each of you grade my Bourgeois for me. What grade does it get?

I see tiger stripes -- which add interest -- so I say it's a nice top. Some folks would prefer uniform thin bands, and say not so nice.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

This is a term that I've seen frequently on websites.

I suspect that it means - "the one on the top of the pile".

At least we don't have to worry whether it's considered organic.

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

At least we don't have to worry whether it's considered organic.

Like the torrified organic top wood thing ?

[Wade Hampton]

Just to add to what’s already been said, from what I have seen the grading of tonewoods is useful mostly for those who sell it, not those of us who are the end users of the instruments that the wood ends up in. I do take an interest when the top wood is heavily silked, and I have a strong preference for straight-grained quartersawn backs and sides.

But trying to grade wood on a one to four or one to five star basis serves no purpose for me at all. What’s more, when others do it, it often seems arbitrary at best.

You’ll notice that nobody ever seems to have a “one star” top or a “one and a half star” set of back and sides wood - it’s always “four stars” or “five stars.” Yet logically it follows that if you’re going to have these higher grades of wood there have to be lower grades beneath them.

So where are all the one to three star tops?

Maybe the guitar makers are trying to shield our delicate sensibilities and are just selling those lesser tops off to be made into disposable diapers...

Okay, I’m being unfair as well as snarky, but hopefully you take my point. Whenever wood grades generally get mentioned it’s always top-heavy with supposedly superior sets, while average grades of wood go unmentioned entirely.

That’s at our level as players and guitar buyers. Guitar manufacturers and wholesalers necessarily do grade the wood they buy and sell, but because those in-house gradations are inevitably influenced more by cosmetic considerations than anything else, they’re not a reliable guide to how an instrument will sound.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Rodger Knox]

Originally Posted by Tnfiddler

I’ll let each of you grade my Bourgeois for me. What grade does it get?

The back & sides are AAA. The top is AA at best, and that's only if it is red spruce. Cosmetically good red spruce large enough for guitar tops is much more rare, so the grading is skewed to reflect that. If it's any other species of spruce, it's an A or B top.

A suppliers grading scheme has no effect on the tone, only the appearance.

[Tnfiddler]

Originally Posted by Rodger Knox

The back & sides are AAA. The top is AA at best, and that's only if it is red spruce. Cosmetically good red spruce large enough for guitar tops is much more rare, so the grading is skewed to reflect that. If it's any other species of spruce, it's an A or B top.

A suppliers grading scheme has no effect on the tone, only the appearance.

It’s an Adi top. I’ve not seen too many tops that impress me that much, even this one. This is my first mahogany guitar and I love the back and sides of it. What I’m blown away by is the tone!! It’s hands down the best sounding guitar I’ve ever played or owned. I will always love Taylor’s, but I’m Bourgeois first from now on.

[Earl49]

I once owned a Sigma DR-28 that had more color and striping than that Bourgeois. Yet that inexpensive guitar was a tone monster, for which I received multiple trade offers for genuine D-28's. I suspect that the only reason that particular top was rejected by Martin for a D-28 was because of the cosmetics. Back then only Manila folder colored, very clean tops got into the Standard Series.

[gmel555]

No doubt we can all have our own opinions on how we would grade the wood on our guitars. Forgive me if I'm taking this topic in a slightly different direction, but since the prices we pay are often based on the grades we're told we're getting, I'm interested in hearing more from luthiers on this thread about just what is the current grading system based on?, and who decides the grade? (wood supplier or luthier?). Is it based on appearance?, stability?, tap tone?, how it was stored/aged?, how close it is to the perfect Janka Score for that particular species? Would the same pieces of wood consistently be given the same grades by all/most luthiers?

My understanding...most of the really wild grain/highly figured body woods and bear claw spruce tops -which now have an up-charge- would have been rejected years ago as unacceptable for musical instruments. Although luthiers today certainly make some fantastic sounding instruments from highly figured wood. If so, that suggests that grading may be largely appearance based.

[Otterhound]

When all the veils are dropped , the real answer is that grading allows for higher prices .