Do you think African Blackwood sounds 'Mysterious'?

[colins]

Descriptions get personal and when I think of my African Blackwood Baranik I think whiskey and cream. My whiskey and cream may be someone else’s mysterious. Great fingerstyle guitar, probably due to the way the top was voiced.

I had another AB guitar for a while that I thought was just bland, definitely not mysterious!

Sounds like ebony? The very nice ebony Goodall I had for a while sounded nothing like my Baranik, but that could be due to the different building styles.

Tassie blackwood is an acacia while African blackwood is a rosewood. They can both be used to great effect, but to my ears they do not sound similar.

[LeftyKev]

... and the prize for the most ridiculous poll goes to ..........

[musicman1951]

On my last shopping trip I was between to Lowden guitars - same model, different woods. The rosewood was a beautiful guitar, but I paid considerably more to own the African Blackwood/Sinker Redwood.

As we often state here, the builder is more important than the wood. African Blackwood is George Lowden's favorite guitar wood. I prefer my guitar tone on the darker/less trebly side (words are so inadequate when trying to describe sound), and the Sinker Redwood made it the perfect guitar for me.

How would my guitar sound with a spruce top? I have no idea.

[EZYPIKINS]

Originally Posted by mmasters

This has the mysterious sound to me...

That sounds huge.

[jaymarsch]

Originally Posted by mcduffnw

That is a very rich and beautiful "very modern" toned guitar, but the mysterious part is, to me, much more the tuning and chord shapes and progressions, and playing style of Mr. Ryan...an elegant and lovely player BTW...than it is the back and side wood.

Would the guitar still sound mysterious tuned to standard pitch and playing Sweet Baby James in the way the JT does it these days? Prolly not so much...

Great sounding guitar for sure though...if you like that kind of tone and timbre...and I DO!!!


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

Well said, duff - I agree.

Best,
Jayne

[drive-south]

I like a guitar with Haunting Mids. Does AB have Haunting Mids? If so, I'm in.

[Stratcat77]

My Tasmanian Blackwood 426ce sounds like this. IMG_4401.jpg

[Scotso]

Why mysterious?? Is it because it comes from the dark continent. Just for reference-

"The Dark Continent "represented as Africa" The continent's name, Dark Continent, most likely comes from the real-life identical term or expression used before the late 19th century to describe Africa (particularly sub-Saharan Africa) due to its interior being considered mysterious and dangerous at the time."

[darrwhit]

Originally Posted by Scotso

Why mysterious?? Is it because it comes from the dark continent. Just for reference-

"The Dark Continent "represented as Africa" The continent's name, Dark Continent, most likely comes from the real-life identical term or expression used before the late 19th century to describe Africa (particularly sub-Saharan Africa) due to its interior being considered mysterious and dangerous at the time."

So that's why my fretboard is still a mystery! I knew I needed to switch to Indian-grown EIR.