Rosewood overtones on classical guitar

[PeterMN]

I recently rediscovered the joys of playing fingerstyle on my new steel string Eastman E8 OM. It is my first guitar with rosewood back and sides and I find that it's overtones really let the guitar sing. It's reverb-esque quality sounds particularly beautiful when playing classical pieces. It has me wondering, if I were to ever take up classical guitar could I expect a nylon guitar with rosewood back and sides to have similar tonal qualities, or is the lower string tension and/or other factors such that the reverb quality would be lost?

[Bax Burgess]

You've touched on it, nylon and steel are far apart. For instance, when I add vibrato on a steel, I achieve it by rapid lateral bending, which has negligible effect on my nylon. On a nylon I use the rapid parallel movement. So the sensitivities of steel and nylon are significant. A nylon guitar with a rosewood back would need to be compared with a comparable nylon, mahogany backed guitar. If I wanted Flamenco snap, that's easier, Maple always seems to deliver in that regard. With a Classical, I would be satisfied with either Mahogany or Rosewood, the top being the decider.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by PeterMN

... could I expect a nylon guitar with rosewood back and sides to have similar tonal qualities...

No. One is apples, the other oranges. A nylon string instrument is a different
animal than a steel string guitar: they don't sound at all alike, regardless of the materials used to make them.

That also makes the assumption that "this" wood sound like "this" and "that wood sounds like "that". That is a fairly widely held belief, with not a lot of basis. People don't like to hear that.

[OKCtodd71]

FWIW, on classical guitars rosewood B&S are far, far more common than hog. This does not mean that hog can't work or that you won't prefer mahogany B&S over rosewood. But the vast majority of professional recordings that you've heard feature rosewood rather than mahogany.

[MarkinLA]

A great reason for playing classical pieces on classical guitars is the wide nut.
Classical music has much of the time, several lines intertwining simultaneously..Steel string guitars' narrower nuts don't spread the strings far enough apart so as to prevent unwanted deadening of notes meant to be kept ringing..Plus, the nylon or titanium strings closer match the original sound of cat gut strings in the 15th or later centuries..Steel strings are more like a mandolin's sound...the precursor to the modern steel string, plectrum guitar.....