Is Sitka spruce good for guitars?
The most commonly used wood for guitar tops, Sitka generates a broad dynamic range and accommodates numerous playing styles, from aggressive strumming to fingerpicking. As a guitar soundboard, or top, Sitka spruce is the tonewood standard of the modern era.
Is spruce a good guitar wood?
Spruce is a light wood with a subtle grain pattern. This wood gives our guitars a more “classic” look, as spruce is the most popular top wood across the board for acoustic guitars. Spruce will contrast with the dark wood (pau ferro or mahogany) back & sides, which gives it another dimension of aesthetic charm.
What is Sitka spruce good for?
Sitka spruce is valued for its wood, which is light, soft, and relatively strong and flexible. It is used for general construction, ship building and plywood. The wood has excellent acoustic properties and is used to make sounding boards in pianos and other musical instruments such as violins and guitars.
Why is spruce used for soundboards?
Spruces are often used in the sound boards of instruments from the lute, violin, oud, mandolin, guitar, and harpsichord families; as well as the piano. Spruce is particularly suited for this use because of its high stiffness-to-weight ratio.
Is Sitka Spruce expensive?
Pricing/Availability: Construction grade spruce is cheap and easy to find. However, old growth and/or quartersawn clear pieces—free from knots—can be more expensive. Quartersawn billets of instrument-grade Sitka Spruce can easily exceed the cost of most all domestic hardwoods in terms of per board-foot cost.
Which spruce is best for guitar?
Sitka Spruce
Top Woods. Arguably the most common tonewood, Sitka Spruce is a well-rounded tonewood, one suited for many styles of playing. It’s known for its tight grain pattern and its high stiffness and relative lightness, translating to a broad dynamic range that stands up well when strummed heartily.
Which is better mahogany or spruce?
Mahogany guitars sound smoother and warmer compared to spruce top guitars which sound brighter and more crisp. This is because mahogany produces more bass and mid-range emphasis compared to spruce which has more treble emphasis.
What is the best tonewood?
Top Woods. Arguably the most common tonewood, Sitka Spruce is a well-rounded tonewood, one suited for many styles of playing. It’s known for its tight grain pattern and its high stiffness and relative lightness, translating to a broad dynamic range that stands up well when strummed heartily.
What are the disadvantages of spruce wood?
Spruce trees are prone to numerous needle, branch and root diseases, including spruce needle rust, needle blight, cytospora canker, root rot and the parasitic Eastern spruce dwarf mistletoe.
Is Sitka spruce wood expensive?
What is the most resonant wood?
Honduras Rosewood, a very unique wood with unparalleled sound qualities grows in the heart of Central America. The beauty of its resonance can even be heard on a raw-cut piece of wood Honduras Rosewood, which is also known for its hardness and durability.
What’s the difference between spruce and Sitka Spruce?
Specific Gravity is a of measure of density, and The Sitka spruce Wins in this category. Sitka edges out red spruce in hardness, so it won’t scratch as easily. Modulus of rupture is bending strength- Sitka wins this test. Elastic modulus is the wood stiffness with the fiber- Again Sitka is the stiffer.
What is the best guitar tone wood?
Mahogany, mainly used in the acoustic world, for back and sides. It is the most commonly used hardwood because it’s relatively economical, durable, attractive, easy to work with and resonant. Mahogany became popular in guitars because it is attractive and cheaper to get than rosewood.
What is the best wood to make a guitar out of?
Spruce: Spruce is the most common top wood. Spruce is light but strong and comes in a number of varieties with the most common variety for guitar tops being Sitka Spruce.
What is the best wood for guitar body?
Mahogany
Mahogany, mainly used in the acoustic world, for back and sides. It is the most commonly used hardwood because it’s relatively economical, durable, attractive, easy to work with and resonant. Mahogany became popular in guitars because it is attractive and cheaper to get than rosewood.
Which is better spruce or cedar?
Spruce guitars typically have a quite direct sound with a bell-like tone. They seem to be more clear, balanced and sometimes have more sustain. Cedar however, makes the guitar sound darker, warmer and generally fuller.
What wood is best for acoustics?
One of the most popular woods for acoustic guitar tops. Sturdy and lightweight, it’s known for imparting clear, powerful tone.
Is Sitka spruce rot resistant?
Although not particularly defective as a live tree, the wood of Sitka spruce is not decay resistant. Snags do not persist standing for long. The fungus Fomitopsis pinicola causes a great deal of the wood decomposition in dead trees.
Which wood is stronger pine or spruce?
Structural Lumber
Because spruce has a higher strength-to-weight ratio, it may have a slight advantage over pine for structural applications.
Is spruce better than pine?
Overall, pine is probably the better choice for flooring. It has more character, and can hide dents better than spruce. If you’re going for a pine appearance, but still require durability, use yellow pine — it’s about four times harder than soft pine.
What wood are Fender Strats made of?
Alder
Alder is the most common choice for Stratocasters, Jaguars and Jazzmasters as well as the Jazz Bass due to its warmer balanced tone. More specifically, Red Alder is used by Fender as it is fast growing and readily available.
What wood is best for guitar body?
What guitar wood is best for fingerstyle?
Spruce. Spruce is a classic when it comes to tonewoods, especially those used for soundboards. While Solid Sitka spruce is the most common, some fingerstyle guitarists prefer Engelmann spruce, which is lighter in weight and often more responsive.
What wood has the best tone?
Arguably the most common tonewood, Sitka is a well-rounded tonewood, one suited for many styles of playing. It’s known for its tight grain pattern and its high stiffness and relative lightness, translating to a broad dynamic range that stands up well when strummed heartily.
Why do old guitars sound better?
The Quick Answer. Older guitars often sound better than newer ones as they dry out over time which causes them to become harder leading to a more resonant tone with better sustain. The increase in age affects the tone more in acoustic guitars than electric ones.