Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello friends want little help from all of u.
i have searched form the sources which says that quarter sawn wood with straight grains are preferred in luthierie.
but i have seen high end classical and acoustic guitars have very figured back and sides sets.
some of my luthier friends have said that quarter sawn wood is more stable than figured sets
is it true.
little confused
please help

quartered is more stable for sure but there are some woods that can favor figure. Some woods will be more stable than others.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
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I think you will happy if you use quartered material. I see all this wild grain stuff from Hibbon and other dealers and it just doesn't appeal to me. Harder to work with than quartered material for sure. Quartered material is more stable. It generally bends easiery. It holds its shape better with humidity changes, etc.

I have only built a few guitars, but the most important thing to me is they sound great!! And I hope each one I build in the future sounds better than the last. Quartered material has a "simplicity" that makes a guitar look elegant and "understated". Even a dramatic grain like quartered Ziricote looks so much more beautiful than a piece slab cut material. And that's the way it should be. What's important is the music.

But that's just me. In my old age, I think simple is better. Wish I had found this wisdom a couple of decades ago.

Ken

It seems like the only highly figured wood that isn't used much is the stuff where the wood is already known for being Crack wood to begin with....

You don't see much burl Brazilian Rosewood or burl Ziricote.... but you see lots of guitars built with high figure Maple, Walnut, Bubinga, and Mahogany....

Thanks

Figured and quartered are apples and oranges. It is very possible to have both highly figured AND quartered too. QS figured maple and white oak are two examples. I'll take figured and quartered.

Hmmm...

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