Official Luthiers Forum!

So - Assuming that Brazilian Rosewood and African Blackwood are out, for obvious reasons ($$$$), what do you all favor for that "killer"sound in a large steel string??

While appearance is important (I love the look of those old Martin Brazilians with the wide bands of chocolate and black (clearly not prefectly quartered) - clearly tone is most important.

Cocobolo? Ziricote? Indian RW?

What's the vote?

Mahogany is still a bargain, but I expect the price to continue rising. To my ears Lacewood sounds great too. It's inexpensive, but I'm allergic to it.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

A plain set of mad rw is pretty darn nice .... as close to brw as you wil get IMO ... although I havent tried the amazon rw, some say its just as good .. hondo is pretty cheap too .. nicer than indian IMO, but you have to like the colour.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Check Bob at RC Tonewoods and see if he has anymore of that terrific Sapele Mahogany...

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Bubinga and Zebrawood are great tone woods and cheap.

Plain old HOG. It gets a bad rep as a low end model wood. I made that mistake when I got into this sickness. If your not after bling, the plain stuff is inexpensive and sounds great. The answer starts getting tricky if you start adding in visual appeal to the mix as well as what tone youre looking for. But in the most generic answer, HOG. Who has the signature that reads something to the affect of, the more I build, the more I reach for mahogany.

Corky buddy it sounds like you may prefer the sound of a rosewood guitar over a mahogany guitar. If not I agree that mahogany is a terrific tonewood and Cuban mahogany is my personal favorite of the Hog family if we exclude "The Tree" sets from consideration.

I haven't built with Mad Rose or Coco yet but I have built a few guitars with Honduran Rosewood and IMHO it is a drop-in replacement, tone wise, for BRW. Coach Tony is right, you do have to like the color, it's rather brick reddish.

Another wood that sounds fantastic is Osage Orange but again the color is not for everyone....

It's funny that we often spend a lot of time considering our wood choices when there are a thousand things that a builder can do to make even cardboard sound great. Ask Torres.

I think some of the best values out there are the plain straight grain quartersawn varieties of every wood.....

In back and sides wood.... It seems like the plain boring perfectly quartersawn stuff is Cheap cheap cheap.... except for most rosewoods. The full figure super bling stuff..... well, its a little spendy.... and to my ear, the boring quartersawn stuff sounds better.

Mahogany makes one heck of a guitar.... Looks plain, sounds great.

Now... according to Al's data.... and you can live with the orange color.... buy an Osage Orange set. It is supposed to be ugly orange BRW.... and not too expensive compared to some of the Rosewoods.

Good luck

John

A few other suggestions: bocote, ovangkol, palo escrito. Also, Uncle Bob (RC Tonewoods) has a few nice sets of quartersawn cocobolo right now. They're pretty plain Jane, but they could still make very nice looking and probably great sounding guitars. Personally, while I like gorgeous figure, I'd take plain Jane straight grain QS wood over wild figured curving-grain flatsawn wood any day.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

What Fillipo said: killer sound is in the top. Get a good one, and spend some time making sure it works right.

If that BRW sound is the only thing that will make you happy, then Osage is a great way to go. It looks a little 'different' at first, but it darkens nicely over time.

I start all of my students on good old Indian rosewood. For a steel string in particular the difference in tone between a good set of IRW and a good set of BRW will not be all that much. Considering how hard it is to get good Brazilian, and how easy (and cheap) it is to get good Indian, it's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. If you really want to splurge, get a top grade set.

i would also add some of the less expensive walnut to the list. soundwise i would say its in the mahogany family, but can be a little more striking when it comes to aesthetics. love walnut. the super flamed stuff is going to be expensive, but even a plain set has nice black line figure. plus it grows in many places in the US, so its pretty easy to get a hold of. just my 2 cents.

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sweat the small stuff.

Al or anyone else, where is a good place to get a nice set of Osage Orange back and sides at an attractive price? For tone, does it make a difference if it was grown in the states or not? Is there a lot of variation tone wise in this wood or does most all of it sound great?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Uncle Bob's http://www.rctonewoods.rcefaluguitars.com/osage_orange.htm

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Aoibeann

Honduras mahogany // Adirondack

In my early days when I was building , I couldn't afford $75 for a decent set of wood so I started to visit the local saw mills in my area of Pennsylvania. Here I found a number of local woods , Sycamore , Walnut , Cherry , Oak . These all worked well and at under $5 a board foot make for very affordable guitar sets.
My walnut was one of the first customer guitars I sold. It was surprising to hear that local indigenous woods could make such good sounding guitars. I even used a 2 by 4 for braces. I also used a norway spruce for a top. Explore your area and you may be surprised what is there to play with. Cherry and oak make excellent guitars.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Of course preference drives this whole thread but best value imo would be Mahogany. Without question. The fact it's my favorite all around tonewood is a side benefit!

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

If you're a Rosewood kind of guy, it's hard to beat the opportunity/2nd grade EIR sets from Allied. At less than $35 a set, they're a great buy. I actually prefer them to the first grade sets as they tend to have more interesting grain and coloring, IMHO.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

Jim, do you have a link you could post or private mail?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Darryl, Allied is one of our sponsors. Their link is on the top of the page.

http://www.alliedlutherie.com/indian.htm

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Aoibeann

This is the link for the opportunity grade sets:

http://www.alliedlutherie.com/makeover.htm

A little less than 2nd grade.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

If you want that "rosewood" sound, but don't want to spend rosewood money, try some Padauk. The color might take your breath away...I know the dust will...but man that stuff looks/sounds fine. Ok, it's not as cheap as the op grade IRW from Allied, but it's still a fine bargain.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I wouldn't worry about the looks of it if lower cost is the goal. That's why they came up with Toners.

White Oak, a small can of stain, and a streaky piece of stiff sitka or englemann ...Very nice guitars!

Quite frankly you should be able to make an incredibly good sounding guitar for about $250 bucks with the tuners being the most expensive one time purchase!

If you think steaky tops wouldn't do on a guitar, take a look at Froggy's as they use streaky red spruce on very high end guitars. It's all about SOUND!

Ray

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

Anybody tried wenge? Remember that Ervin S was talking about it as relly nice tonally, even think he was working on one to have around as a 'shop'guitar. Im working on one in wenge right now, and it really has a glassy tap.

I've never worked with wenge, but some fols I've talked wiith who have have been less than pleased. It seems to sound OK, but has a bad tendancy to split after a while. Padauk is another wood that sounds great, but is prone to splitting, in my experience.