Official Luthiers Forum!

I admit to being woefully inexperienced, but I have found mahogany, rosewood, maple, and cherry to reveal varying degrees of musicality in their basic tap tones. I'm working with a curly Claro walnut back plate right now and all I'm getting is a cardboard "thunk." Still need to thin the plate a bit further, but not much and I'm kind of worried. I understand that walnut has greater dampening properties than the other woods I've used, but is a dull thud when tapping normal?

On the other hand, the sinker redwood I'm using for the top is ringing out quite nicely. I'm pretty surprised by that, actually.

Thanks in advance,

_________________
George :-)

granted i am inexperienced, but, i never understood how wavy/curly grain could be at all stiff...and it its not stiff, then how could it vibrate and transmit a tone.....?
but i have only worked with unfigured wood really. i do know it matters a heck of a lot where your "fulcrum", or node is, when tapping...and the wood's orientation with regards to gravitational pull...ie, "which way is down". holding a piece of wood horizontally, in relation to earth surface, can simulate string tension a bit...

Yes, that is normal -- keeping on building with it.

I have had two sets tap like cardboard and produce excellent guitars. Cedar top on both. Another set, black walnut, straight grained, nice tap, made an excellent spruce topped guitar.
Like Simon says (see what I did there) keep going. It will be fine.


Posted using two tin cans and some string.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thanks for the reassurance. The walnut taps so differently from anything I've worked with before that I just had to ask. All part of my ongoing education, I guess. It's fun to keep learning new things.

_________________
George :-)

When it's braced it will sound off a bit better. Walnut is wonderful wood for a guitar.

Building with figured Black Walnut right now and I've quit 'tapping' it because it just doesn't. I have never built with it either and the last bloodwood back I built sounded like a decent quality drum when braced and tapped - the Black Walnut - nuthin'.

So is the testament for or against the significance of tapping wood to try and predetermine if a guitar will sound good since Walnut seems to create great guitars but taps like cardboard?

_________________
Thank You and Best To All

Indeed, all the figured claro I have is pretty dead sounding. Straight grained black walnut rings pretty well, though. And straight grained butternut sounds very good. I have a top from Artisan Lumber that I need to come up with a design for. I'll probably end up just copying Ken C's butternut/black walnut combo. That thing was purdy

In terms of tapping to see if a guitar sounds good... don't judge until you have the box assembled. You probably won't get that long echo like you do with low damping, lightly braced backs, but that doesn't mean it can't sound good. Using it as a soundboard would be pretty iffy, though. But I'm still tempted to try it, since I have a bundle of gorgeous curly claro from utarazo which included an extra back.

Hi dennis did you see the note I left you on the mando thread abt the bi- metal bandsaw blade ? ernie

The walnut box won't sound as lively either, most likely. I have walnut/spruce OM that I've been playing for the last 3 yrs or so that sounds great. I wouldn't worry much about how the box sounds compared to other boxes with different woods.

I just shave braces and sand the edge of the top until I think the box sounds it's best relative to itself. I've got a mahogany box and a black walnut box in the shop right now waiting for necks and the mahogany box sounds significantly better. Different species are just going to sound different.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"