Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

[Zerberus]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

Grading wood: Unbelievably in-depth topic, more than you can probably imagine (was 6 months out of my 3 year apprenticeship), therefore I will not go into it here, as it ywould for the most part implode the forum.

But...

tapping on wood to determine quality is something that goes back hundreds of years, Stradavarius and company would select the wood for their violins like that. ....d.

There is unfortunately very little truth to this (some, yes). Tap-toning, aka. Pitch matching, is not in any real way a method to see the quality of the wood, but a way to HEAR itīs resonant frequency. Why, you may ask? Because if you have a neck and a body with a similar resonant frequency, worse the exact same, you get "wolf tones", notes that seem unproportionally louder than all of the others. Proper tap tuning is a way to help avoid this by matching the woods by res. Freq. No more, no less

How the woods are "tuned" to each other is a matter of luthierīs preference. Fourths and thirds are most common, but some use fifths. I personally match the neck and body in fourths and if feasible use a fretboard eiuther a third above or a third below. Otherwise I try to pick a fretboard a fifth above or below

Unfortunately, it has become quite rare in production axes, other than John Suhr I couldnīt name one off the top of my head that I know for a fact still does it.

Hope it helps clear things up a bit

[Thurisarz]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

Some of them would take wood from trees that live in extreme weather conditions, up on mountains close to the tree line where they are subjected to high winds and cold temperatures. This supposedly toughened the wood.

I wanna see Fender climb mountains just to get perfect wood!

[Mincer]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

I'm a firm believer in lighter weight equalling better tone, at least for solid electric guitars.

I gotta say I agree. Lighter guitars always sounded more complex to me. Just richer.

As far as figure, I am not that big a fan of it, really. It doesn't do anything for me one what or the other.

I do like the idea of using non-traditional woods. Or no wood at all. Whatever gets the job done with the least impact on the environment.

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

I'm a firm believer in lighter weight equalling better tone, at least for solid electric guitars. It's pretty simple, really: the denser (heavier) the wood is, the more lower frequencies will not resonate through. Heavier woods usually mean a greater preponderance toward upper mids and highs. Of course, this can be a good thing if you like a bright tone, or need to cut through a dense mix, but overall I find heavy guitars a bit fatiguing to listen to over the course of a gig.

As far as figuring goes, what you have there is disruption in the grain of the wood. the straighter the grain, the more tones can resonate easily and fully. That's why fender went to great lengths to find unfigured maple for the original teles and strats.

For both of these principles, let's look at a real-life example: the 59 LP std.

Aficionados of the 58-50 LP std tend to agree that for tone, the lightest guitars with the least figured tops are the best sounding guitars.

[Guitarist]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

How can you tell if a piece of wood is good quality?

Is there any visible way? I know that any holes are bad news.

Is there a secret way, like tapping on it and seeing how it responds or whatever?

Actually, one hole is pretty normal as far as I know. About the tapping on it idea, usually it will begin to get harder and longer...

I think it's all about opinion though...

[hacker]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

tapping on wood to determine quality is something that goes back hundreds of years, Stradavarius and company would select the wood for their violins like that.

Some of them would take wood from trees that live in extreme weather conditions, up on mountains close to the tree line where they are subjected to high winds and cold temperatures. This supposedly toughened the wood.

[Grandor]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

Way to know if wood is good quality?


:::: wait for it......







You can hang your hat on it!

I'm sorry I just always wanted to use that! hahaha

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

I don't think weight is a good indicator. I think builders tap on the wood, like picking out a good watermelon. I don't know what to listen for, though. I was at this website last night: http://www.zacharyguitars.com/
He has some neat ideas about wood, like using knotty pine, etc...I think a good builder can make anything sound good though.

Many high end luthiers do this. Terry McInturff and Don Grosh are two that do this. I don't have the slightest idea how this works, but I guess tapping helps pick more resonant wood which translates to better tone and projection.

[Warheart]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

A slow growth forest is good for tone woods. the short growing seasons make for a tighter grain, which gives more resonace throughout the wood, in my experience. thats also how some luthiers grade wood, by how many grain lines per inch.

[darkshadow54321]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

Way to know if wood is good quality?


:::: wait for it......







You can hang your hat on it!

LOL!

Thanks for the replies guys!

[texasguitarslinger]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

Way to know if wood is good quality?


:::: wait for it......







You can hang your hat on it!

[Bludave]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

Determining how good a piece of wood is has a lot to do with what will be done with it. A solid body electric guitar for example is more about density. Figuring in the wood simply looks better after a finish has been applied to it. Gibson would take mahogony that was not very nicely figured and would use this for buliding guitars that would be painted in solid colors Such as a Goltop LP or a Black LP Custom. These woods are tonaly as good and in some cases better than the highly figured pieces of the same grade. They just didn't look as good.
Acoustic Guitars are a whole different ball game. When a Luthier selects wood for a acoustic guitar they are very concerned about its strength. Quarter sawn wood is the most desireable, espically for the sides. Think of a Log cut into quarters. The grain is extremley straight adding considerable strength to the wood. Acoustic guitar tops take much of the string tension, so the straighter the grain the more strength the wood will have. Certain species of Spruce will have a much tighter grain than others. This will either increase or decrease strength, and can also effect the way the top responds to vibration. Sitka Spruce vrs Adarondack Both of these woods are highly desirable the choice is really a matter of taste, and what will give the instrument the "voice" the Luthier has in mind. Quarter sawn wood is much more expensive than "slab" cut woods. Slab cut wood is considerably more difficult to bend when making sides. As you can see it depends on what you are planning on doing with the wood. Electric Guitars are cut into the shape and then sanded routed etc.. Where Acoustic instruments, the sides have to be bent to the correct shape. Arctop instruments are the most difficult. The sides are bent to shape, the top and back are carved into the "Arch" that bears there name. This is why Archtop guitars like a Gibson L5 cost so much money. It takes a huge amount of time and a large amount of skill and very high quality woods to build a guitar like this.

[Mincer]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

What's the problem with weight then? (I must admit that these blocks have been drying for more than 40 years, though.)

What's more, my teacher's MIJ Squier Strat weighs extreeeemely much, it's heavy as hell, and he claims it's the best sounding Strat he's ever played. He has already had a lot of different Fender Strats and Teles.

For me, I don't like heavy guitars. My Brian Moore is hollowed out mahogany and maple, and weighs just over 6 pounds. I have played a Klein guitar, out of hollowed out spruce, and it was one of the best sounding/playing/feeling guitars I have ever touched, and it was just at 6 pounds. Some people like heavy dense wood- I know my back doesn't. I guess you can't pin down a great tone to weight. Some 70s Strats weigh in at 9-10 pounds and sound just terrible.

[kaknight]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

mahogony should be medium weight. most LPs these days weight in at over 10lbs (some as much as 15) which is waaaaayyy to much. The thing is that the original LPs were all about 8-10lbs and were made of south american mahogony. newer ones are made of african mahogony and are much heavier. to lighten them, Gibby cuts holes in them (under the maple cap). But that really isn't the same. I think that each kind of wood has an ideal, but a skilled luthier is much better at picking a good chunk than you or I.

[sanrafael]

Re: Way To Know If Wood Is Good Quality?

[QUOTE=darkshadow54321]How can you tell if a piece of wood is good quality?

Buy it from a reliable dealer.