Wild Stringed Instruments

This section hope to assist you in the wood choice for your instrument. You dispond of visual samples of many, but not all, of the woods that could be used. You must to remember that this samples is helpful, wood in it´s amazing variety will almost always be slightly different than what you see. Although I've tried to keep the colors close to reality, they may be off when viewed on your monitor. Many of the tone woods take a generation to grow and are becoming more difficult to find. Some of the exotic trees like Brazilian Rosewood are so scarce that it's wood is like ivory and illegal to export.

Maple The Acerate family. Maple for instruments usually comes from two sub-families: red maple (acer rubrum) and sugar maple (acer saccharum). Curly, birds-eye, and other variations are natural phenomena, and are not a species of their own. That is, these figured woods are not specially grown or selected from standing timber in the woodlands, but instead are discovered after a tree has been sawn open. Maple is light in color, very strong, and heavy (about 45 pounds per cubit foot). It can be steamed and bent very well, and it finishes well. Maple is a reasonably good choice for neck wood, althrough if it is heavily figured it may be a bit unstable. Major manufacturers who use maple for neck wood usually prefer to laminate the neck in two or three pieces for greater stability.

Mahogany The Swietenia family. Mahogany has long been one of the most popular woods used in the stringed instrument insdustry. Altrough there are several species, Honduras mahogany is singled out as the favourite. It is strong, easy to machine, finishes well ( altrough the pores need to be filled), has an interesting grain, and is exceptionally stable. It grows with a unique spiraling grain pattern that interlocks one layer of grain over the next – the main reason for it´s great stability.

Cedar The cedrus spp. family it includes cedar of Lebanon, Atlantic cedar, deodar cedar and spanish aromatic cedar. Grows in norther Africa, middle East, and Spain. Generaly straight graineed altrough Atlantic and Lebanon cedar after knotty. Fine textured. Light brown resinous heartwood and pale colored sapwood. Medium weight, low shock resistance and stiffness, and generally low strenght properties. Very stable in service. Works fairly well with hand or machine tools altrough knots and in-grow bark can be troublesome. Polishes to a nice finish. We use it for neck wood in a lot of series. We laminate it with another wood like maple, walnut, mahogany or rosewood to conform a life durable neck.

Walnut The Junglans family. Walnut is a very beautiful wood rich in browns with dark accents. Its has many of the attributes of mahogany, except that walnut has larger pores, is not as stable as mahogany, and is considerably more expensive. Walnut usually boasts beautiful grain patterns, especially where burls are present.

Bubinga Guibourtia Demeusei family. This Equatorial West African Hardwood is dimensionally stable and well suited for use in structural, decorative, and tonal applications. It is very used for basses and for laminate with other exotic woods. The grain is typically straight and polish well with tung oil.

Poplar The Populus spp. includes European black poplar, Canadian poplar, balsam poplar, cottonwood, and various varietes of espen. Grows throughout N.America, Europe, and Asia. Generally Straight grained and "woolly" with a fine, even texture. Creamy-white to pale brown heartwood and sapwood. Most species are typically soft and light with low ratings for strength, stiffness, shock resistance, decay resistance, and steam bending. moderate movement in service.

The acustic guitars use the same woods families but with diferent cutsaw. Other families are commonly used in acustic guitars, like the Dalbergia

Rosewood Bazillian rosewood is the prefered wood for the back and sides of all clasical and most flattop guitars. This wood is very hard, dense and resonant. Brazillian is more highly figured than indian. The colors vary widely, light to dark, Brazillian it´s typically orange-brown, especially when freshly cut. The dalbergia family have a lot of sub families like:pauferro, jacaranda, macassar ebony, ebony, etc.

So much other woods are diposible to make your instrument different. You can link below to learn more about woods:

http://www.wood-worker.com/properties.htm